RSS, Bookmarking and Tagging

During the week when we covered these topics, I had the opportunity to meet with a number of librarians at a Montana Library Association meeting where these actual topics were under discussion.  So  I am a little late in my posting on RSS/Social Bookmarking/Tagging , but I've had some time to think about them and try them out, too.

 I think RSS is a natural for librarians.  We are already helping our patrons in many ways to negotiate the vast and ever-expanding information landscape on the Web.  Putting links to selected RSS feeds on the library website is another smart way to deliver librarian-evaluated content to patrons, it's a valuable service.

 Social Bookmarking is also a natural for librarians, as a means of collaboration.  For example, a search for library-related subjects in delicious puts the searcher in touch with a community of librarians who are sharing information about favorite web-based resources.  It's wonderful to have all those favorites collected in one place, and that is what I use delicious for.  I rarely utilize the social aspect by following a link to another user's delicious page - usually I have enough information from an initial search.

 Tagging is a little more controversial with librarians, many of whom have endured the cruel journey through AACR2 in library school.  I don't think "social"  tagging will take the place of traditional library cataloging, but it is appropriate and effective on a community level and with popular items/topics.  Anyway, I don't think librarians should resist it -- anything that helps our users find what they are looking for sounds good to me.