I read over on the LC blog that the Library of Congress launched a pilot project recently with Flickr. LC uploaded over 3,000 photos (all out of copyright) to a Flickr account in hopes of learning something from how users tag photos. LC wishes to capitalize on the social tagging in Flickr in order enhance LC’s metadata. Flickr is using this collaboration to launch their new project, The Commons, and to gauge demand from other museums or libraries for similar partnerships. See? Libraries CAN play nice with social websites.
Undoubtedly, LC isn’t the first library to use Flickr to house a photo collection but there isn’t a higher-profile library than the LC in North America. This will get noticed. I’m glad to see the LC taking a more aggressive user-centered approach to metadata creation.
I LOVE the 1930s-40s color collection (seriously, LC, did you post this collection just for me? Gush.) There were tons of photos of women working on war birds (a fascination of mine, women and their contributions to WWII- especially on the air front), but this was the only photo I found of a black woman doing so. Click on the photo for a high resolution image; you can see her chipped, red nail polish in the reflection. Love.
Playing in Puddles 