Delicious and Library Thing

Well this week's exercises have had some surprising results, I didn't expect much from the two sites but was pleasantly surprised. I had previously looked at Delicious before doing this training and thought well that's a waste of time, who wants to create a favourites list online? Having a look at the suggested examples gave me a better understanding of the benefits of the site such as tagging, finding other sites people have listed and finally being able to access my favourites from any computer. Its actually pretty interesting seeing where the threads in the form of tags take you, although sometimes you can get so lost you don't know where you started from but I guess as in many things the journey of discovery is the most important thing. I also looked up some of the blogs I'm following and saw what they listed (and pinched a few, but they're there to share so its ok).  Just heard from GozzieHoon that Delicious will be no more, aww just when I was getting into it.

Library Thing was also interesting to explore. I set up an account (for the purposes of the training) and added a few books to play with the site's features. I already have an account with Goodreads which is very similar. However there are some benefits I saw with Library Thing over Goodreads is that you can add tags, helpful if you want to find other books in that genre, there is a local element that shows where the nearest libraries and bookshops are and there are actually links to other sites if you look up an author. I've added the books to my blog (which was a bit frustrating, but now I have learnt a new skill) so you can see the random selection. To defend Goodreads I like the format of that site better as you don't have to go to another page to see other people's reviews.

I think both sites have benefits in a professional library context, however I think its the first time where I can't see a benefit to a heritage institution, unless they use Delicious or an equivalent to link to other sites that are similar.