[Web4lib] Use of social bookmarking sites

[brazic at myuw.net]

Our ILS will not let our patrons keep a personal list of library items they want to look at later or tag them, so I've tried to circumvent by giving patrons instructions on our web page how to use google reader to keep their own personal list and tag their items. Once tagged and saved, they can link directly back into our catalog and reserve it later if they want.

It works pretty well, but I've yet to see how much it gets used. I don't have a way to measure use other than anecdotally. It may be too much of a hassle for some people -- I still want tagging available right from our catalog, but who knows when our ILS will get around to offering that.

Here's the instructions I wrote up for our patrons or you can go directly to the page http://www.sno-isle.org/page/?ID=2625

------------------------------------------------------------------
You must first have a gmail account before you can sign up for Google Reader. You can do this on the Google Reader page.

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?nui=1&service=reader&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Freader%2F

Google Reader is still in beta in Google Labs in so there may be a glitch or two, but for the most part, it works quite well.

    1. Open your Google Reader Account.
    2. Click on Add subscription
    3. Copy and paste this address into the add box: http://aquabrowser.sno-isle.org/rss.asp
    4. Soon you will start to see titles appear in a list.
    5. Scroll through and see if something looks interesting to you.
    6. If so, you can click on the title and go into Sno-Isle Libraries Visual Catalog, read about the item and place a hold if you wish.
    7. Or, if you want to save it for later, click on the star next to the title.
    8. It is now in your Starred Items list in Google Reader that you can return to when you are ready.
    9. You can also create your own tag list such as Detective Stories, Children’s Books, DVD’s etc.
   10. From your Google Reader list, click on the title.
   11. Click on Add tags.
   12. Add whatever descriptive word you want to put your items in.
   13. Once you tag it, it will stay under that tag in your tag list on the left side of your Google Reader screen.
   14. When you are done looking through the list of new items, click on “Mark all as read” so you’ll be able to easily see the new ones when they arrive.
   15. Of course, there is a lot more you can do with Google Reader, including adding and listening to podcasts, but this is one way you can start to have your own library reading list.

Colleen Brazil
Content Access Manager
Sno-Isle Libraries
www.sno-isle.org


On Tue, 1 May 2007, Jonathan Bloy wrote:

> I've been using http://del.icio.us/ for personal things for a while now.
> The other day I got to thinking it might be useful in conjunction with
> our website and/or intranet (for librarian recommended web links).  So
> that brought up the question...
>
> How are other libraries using social bookmarking sites for their patrons
> and staff?
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Bloy
> Web Services Librarian
> Edgewood College
> Madison, Wisconsin
> http://library.edgewood.edu/
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