Thing 13, Thing 14, and Thing 15: Del.icio.us, Technorati, and The Future of Libraries

Del.icio.us was not hard to use, but I found it to be a little too uncontrolled for my liking. I did get in and tag a few sites, and I did some searches as well, but the fact that users are tagging without a controlled list of tags, made me wonder about the usefulness of this type of site. The fact was mentioned that most users found the value of Del.icio.us to be its social networking aspect, and I imagine that this is true. Del.icio.us may just be more about social networking that about classifying and finding information.

Searching on Technorati was interesting. Keyword searching of "Library 2.0" in blog posts resulted in 4,384 hits, while searching tags resulted in 701 hits, and searching the blog directory resulted in 698 hits. Keyword searching for the topic anywhere in the post resulted in many more hits because it was so broad. Searching just the tags or the blog directory yielded a much lower number of hits because the search was much narrower. I was relying on the phrase "Library 2.0" to have been assigned (as in a tag) rather than to have that phrase appearing randomly somewhere in the blog post. Exploring the top favorited blogs, top searches, and top blogs surprised me by their variety. All aspects of popular culture were well-represented (new cars, youtube videos, celebrity antics), but I found that political, philosophical, and educational topics were present as well.

The readings I did on Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 were thought-provoking. I was struck by the need for librarians to be aware of new trends (which is what 23 things is all about), and by the fact that library customers will be increasingly active and informed in their search for information. The readings, for the most part, did indicate that there will still be a need for libraries and librarians, just that they will need to "change with the times", to continue to make themselves relevant.