Just Blogging: Thing 3 Flickr

So as instructed I spent loads of time just exploring the images of Flickr. According to the articles about it the really cool feature of Flickr is that it allows tags which means that the photos are now "interactive". Another thing that happens is that sometimes you get tags that are unexpected so that your photo of a cat may come up when someone types in a seach term of "Texas" because the tag is there. Which leads to what I experienced-tons of images generated for a term and me scrolling through tons of stuff looking for the right photos. Is this really any different from Google Image? I don't think so. So where is the benefit? Well, the sheer number of images means that you can find a lot of obscure stuff which can be helpful with patrons although you still have the time issue.

Library Applications? Well, aside from the reference help Flickr could possible provide, the main benefit I see is when Libraries have a Flickr account and use it as a promotional tool. And the promotional possibilities are many, limited only by your imagination I suppose. Once your library has an account, patrons can put on tags (leading to even more folks looking at your stuff) and they can leave comments (always good to get feedback to help you "meet community needs") They can also post your images in their blogs or post links giving you even more (free) publicity. I looked at a presentation about using Flickr at your library and there were tons of ideas: promoting programs, a virtual library tour, posting a digital local history collection.

I decided to see what libraries were doing. Most libraries seem to be posting pictures of events, like a storytime craft program. While this is good publicity, the posting of these types of photos is problematic because this could be against the law unless you have signed photo release forms especially for children & teens (minors). Even with consent, I worry about some libraries putting names or other identifying information in these photos: aside from privacy issues, could have a problem with predators or cyber stalkers. I think you need to be careful about what you post to the world on the Flickr account.

That being said, I was excited about the promotional possibilities for libraries with Flickr. I was very surprised to see how few libraries were really taking advantage of the different capabilities of Flickr, even the simple things. Like putting captions on the photos. One library had photos of a trip to a library conference. There were photos of buildings. people, parties, etc. but no captions. I was constantly wondering: Where is that building? What is it? Why? Some libraries did not put captions on any of their event photos. Again I wanted to know what I was looking at. It may have been a photo of a fabulous Dr. Seuss Birthday Party event, but I didn't know because all I saw was a photo of a bunch of kids standing around with a few balloons. I found I was bored very quickly just looking at these random images-what a turnoff- and a total wasted opportunity for library publicity. The experience was like looking through a stranger's photo album. It underscored for me the importance of choosing your iphotos wisely and making sure that you have some interesting iformation available for each image to keep interest going.

I really liked the Lansing MI Libraries Flickr of their Celebrity Read Poster Campaign. I used the slideshow to see all the photos. What a great idea! Talk about a promotional opportunity. The photos were captioned so you knew who you were looking at, and they were careful about the amount of personal information they gave out. Here is the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lansinglibrary/sets/72057594106946697/
The second part of the assignment was to post a few favorite image finds on Flickr, so I tried to find some images of the libraries in my life. Here is a photo of my home library (photo by dbking):