Once again I’ve discovered something new and exciting. I had never heard of Delicious but the new discovery has come at just the right time. Recently I have been frustrated with all the bookmarks that I was creating on my computer. Since starting the Library Diploma program in September I have so many new bookmarks. I have been harassing my husband to make sure that everything on the computer is properly backed up especially my bookmarks. I would be quite upset if I lost all the great bookmarks that I have. With the new discovery of Delicious I don’t need to stress so much about losing my data. I also like how the site helps you organize all your bookmarks with tags. After reading the article by Noruzi I can see how it’s important to find and use the appropriate tags. This will ensure that the process of sharing your bookmarks with others is successful and is used properly. However I think that the average person doesn’t really care about this. As long as your bookmarks are organized in such a way that you can navigate through them with ease then people are happy. I do think that the websites should try to ensure that the proper tags are recommended so that at least people can choose to use them or not. I do like the feature on Delicious that recommends tags so it shouldn’t be too complicated for the site to also recommended tags that have the proper descriptive word.
This lesson has also had me think about how my students do searches at the library. If they don’t know how to do a proper keyword search they will be quite frustrated. I think that the teacher-librarians should do a lesson on this so that students can be more successful and increase their chances of finding exactly what they are looking for. I think this would tie in nicely with lessons on how to do web searches using search engines such as Google and also how to use a directory properly by knowing the sub categories.
Subject headings are so important when cataloguing books and should not be taken lightly. There needs to be some uniform system such as the Sears subject heading document to be used to make sure that anyone entering your library would be able to do a proper subject search. So many of my students do subject searches and need direction in which keywords to use.
All too often I assume that students know how to do research online and know how to find books. The truth is that they don’t and I know at my school this has been overlooked. Once we get our new computers to access our OPAC I will be doing a few lessons on how to do an effective search.
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