Thing #4 -- Flickr

I've explored Flickr a bit, primarily for personal reasons (it's one of the ways my brother-in-law shares photos with family), but my library-related experience with Flickr has mostly been limited to seeing it in Library 2.0 presentations I've attended. I confess for the most part I've had a hard time seeing ways to integrate Flickr usefully into my job. But browsing what other libraries have done made me think that maybe there are ways to use it.

I can see applications for it in archives and special collections, such as the Library of Congress site. I was made aware of their Flickr page early this year, and included it on my library's web site as the site of the month for February. Flickr is a way to reach a wider audience of people who can potentially identify and provide background information for photographs in library collections. Right after library school I did an internship in the archives of a summer dance institute. We were trying to identify dancers in old photographs by taking them (the photos, that is) to staff meetings. Having something like Flickr available then would have helped us get broader input.

I liked what the Clemens and Alcuin libraries did with their book displays--it would be easy for us to set up something similar. I was also intrigued by their library tour, but then started asking questions. Is Flickr a better place for a library virtual tour than the library's own web site? Is that where people are more likely to find it? Or is it just a matter of getting the library out into other places, as well as the web site? The rollover map is a nice feature, and I see that Flickr applications are the next Thing. So maybe my future explorations for Thing #5 will allow me to see more uses for Flickr in the library world.

Oh, and here's my image. The warm weather last week had me thinking that maybe spring is here.

(Photo by lapillus)