NOM NOM NOM

(See? That title? It was a joke. Maybe an internet in-joke. You know, linking LOLCats and the funny of del.icio.us... No? Oh well.)

I like del.icio.us very much; I think it's an awesome tool. I'm one of those people who has a dozen or so sites that I keep up with, many of which are things like forums, which can't really be kept up with by RSS feed. At home, of course, I have everything bookmarked nicely, but if I'm not at home, and I want to check up on something? I just jump on to del.icio.us, and there everything is, lined up and waiting for me - and organised exactly the way I want it, because that's what tagging is for.

Though my library doesn't use this tool, I think we should. We have a fairly substantial database of links housed on our intranet; to me, it makes much, much more sense if it were housed publically, allowing library staff members to add new links at will, and patrons to find things we've recommended. The tagging system makes it very easy to find things; it's exactly the kind of thing we library staff love.

I sometimes feel that we (as libraries) try and hold some of our cards close to our chest, as if to reassure ourselves that people will always need to come and use us if we don't just give them everything from afar. But I think making this kind of thing public is exactly what we should be doing, because it broadcasts what we, as librarians, can do. It's just another service we offer. I'd like to see more libraries show this kind of thing off.