LibMarks is a natural fit for libraries, bringing many benefits to the entire community. The library benefits by increasing the user access to its resources and services, and by engaging users in the process of sharing, researching, and discovering of information. The users benefit from the "collective wisdom" of the community in recommending and sharing the library resources, and from having an array of useful web 2.0 tools at their library.

Save

The online bookmarks manager, which enables users to store bookmarks and access them from any computer, any time, is a very useful service to the community. The benefits to the user are clear, and the library also benefits by increasing user satisfaction, and by adding another information-centric, web 2.0 service to its online offerings. In addition, saving and tagging the library links (catalog items, databases, etc.) increases and encourages their use.

Share

Access to and sharing of resources is central to a library's mission, and LibMarks contributes to this by enabling the community members to share and discover new resources and information.  The LibMarks social bookmarking application is very useful when collecting a set of resources to share with others. LibMarks enables librarians, faculty, and patrons to share their bookmarks and lists with the community. This sharing of links and resources enables like-minded individuals to find one another and create new bonds.

Research

A tagging tool like LibMarks bring many benefits to the research process. If a user tracks and tags resources for a research project thru LibMarks, they are making the results of their research available to other users. This enables users to take advantage of the insights of others in order to find the information they need. With LibMarks, many resources and links from the library catalog, online databases, and the internet are already "preselected" for researchers on a given topic, simply by following the tags, notes, and ratings from other users.

Discover

The benefits of LibMarks as a resource discovery tool are numerous. By browsing the system and associated tags, users can discover new and interesting resources and sites related to their topics of interest. They can discover new connections and new relationships between topics, which can take their research and discovery in new and exciting directions.

Improved access to library resources

LibMarks assigns relevance to the search results from your library catalog and online databases, thereby improving the access to these resources while helping the users to find the exact information they need. The system encourages users to actively participate in researching, rating, and tagging of resources. Since the community is constantly adding, reviewing, and filtering the information, the users have an incentive to keep coming back and continuing to discovering new and interesting information, further increasing the use and the access to library resources.

Keeping Your Library on the Cutting Edge of Information Services

As a place where patrons come to access, research, and discover information, libraries must keep pace with the technology as it relates to accessing information. Social bookmarking and tagging (folksonomy) have brought exciting changes in the way users find and filter information. With the LibMarks system, the library puts itself at the forefront of new information technology and web 2.0. With the many benefits that LibMarks brings to the entire community, the library also enhances its status in the eyes of its customers.