The American West: land of the free, home of the brave, frontiersmen on the brink of discovery and families that braved it all for a piece of  the big sky.  Pioneers heeding the call of mystery: the invisible pull on your heart, a quiet whisper on the breath of the wind, that takes hold and doesn’t let go until you strap on your spurs and head out, following the sunset.

A couple hundred years later, frontier librarians have taken the charge of this bedrock region and are forging new alliances; merging melting pot wisdom with traditional American values.  The result? The Douglas County History Research Center.

From the home page:

The Douglas County History Research Center collects and preserves the history of Douglas County, the High Plains, the Divide area of the Front Range and the State of Colorado in order to provide historical research resources to the public.

And boy do they. This site has so many links, it is actually hard to know where to start.  Unless, of course, you start on the third paragraph which states: “NEW!!! Visit the DCHRC on Flickr!”  Now that’s a library that knows the quickest way to my heart.

Their Flickr photostream is quite established, and very broad.  They have all their photographs grouped into collections and sets, which facilitates a kind of “subject” browsing without having to use tags to find similar images. One of the things I like the most about their Flickr photos, is the use of “metadata” in the photo’s description, instead of just a plain paragraph describing the picture (see below).

Formatted text doesnt just look good. It feels good, too.

As you can see, they have worked long and hard formatting that text to serve as their Flickr captions, and it has paid off.  Including this metadata with their photo collections enhances the utility of their Flickr images for both Flickr browsers (who may be surprised at the level of detail) and researchers who may just find themselves looking at these images instead of the rather bulky views offered from the home page.  I have below a shot of the same image as displayed on their home site.

Note the not-quite-as-pretty description

This brings me to a couple different points about this particular use of Flickr.  First, it fits beautifully with both the research and service missions that the library has laid out for themselves.  Using Flickr to host the images increases their access by providing them through two separate services. Providing them with equal detail in description is just the icing on the cake.

Second, it provides an alternative to the bulky and hard-to-navigate home page.  Doing an overhaul on a library web site is much more time consuming and difficult than mapping out some Flickr collections.  This is one of the first uses of Flickr that I’ve looked at that is not only a supplement to the library’s existing collections, but is actually a viable alternative to them. I’m not entirely sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  However, if it’s not within the budget to give your home page an overhaul, perhaps mapping out some free alternative collections elsewhere isn’t such a bad idea.  I bet it would also ramp up your Google search rankings.

So keep on blazing the trail, Douglas County.  I think there are many more smaller libraries out there that can follow the lead and increase access as well as utility in a fairly inexpensive manner, just as you have done here.

Moving across the pond, so to speak, we find ourselves down under, at the Flickr pool for something called Re-Picture Australia.  This project allows Flickr users to take public domain images of all things “australiana” from the National Library, and remix, mash-up and generally “2.0″ them into something new.  Users then title and tag their images for them to be available for display in both the Flickr pool as well as on the National Library’s project site.

This is but one part of a large project undertaken by the National Library of Australia entitled “Picture Australia.”  Essentially the National Library and many other institutions have submitted photographs to the project to be displayed in a giant, centralized digital repository. It is an ambitious project to be sure, and the thing I like about this is that they are throwing in user-submitted images right next to the institutional images. Talk about a two-way street!

As I mentioned above, this is a project of many parts.  The central core of Picture Australia consists of a group of institutional images collected from across Australia.  Jargon alert: they have a harvester that collects images and metadata, converts it to XML, and then adds them to the central repository. The service guide is available here.

Aside from the institutional images, the free-thinking folks at Picture Australia have opened up their contributing process to include the general public.  It works like this (jargon free this time): you upload a picture you think is appropriate to Flickr and add it to a Picture Australia group.  Then they come around the group something like once a week and takes all the new images and adds them right into the site, alongside all the images from libraries, archives and museums.  Makes a user feel right special, doesn’t it? Check it out below:

Now that's Library 2.0!

Picture Australia has three Flickr groups going right now:

• Picture Australia: People, Places and Events: “Images of social, political, contemporary and or historical events of national significance.”
• Picture Australia: Ourtown: “Your perspective on Australia’s rural and urban spaces.”
• Re-Picture Australia (mentioned above): “A selection of public domain images… ready for you to download, mash-up and reload with new meaning into Picture Australia.”

equality

Like the Library of Congress, the National Library of Australia has a number of other digital collections and so this Picture Australia project and its associated Flickr presence supplements and enhances those existing services well.  Unlike LOC, however, Picture Australia is listed proudly on the front page as a “Collection.” One click and you’re there, ready to learn.

