Technically Random

I just finished a project to move all of our business related web links into del.icio.us.  Previously, they had been in a MySQL database with Perl scripts that I wrote almost eight years ago to build the web pages of categorized listings.  I also had a web based admin module that was also written in Perl that was getting long in the tooth.

I finally got tired of dealing with my clunky admin module and decided to look for a better way.  I found this article in Library Journal: Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us and looked at the page at the College of New Jersey Library for inspiration.  From there it was just a matter of setting up an account for the library in del.icio.us and bookmarking and tagging all 440(!) sites from the database that we had collected over the years.

The end result is a collection of links that is much easier to maintain and, more important, much easier for me to give to someone else to maintain.  I’m able to use the link roll function to pull in the links into a static page in the Libraries web space.  And, it has the flexibility to create many more discrete collections of links and could make it easier to create situationally specific collections such as for a particular class or assignment, or even for a reference transaction.

Links:

Foster Business Library - Business Resources on the Web
International Business Resources page with del.icio.us links
International Business links in del.icio.us
Foster Business Library del.icio.us collection (http://del.icio.us/FosterLibrary)