#13 Del.icio.us

Yum. Again, Del.icio.us is something I have been meaning to do for some time, but never found "some time." The budding librarian in me gets a little overwhelmed at the possibility of the variety of tags one could use. I typed a simple "frugal-living" tag for a blog I follow, then looked to see what others had tagged: cooking, coupons, recipes, frugal, budget, food, frugality. This is from just a little blog that only 25 people have tagged. Others are even more crazy. As Vonnegut was so fond of saying, "So it goes."

A couple of things I really liked about Del.icio.us: It was EASY to import my existing bookmarks. I literally pushed the import button and that was it. Excellent. Perhaps I need to spend more time with my Google Reader, but I was frustrated that I couldn't easily find a way to RSS my bookmarked sites, but had to manually set each one up. That was slow, irritating and I didn't do all of them because I didn't have time. RSS is supposed to SAVE me time! I like things that work with the click of a mouse or push of a button. Call me Simpleton!

I also like that Del.icio.us is similar to LibraryThing in that it can be as simple or complex as the user wishes to make it. I can use Del.icio.us as a portable folder for my bookmarks that I can access from any computer. This alone is a great feature and is very simple. Or I could use the powerful networking and tagging to share research, conduct searches or find information. I like applications that have multiple layers of use.

In terms of library use, Del.icio.us has several options. Libraries could create their own accounts that users could view from the library homepage. These accounts could include the various sites that the library has deemed authoritative and most useful to their particular patrons or even a specific group of patrons (genealogy folks, for example). I think the broader idea of having applications with multiple layers of use is a good one for libraries to keep in mind, as well. Some patrons don't want to or are unable to wade through all of the bells and whistles of a particular program, but it's nice to have them as options for those who do.