As a librarian who has been a cataloguer and classifier I have read this weeks topic with interest. I also have to admit that as I learn about this completely new facility, I am fighting elements of resistance to change and a perception of 'lack of control' alongside moments of genuine excitement at the possibilities that could unfold.
I decided to try find some information on personal development for nurses, as this is an area I have been asked to research recently. I looked on the del.ioui.us site. What I found when trying to use the site was that it really felt like 'pot luck' when choosing the keywords to search on. Also, I did not find very many links on this subject, and of course, they tended to be from the USA.
I also went to the BBC's social bookmarking project for news items and searched for info on scouting. This was really easy to use and I immediately got a list of news items on the subject.#
I have a lot more exploring to do around this subject, and need to experiment with all the different services that are available to really feel that I have got a good idea of the best use of social bookmarking
So how do I feel at the end of my post. I think that the idea of a folksonomy is very exciting. It is great to think of a resource that stores people's ideas in this way. This could also be a useful tool for finding out how people are thinking around certain topics, what they are really interested in what is a really current and constantly changing arena. It is a really simple for most people to do without any prior knowledge and a great way to share something you have found which you think would benefit others too. I like the idea of a shared account where it is possible to collect and organie bookmarks for a whole group.
But I am afraid the librarian in me is still worried by the inconsistency in the skills of classification, also that most people are only concerned with finding the information themselves and not taking the time to think of tags that will be useful to others as well, not to mention those that just want to mess things up! It worries me that recalling information can feel a bit hit and miss without referral to an authoritative taxonomy of subject keywords. But I shall not let this put me off, I shall be looking at more social bookmarking sites.
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2 comments:
Alas as decreasing budgets continue to be a problem, more and more libraries are looking at the benefits of social bookmarking.
I will be interested to see how it will evolve.
Whilst I agree the thought of users just tagging for their own personal use, I also belive that once that user has being using the system for a while they will be drawn to more realistic tagging once they realise the benefits.
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