They also outline directions for how to submit fairly well, even for non-Flickr users.  Instead of deferring completely to Flickr’s own instructions on how to use their service, Picture Australia writes up their own fairly detailed description.  It doesn’t necessarily assume any prior Flickr use, but it does get into the idea of Creative Commons licensing and tagging, which requires fairly high-level knowledge. On the other hand, if you are considering contribution, I would assume that you have a fair amount of knowledge around photo editing and sharing software anyway.

All in all, this is a great, complex and fun use of Flickr for a library.  Obviously there are some serious resources being put forward here by the National Library, and I understand that this is not a normal or feasible undertaking for most libraries.  However, it does demonstrate the extraordinary potential available for libraries to get serious and productive use out of web 2.0 technologies. Full speed ahead, I say.

Now we will be turning to the eminent, the evanescent, the entropic Library of Congress, to examine their Flickr know-how.  Outlook good.

From the home page, hiding away towards the bottom-right is a link to some info about their Flickr projects.  Turns out that they have quite the collection, and they are actually co-founders of something called “The Commons,” which is a project on Flickr to generate user tags and classification for some of their public domain photographs. There are now around 15 museums and libraries contributing to and participating in this project. A similar project is underway at Steve.museum.

Let’s take a closer look at how the Library of Congress is implementing these programs.  They have both their own Flickr photostream, as well as their “Commons” presence, and this is evident on their project pages.  If you follow the link from the home page described above, you are directed to the LOC’s page within the “Prints and Photography Reading Room” which is designed “for researchers.”  This seems like an interesting place to house the collections, considering that on their “Photos on Flickr: FAQ” one of the reasons they are putting photos on Flickr in the first place is to “to share photographs from the Library’s collections with people who enjoy images but might not visit the Library’s own Web site.”

This is a good acknowledgment on their part and a good effort to reach that elusive group of library non-visitors that so many public librarians bemoan.  However, this thinking should not also provide an excuse for hiding their collections way back in the “For Researchers Only” section of their site.  Case in point:

Where's Flickr?

Flickr doesn’t even make the list of what’s “on the web” at the Library!

In spite of this oversight, the LOC’s Flickr pilot does seem to fit in well with the other services that they offer.  They have a number of existing digital collections housed privately, and their Flickr presence is a nice supplement to those, but strangely is not mentioned on that page.  Another consideration here is then, would I use this tool if I were a patron of these existing public digital collections?  The answer to this question is more complex, and gets to the bottom of some problems I have been noticing with library Flickr implementations so far.

Existing library patrons, unless they are already familiar with Flickr, may have no real use for the library’s Flickr presence.  This goes back to an earlier post of mine in which I talked about Flickr’s high-learning curve.  In my opinion, users unfamiliar with Flickr may find the library’s photos hosted there confusing instead of useful.  A similar notion on LOC’s part may explain the Flickr pages’ somewhat hidden presence on their site.

For all the utility and fun that I have now with Flickr and all its tools, I feel it remains a daunting tool to many.  However, exposure is one obvious way to conquer this fear.  Moving it away from the back alleys of library web sites (the “for researchers” pages in this case) and into an accepted role as a library offering could create more enthusiasm and familiarity on the part of regular patrons. Small shifts like that can change the library’s Flickr collections into more of a two-way street, like those interactive bookshelves.  The Library of Congress and Flickr have a great relationship going, but the pathways need to be expanded for it to ditch the stigma and gain Congressional approval for everyday use.

This is too cool to pass up. Sister schools in Minnesota, St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, have a huge collection of web-powered utilities as part of their services and I got all excited paging through all the multiple different types of Web 2.0 tools they tap into.

They blog. They podcast. They IM. They have a Flickr photostream which they actually advertise. I’m not saying that all of these things are perfectly implemented, and it looks like their online books and slideshows are somewhat of a work in progress, but so far what I’ve seen here is definitely heartening.

