Group items tagged

earning to use these social bookmarking sites requires some technical know-how and an acquired familiarity with sites' features. In addition, librarians must find time to hone and implement these tools.

Within an academic context, social tagging and the folksonomies that can be created by librarians through tagging must provide a measure of semblance of structure and consistency to support curricula

Academic librarians are able to qualitatively identify and tag pages according to subject or related topic, even if the subject term(s) are nowhere to be found on the page.

A number of academic institutions have bravely ventured into this new social realm of information classification and have developed progressive ways to utilize social tagging sites to reach out to their users and provide these communities with personalized and institution-specific library services. Librarians are using these sites' features to organize and disseminate information to their users as well as to continually discover useful web sites and to network with colleagues.

Social bookmarking can also be used to facilitate interaction and professional development among academic librarians and faculty.

workshops and instructional sessions. During such instruction, librarians have an opportunity to educate students on the use of social bookmarking and direct them to tagged pages by subject.

Diigo8 touts itself as “a powerful research tool and a knowledge-sharing community,” and allows users to bookmark pages but provides a particular feature of note, the capability to “add sticky notes” to tagged pages. The web site facilitates collaboration on projects by allowing users to create groups and communities. Diigo's home page specifically states the site can be used to “discover quality resources on any subject or get personalized recommendations.” Other useful features include tag clouds and links to subject-specific news web sites, user-defined subject lists, and communities of users.

“basic assumptions” about finding information today have changed. While librarians are accustomed to consulting traditional library resources such as the catalog, a database or even a book, younger generations including Generation Xers and Mellennials assume any information they need is available somewhere on the web.

Academic librarians can use social tagging conceptually to emphasize information literacy and to become more approachable and accessible to users by incorporating other Web 2.0 concepts

Social tagging allows academic librarians to develop appropriate folksonomies

academic librarians can use social tagging to point users to useful pages while demonstrating the value of information literacy.

Social tagging allows users to sign up for an account on any one or several sites and begin collecting and bookmarking online resources by URL and identifying those links with personal “tags” or according to collective tags used by other users who have found the same resources,

find e-resources other libraries have discovered as well as librarians' blogs. Tapping into resources already discovered by fellow academic librarians saves time by avoiding duplication.

Librarians can also use sites that allow them to make reference notes and give additional tips and guidance for students using particular links for their course-related research.

Several new social software tools developed with the advent of Web 2.0 have the potential to enhance library services often at little to no expense.

One particular group of students that can benefit from the use of social tagging includes those taking online courses. These students, who often lack any kind of classroom interaction, can benefit from the social aspect of using online tagging sites

undergraduate students need to learn how to effectively take advantage of web resources and librarians are in the ideal position to lead the way.

Social bookmarking, also called social tagging, might have the most potential as a Web 2.0 tool that can be utilized in academic libraries to benefit their users and enhance their services.

“collaborative and interactive rather than static”

differences between credible sites and non-authoritative resources

Academic libraries might not seem so archaic or overwhelming to younger generations of students if online resources become more interactive and collaborative over time.

Academic librarians can create accounts within social bookmarking sites and harvest web resources according to various subjects and related concepts.

A number of academic libraries, however, are beginning to embrace these new collaborative tools that younger generations of Web users are already implementing on their own.