The ever-innovative University of Pennsylvania library is piloting a new social bookmarking system (like del.icio.us or CiteULike), in which the Penn community can tag resources and catalog items within its library system, as well as general sites from around the web. There’s also the option of grouping links thematically into “projects,” which reminds me of Amazon’s “listmania,” where readers compile public book lists on specific topics to guide other customers. It’s very exciting to see a library experimenting with folksonomies: exploring how top-down classification systems can productively collide with grassroots organization.
if:book
A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book
Kudos to them for getting on the extra-library radar scope with this wonderful service. I had thought there was at least a couple other libraries offering this… but perhaps not. (Did you know there is an entire discussion list devoted to the next-gen library catalog?)
I am also impressed by the transformation visited upon the library’s home page a short while ago. click here for the new or here for the old
Familiar interface anyone?