Web OPAC Del.icio.us Enhancement

September 28th, 2006

Bill Drew blogs:

“I have added javascript code to our ALEPH version 16 web OPAC to create a permanent link and a link to create a del.icio.us link. It works in the search results, full record display, and the holdings display. ALEPH allows the creation of permanent links. That was the basis for the javascript. It was modified by Nathan Fixler at the SUNY Office of Library and Information Services. I can read and sometimes even modifiy javascripts but this particlular code was beyond my skill level.”

Very slick and probably just the beginning of what can be done with Del.icio.us in library catalogs. Other ideas include:

+ Show me on the catalog who else has tagged a particular record.
+ Automatically fill in the title of the book and the author on the del.icio.us page.
+ Show me the latest items that were “del.icio.used” on the main catalog page.
+ Display items tagged by LC number.
+ Have a “other people tagged this book with” display and list the tags.

Thinking back to my previous post on niche social tools, I wonder if tagging a book on Library Thing rather than del.icio.us would be better? LT already has the userbase of book lovers, so that data might be more useful than del.ici.ous, which is very broad and general.

Honestly, I don’t know which would work best. Maybe both would. Maybe it’t not an either or thing, but that seems like a flimsy response. Ho Hum…

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