Pearltrees

A few weeks ago when I was surfing (does anyone say that any more?) the web for information about the arts and wellbeing/mental health, I found a Pearltree. (This one.) Pearltrees has been around since at least 2010 but I’d never come across it before. In its own words it’s a ‘visual and collaborative library. It lets you collect, organize and share everything you like.’ You store links – that’s all I’ve been doing so far – and also images and notes, in a visual hierarchy of ‘pearls’.  You can also connect other people’s ‘pearltrees’ into your own, forming richer networks of information, and there are features for sharing pearls socially, for researching related pearltrees, and for working as a team.

I like the way the information structures collapse into little pearly dots and expand into circles, really more like flowers than trees, so there’s always a sense of delight using it. I’ve created a pearltree for my Art and Social Practice course and one for Craft and Making, among others. I’m finding it a very useful tool.