USING DELICIOUS.COM

THE BASICS

IT’S FOR EVERYBODY!!

(AND FOR MY FELLOW LIBRARIANS )

Ericka Dow May 2010

BENEFITS OF DELICIOUS.COM

Bookmark links to useful websites

Tag each link with keywords (make your own and/or use recommended tags)

Create ‘tag bundles’. As Delicious says, “collections will naturally emerge”…and they do!

Search and browse your saved bookmarks

Share bookmarks with colleagues and friends

Add the Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Google Chrome extension for easy bookmarking and access

http://delicious.com/help/tools

Ericka Dow May 2010

It’s a ‘keyword/search/browse’ dream come true. And you’re the one making it happen.

Delicious may be considered ‘social media’ but its utility is not at all defined by that. In fact, one can ignore that it’s a social site at all. I do...for now.

Is it relevant for bookmarking sites you use every single day? Nope, they’re imprinted on your brain

Is it suitable for bookmarking and organizing web resources you encounter occasionally and want to remember for future reference? Oh, YES!

Ericka Dow May 2010

Getting started… After you create an account, start adding links to your

Delicious site by using the ‘Save a new bookmark…’ feature.

Ericka Dow May 2010

Creating tags (aka keywords)…

Using tags in Delicious is absolutely necessary for it to work as an organizing tool…just like Dewey and LOC

Tag every link as you save them to cut down on time later. But have no worries, catalogers…You can add/edit/delete bookmarked links and tags to your heart’s content at anytime

Be both broad and specific when applying tags, if possible

Ericka Dow May 2010

Save tags to every link as you add them…

Type in your own tags/keywords or click on the ones recommended and they will automatically be added to

the Tags field

Ericka Dow May 2010

Creating tags….

Tags must be one-word statements…so if you want to use a phrase such as “local history”, then use one of these formats:localhistory, local_history OR local-history

But be consistent in the format you use…it definitely makes it easier when you start creating tag bundles and especially when you search your bookmarks

It’s YOUR site, so tags that would only make sense to you are A-OK

Ericka Dow May 2010

Creating tag bundles… Tag bundles are groupings

of tags you’ve put together under one label that you’ve created. For example, I have the tags ‘audio’, ‘music’ and ‘podcasts’ under the tag bundle of sounds.

By clicking on sounds under “Tag Bundles”, I can narrow my search to only the bookmarks with those tags. Great time-saver!

Ericka Dow May 2010

Creating tag bundles…it’s SPEEDY!!

Select the “Options…” tab

Then select “Manage tag bundles…”

“Create” your new bundle

Ericka Dow May 2010

All of the tags in this ‘tag cloud’ were either created by me or I added them to my links from the ones recommended when I saved them. Now, when I create or edit my tag bundles, I can simply click on a tag to add or delete it to the bundle

Ericka Dow May 2010

Searching and browsing…You can search your bookmarked links by typing in a tag . OR, you can browse by looking at your entire ‘tag cloud’…click on Tags under your account name .

Better yet, browse by clicking on a tag bundle , a tag listed under one of your links or by clicking on one of your Top 10 Tags .

More browsing…

Shazam!!

Using the web browser extensions… Add the Delicious extension for Mozilla

Firefox, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer …easy bookmarking and access from the web browser

http://delicious.com/help/tools These enable you to quickly access your

bookmarked links and add new ones from any web page that you are on

This is the best way to save bookmarks!

Ericka Dow May 2010

Ericka Dow May 2010

Ericka Dow May 2010

Ericka Dow May 2010

Special note to librarians… As a librarian, I’ve found Delicious to be a

secret weapon in lightning-fast reference service…forget your browser’s “Favorites” tab! Or that googly place.

The only function Delicious does not have, as far as I can tell, and would be extremely helpful, is the ability to quickly create custom print/share lists of links for patrons.

For now, it is copy/paste to word processing

Ericka Dow May 2010

Happy trails… If you are ready to jump in and would like

more detailed info, see the Delicious Help page http://delicious.com/help. ‘Help sections’ is the most…well, helpful section.

For a really basic intro, check out this video: http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english

I hope you will make use of Delicious and have fun doing so!