delicious.com as a Research Tool (Library Media Class: Week 4, Session 2)

1. How might a librarian use del.icio.us? Answer the question describing scenarios for school, public, and academic. How might a large organization use del.icio.us?

Librarians could use delicious.com for a number of different goals; these goals might be different not only for various types of libraries, but also for different librarians. Acquisitions librarians could tag sites such as Baker & Taylor and Amazon, and also less well-known sites that may carry books specific to a library's interests. These sources could be shared easily between acquisitions librarians working in similar types of libraries. Tech Services/mending departments might include sites that have information about bookbinding and DVD repair. Reference librarians would probably have more sites for searching, bibliographies, or lists of other sources of information. School libraries could have a unique tag for students to add sites for their favorite books; more specific tags could be created for sites that were beneficial for a particular assignment (same for academic libraries)--these could be started by an instructor and added to by students. Public library patrons could make use of a delicious.com list to find a book group or to see what other patrons are reading or finding interesting. Professional development can be enhanced by subscribing to a tag pertaining to one's career, for example the tag "librarian."

2. What might be some potential uses for classes and for you as students?

As mentioned above, the instructor of a class could create a delicious list to help students get a start in researching a topic. Students who find other helpful sites for the same research could add to the list in order to help classmates. This would also be a way for the instructor to evaluate the integrity of a website before a student depends on it for completion of the project; it would be really helpful to coach students who can't tell the difference between Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research and Wikipedia. Also, students could create a delicious.com list based on a future career interest.