What is Social Bookmarking?
Social bookmarking can change the way you save and organize the
webpages you commonly use. It may also change how you find new
webpages. Social bookmarking allows you to access your favorite
webpages from any computer with an internet connection. Before, you
would use the Favorites feature in your Internet Explorer. If you
used more than one computer, for example one at work and another at
home, you needed to save the web pages on more than one computer.
Social bookmarking allows you to create an online account that
stores the URLs (the addresses) of various webpages. Log onto the
account at home, work, or anywhere to access your favorite
webpages.
Social bookmarking allows you to "tag" or assign multiple keywords
to a URL. You can locate the URL by selecting a tag assigned to the
webpage. Many social bookmarking sites allow you to arrange your
webpages further by allowing users to create folders and groupings
for tags, URLs, or both.
You can easily share your bookmarks with your coworkers,
classmates, friends, or the entire web. Many social bookmarking
sites allow you to keep various aspects of your account private
and/or public. If you working on a project with others, you can
easily share your bookmarks to them with your account's URL. Some
bookmarking sites allow you to form groups with your friends. All
group members can contribute webpages to the group.
You can also find new webpages by browsing other bookmarks'
accounts. Many social bookmarking sites provide information on who
has saved a particular webpage that you may have added to your
account. You can view their account page, look through their tabs,
and find additional webpages that may help with your project,
assignment, etc.
Examples:
delicious.com/lansingpubliclibrary
delicious.com/mauicclibrary
delicious.com/homrteens
Who is Social Bookmarking?
Children
Teens
Parents
Adults
Professionals
Organizations
How Does It Work?
Create an account with the social bookmarking site of your choice.
After you create your account, many social bookmarking sites will
suggest downloading their "buttons" onto your browser. These
buttons make social bookmarking even more convenient! To add a
webpage into your account, you can visit the webpage and then click
this button. Depending on what type of social bookmarking site
you're using, the webpage will change or a new window will appear.
This is where you will "tag" the site with keywords and enter any
other information you'd like to have associated with that
particular webpage. If you do not have the "buttons" you can
manually enter the URL and save the website. Many social
bookmarking sites have tools that will help you import the
bookmarks from your web browser's Favorites into your new social
bookmarking site.
You can view other users' webpages and tags by visiting their URL,
using the social bookmarking site's search function, or by clicking
through URLs and tags.
Common Social Bookmarking Features
Tags - Tags are the keywords that you assign to a
particular bookmark. These keywords often describe the website and
will assist you in locating the bookmark at a later time.
Popular Social Bookmarking Services
delicious - del.icio.us
diigo - diggo.com
simpy - simpy.com
Social Bookmarking at the Homer
Library
delicious.com/homrteens
Internet Safety
Some social bookmarking sites allow users to personalize their
accounts by adding personal information and photographs. Other
sites collect the bare amount of information such as name and
email. If you choose a site that allows customization and
personalization, be careful of the level of information you
include. Do not add information such as phone numbers, addresses,
and other identifiable data.
Funding for this program is brought to you as part of a grant
that was awarded to the Homer Township Public Library by the
Illinois State Library (ISL), a Division of the Office of Secretary
of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and
Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and
Technology Act (LSTA).
