I will admit, I have been somewhat skeptical about some of these Things, and if they really do serve a purpose. Some I have been right to be skeptical about (mash-ups), but others have really surprised me with their usefulness and efficiency. Del.icio.us was one of those things. It was fun to explore different sites and other people's bookmarks, and I could see how this would be very useful in an academic setting, but also as a supplement to library materials. I loved how the San Mateo library had their tags divided according to Dewey Decimal number; it was like searching the virtual library shelves for URLs according to subject, and it was pretty cool. When I searched under 000books, I got links like NoveList and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Database, which really just expands the resources that are already in the library. I wondered, though, if the library system had anyone who checked out the sites before they were bookmarked in del.icio.us, or if any site could be bookmarked? And what would be the "criteria" for a site to be added? These are questions I think a library might face when deciding to use del.icio.us. Also, I have no idea if it's possible, but when I went to the library's homepage, I didn't see any link or way to get to the del.icio.us bookmarks. Not sure if there is one, but it seemed odd to me.
As far as tagging goes, I'm still a little intimidated by this whole idea. I'm just not sure exactly how to choose the proper tags to use; I tried to tag my books in LibraryThing but it was so overwhelming that I gave up. I also never understood the point of tags, but after this Thing, it makes more sense to me than it did before.
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