What is del.icio.us?

del.icio.us

Other than the odd name....it is a website that allows for online bookmarking; in a nut shell, the "favorites" function in browser but online. The beauty of it than is that it can be accessed from any computer.

It's not the prettiest website and the interface takes a bit getting used to, but once a few websites are bookmarked the usefulness because much more clear. I have an account set up for the reference staff at the library. There are a number of us that cover the desk and we all have our go-to websites but hadn't really had a good way of keeping track and sorting the different websites that get used. So far so good with del.icio.us as it has a search function.

A new account is needed to get started. The process is fairly simple, including the need to add two buttons to the browser tool bar. One of the buttons, the tag button, allows for easy catogorizing of websites with tags, much like subject headings or keywords in the library catalog. Once there are a number of tags that have been entered, the user can "bundle" similar tags to make searching through the bookmarks easier.