more with del.icio.us

Being able to add notes to entries in del.icio.us can be helpful-- especially if your whole circ staff or reference department uses the same account as a list of organized links. This is also helpful if one is not familiar with the link but would "just right" during a reference interview. Also, if you have an extensive list of links, it would be easy to forget the nuances of some of the links when looking to match a question with a link when choosing between a couple.

I do like that you can rename tags in del.icio.us easily. Much easier than LibraryThing the last time I tried to add consistancy to my catalog. LT may have made it easier than it was, I do not know. And I only have a modest collection-- under 1000 titles.

Some of the other features available for del.icio.us would be useful, though I do not use them currently. The rss feeds would be especially good for keeping up on certain topics. This would be really useful for business libraries. Or if you find a really good set of bookmarks off of another library's list.

I have bundled a couple of my tags together the first time in semester one, but it does not display until I click on "bundle tags." Right now I am not too concerned, as I only have about 33 entries, which is all on one page, if I change the display settings at the bottom of the page.

My library has the del.icio.us software blocked from our circ computers, so that I can not add links if I log into my account, as it requires downloading software onto each circ computer. Though, with the new director we have, we may be able to get this changed. I think all we have to do is have SCLS to add something to each computer. I would love to be able to use del.icio.us at the desk. So that each computer had the same links on them.

Low-tech, or Who needs lights?

Yesterday was just another day in libraryland... until the thunder struck somewhere nearby. Then we were in the dark! No lights, no computers, no phones. The emergency lights came on in some places for only a couple of minutes. We had just let out storytime. People were trying to check out and we were shelving holds. Time to get out the flashlight. We had a few sheets of paper already gridded out for library card numbers and item barcodes. It was at least 20 minutes before the power was restored. And half the day before the phones were back online. Our staff did take it with ease though. We have a pretty level headed group of librarians. We had patrons asking if they could still check out materials. I said, "Yes, we can. We'll just do it the old way, before computers." The only thing we did not have was the cards in the back or front of the books.