Tagging, Bookmarking, and Social Networking

1. Tagging, Bookmarking, and Social Networking Week Four, July 10

2. Housekeeping • Any questions from last week? • Any topic suggestions?

3. Tagging • What are tags? • In library-friendly terms, tags are pieces of metadata; they are data about data! • In layman’s terms, they are descriptive terms attached to an object, like photos, movies, blog posts, etc. • They allow information to be grouped, sorted, and accessed more readily than it would be otherwise

4. Examples of Tags Taken from Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/teddyllovet/4492045367/ Taken from http://aadl.org with the Ann Arbor District Library at http://www.aadl.org/catalog/record/1232895

5. How do libraries fit in? • Because tagging helps to organize and group large amounts of information, it can be very useful to libraries (who usually have large amounts of information!) • Tagging can be enabled for public use on library sites, helping patrons to help each other and librarians by assigning descriptions that can help with: • Readers’ advisory • Making lists • Collection development • Patron interest and participation

6. Exercise • Log onto Flickr with the class account information and assign 3 new tags to a photo

7. Bookmarking • What is bookmarking? • Bookmarking may be a familiar function, as many times we save websites to a list within our browsers so that we don’t always have to type in full URLs. • It can be use privately for your home computer, like if you bookmark the Library Technology page on the NNMC site so you can reference your requirements when necessary. • It can be used in a more public forum, such as online bookmarking resources like del.icio.us

8. Social bookmarking and del.icio.us • Advantages of social bookmarking: • It is easier to share interesting pages with large groups of networked people • It is easier to keep up with trends • It can be a good way to find new and interesting things for your library!

9. Walk-through • Demonstration of adding a bookmark to Del.icio.us • Those with a Yahoo account may also participate on their own computer

10. Social Networking • We have already talked about the different kinds of web presences a library may maintain through various media – social networking helps to promote that material! • Top sites for social networking at present: • Facebook • Twitter • Myspace

11. Facebook • Created at Harvard several years ago, and originally required a college email address to join • Used by such organizations as the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), National Public Radio (NPR), and the Library of Congress • Lets users share photos, limited video, “notes” (akin to blog entries), and applications • Homepage includes a “feed” of network entries, much like an aggregator does for RSS feeds

12. Twitter • Rapidly gaining popularity with short “status” updates that do not exceed 140 characters in length • Very popular amongst smart-phone users • Can be linked with Facebook • @ tags users to get people’s attention

13. Myspace • Seems to be on its way out. Just as there are still miraculously people at Friendster, some will cling to Myspace, but most official presences have migrated to Facebook and Twitter • Easier to maintain anonymity • Seems to appeal to younger crowds

14. Additional notes • Remember Friendster? Or AOL? It can be important to keep up with trends so as not to lose your audience! • Be open to trying new things, and to accept the possibility that not all venues will be long-lived (I am amazed that my Friendster account still exists)

15. What’s next? • Will there ever be a site that meets the needs for blogging, storage, tags, bookmarking, and social networking all together? • Increased opportunities for user participation (Web 2.0 growth) and content generation