Things 13, 14, 15

Del.icio.us
We had a project in IS once where a great many of us were looking for articles and websites on a multi-part topic. This would have been the perfect way for everyone to see what websites had been found and for which part they were intended. NOW we find out about this!

Technorati
This was a revisit, since I had to use this for the bloglines Thing. I found the tagging interesting, but why wouldn't keyword searching be more efficient? I want the whole enchilada!

Library 2.0/Web 2.0
We are at a generational crossroad now, with those who have never embraced technology (and never will), those who are digital immigrants and have learned technology (see the Digital Immigrant Book Woman blog), and those digital natives who were born with keyboards in their hands all living at the same time. For the older generation, librarians are the ones who help them get the information they are told is online. We also help the digital immigrants who know their information should be online, but have tried to access it and failed. We could also assist the natives, since they THINK they know all about technology, but only know how to use the part to which they've been exposed.

Remember BASIC and freenets? It was only when the web came into existence and the commands were hidden that the Internet boomed. The same goes for tagging. The majority won't be involved until the tagging is automatic and hidden from the ordinary user. No passwords or user names, but fingerprints, voice recognition, or retinal scans. Spoken commands may be all that's necessary to make things happen, or even a flick of your eye over an icon on the screen. No copying html code or clicking buttons! When things are that easy, then everyone will be on an equal footing and librarians may no longer be necessary. But for now, there is still a need for librarians to offer assistance (and computer classes!) for those struggling along.