Thing #13 - Hmmmm....Del.icio.us?

Well, to start off, I looked for a way to get or use an account; however, all I could find were instructions that involved downloading a toolbar. I am hesitant for two reasons: I believe I read that we are not supposed to download such items to our workstations and I already have a three level toolbar. So, I just decided to explore the site instead.

Here are some of the interesting things I found:

1. On the first day I visited the site, this was in the "tags to watch" category under "shoes". Ian's Shoelace Site - Shoe Lacing Methods. Who knew there were so many ways to tie shoes? This is interesting in that someone took time to build this site. The info is good and useful in certain situations, though.
2. Looking further, I found an article that addresses possible reasons why people create the sites that they do. http://www.shirky.com/herecomeseverybody/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html It is from Clay Shirky’s Writings About the Internet Economics & Culture, Media & Community, Open Source. I located the article in his blog tied to his new book. I'm not sure I understand all the concepts, but it is worth looking into. I apologize to Mr. Shirky that I tried to find out how to use the TrackBack, but I was unsuccessful.
3. Next, I found an article from The New York Review of Books Volume 55, Number 10 · June 12, 2008 By Robert Darnton. The Library in the New Age - The New York Review of Books. Mr. Darnton provides a scholarly view of how he believes libraries should proceed in digital times based on certain aspects of the history of communication.
4. Finally, I searched "public library" and found this link I feel will be very useful to me. http://librivox.org/. 10277 people believed in it enough to mark it. It is free online public domain audiobooks read by volunteers. I will have to find time to listen & someday volunteer.

I find the idea of portable bookmarks intriguing, but I'm not sure how much I would use them. From a research or reference library perspective, I think this tool would be quite useful because it would be accessible from many different computers, allowing you to work from wherever you were. And maybe you could create a set of links for your patron who had a reference question and tag them uniquely so that person could then view them. Sounds good to me.