Tagging

So here we are, at the final L2 lesson. I'm surprised to feel that I learned more than I thought I would--as a fairly tech-savvy 20-something, I was pretty well acquainted with most of these technologies already, but I had never thought to apply most of them to libraries. By thinking about how Web 2.0 is also Library 2.0, I think I was able to better understand some of the technologies that I already knew about, and learn some new things on the way.

But, on to tagging and del.icio.us. I can definitely see how del.icio.us would be useful to me on a personal level. I use four computers regularly, including my laptop, my husband's laptop, our desktop, and my work computer, so sometimes, finding a website that I know that I looked at on one of those four computers can be difficult. It would be a lot easier to simply have a del.icio.us account. Of course, this would mean that I would have to actually remember to save a link, but that's another issue entirely. I suspect that I would only be slightly more organized with a del.icio.us account than I am without one. But the possibility would be there! (Considering that I am a shelver in a library, a job that requires A LOT of attention to detail and one that I am pretty good at, I am surprisingly disorganized in my personal life.)

Tagging is, in itself, interesting. I hadn't thought to use it as a reference tool. It seems that some of the uses that libraries have found for tagging are almost like an alternative to a wiki, in that librarians can tag websites that are of use to patrons, rather than having a wiki full of links.

I think that all of these lessons would be useful to BPL in our move to become more L2. I am very interested to see how things will change in the future, and which of these L2 technologies we will use!