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Course description
If you've ever scribbled down a name on the back of a photograph or organized your desktop (real or virtual!) into folders, you're already familiar with tagging! With the explosion of social tools on the web, users are tagging, storing and sharing digital objects with the help of tools like Flickr, del.icio.us, LibraryThing and blogs, amongst others. But what does it all mean for librarians and libraries? How can we use these tools for our own professional development and to deliver innovative services?
Through the exploration of these technologies, as well as real world examples, this workshop will explore these questions. We will discuss the potential of social bookmarking and tagging tools for personal use, as well as to deliver content to users and reinvigorate our websites. We will also explore folksonomies, the grassroots organization scheme that has grown out of the popularity of tagging utilities, and discuss the impact of folksonomies on libraries and ways libraries can harness this innovative web practice. Participants do not need any technical expertise to benefit from this workshop.
Instructor: Amanda Etches-Johnson
Amanda Etches-Johnson is the User Experience Librarian at McMaster University Library, a role that requires her to explore, evaluate, and implement emerging technologies to ensure the best possible online experience for the library’s users. She is also a Lecturer at the Faculty of Information & Media Studies at The University of Western Ontario, where she teaches grad students about social software literacies & affordances. Understandably, Amanda loves what she does. Named a “Mover & Shaker” by Library Journal in 2007, Amanda frequently writes and presents on emerging technology, web services, and social software. She can be found online at http://blogwithoutalibrary.net/.
Perfect for
Anyone who is interested in new web technologies and using web-based tools to deliver innovative online services.
What you will learn
- a brief history of tagging, social bookmarking and folksonomies
- an exploration of popular tagging and social bookmarking tools as well as the pros and cons of each
- how libraries are using these tools
- ideas for how to harness the power of these tools to deliver online services
- future developments in social tagging tools to be aware of
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