From their homepage, you can find links to all these resources by scrolling down on the right to find a link to “More from the multimedia library.” Notice that this link is just above their Flickr badge(!).  I read something about these badges and their potential to slow down the page.  This may indeed be true as this page for me was scrolling a little slow, and the status bar indicates that it is reading data from Flickr almost constantly while you browse the page.  Hm.  That doesn’t stop it from looking cool, though!

As far as that Flickr account goes, well, they don’t just stop at a virtual tour.  No, they have implemented READ posters, “This day in history” sets (from which the CHE image comes), as well as, the coolest feature I have seen in Flickr so far.  Get ready for the ultimate in 2.0.

They have uploaded pictures of their book displays to Flickr, and then using the “notes” feature in which you can highlight a section of the picture to annotate, they have included links to their library OPAC so you can check to see if that book is available!  What fun.

Being cool 101

Given the multitude of technologically-inclined services that this library offers, it comes as no surprise that they are using Flickr as part of their suite, and they are using it well.  For the effort that is put into crafting the notes on those displays, as well as creating the rest of their Library 2.0 paraphernalia, it seems as though this “multimedia library” is a little hidden there on the sidebar.  I know the purpose of a university library is not to tinker around on the web all day and then force patrons to look at what they’ve done, but i don’t know, maybe it could get an upgrade to being part of “Library Services” or something.

I hope I wasn’t gushing too much there.  Services like these are indeed secondary to collection development, quality reference service and student and faculty member awareness of the library in general.  Time and money must be spent to establish and promote these core services. However, I truly feel that incorporating fun and interactive things that help to supplement and enhance that core can really be a boon to the function of any library.  It is obvious to me that St. Johns and St. Benedict Libraries have prioritized their Web 2.0 functionality and I think that the effort they have put in has been paid in full with the ability they now have to showcase and advertise their existing collections and services using these tools.

Here’s another great example of how to attract users and use Flickr in the process.

This summer, the British Library put on an exhibit called “The Ramayana: Love and Valour in India’s Great Epic.” Essentially, the exhibit was showcasing illuminated manuscripts of the epic story of Rama, and had a slate of other programming to accompany it. Hundreds of manuscript images were on display, and, in a wonderful moment of extreme Library 2.0 fever, someone decided to start a Flickr group to assemble some users takes on Ramayana imagery.

Because this exhibit is now closed, it is hard for me to tell exactly how much the Flickr group was promoted, or how accessible it was from the front page of the library.  However, it is prominently displayed on the exhibit page, so assuming that at one time “Ramayana” was under the “Quick Links” section for new library materials, the Flickr group would have been a mere two clicks away!

This exhibit was based around manuscripts and their illuminations, and given the British Library’s importance in the field of historical materials as well as their substantial collection of online images, it seems to me that this Flickr set is right at home amongst the library’s other offerings.

Home of thousands more digital images

Again, I would just like to mention how easy it is to make a Flickr group like this one, and it attracted 123 members and 264 user-added photos.  Even if many of those users were not able to attend the exhibit, the free promotion opportunity from a resource like this is a wonderful thing.  Because Web 2.0 tools in library can sometimes be a controversy, I feel they tend to draw attention easily.  And, as they say, any publicity is good publicity.

I think this was a great application of Flickr, probably didn’t take much time and helped pump up the promotional materials and events that were surrounding the exhibit.  I’m fairly sure that even if patrons of the library didn’t submit photos themselves, more that a few may have checked out the group on Flickr.  Apparently they were advertising the group inside the exhibit, as well.  The article points out something interesting, though: photography was prohibited inside.  Unfortunately for the Flickr group, this may have seemed like a confusing contradiction, to be encouraged to share photos that you are not allowed to take.

In closing, keep it up BL.  I haven’t seen a Flickr group for any of your other exhibits though.  I’d like to see one live and in action.

First off, I have completed a good enough draft of the Resources page to recommend you take a look at it, if you are hankering for some more Flickr stuff to do.

Secondly, I dug up some better examples of how libraries are using Flickr in the real world and I am going to list them out over the next week or so. The first one I want to talk about here is Winnipeg University Library, because they have done one of the simplest things a library can do with Flickr: an slide show library tour.

And I don’t mean simple in a bad way. I mean simple good. Simple easy. And simple effective.

It is so easy to upload a Flickr set and adjust the order of things so that you can essentially “walk” through your library online. Also, because Flickr allows so many different options for sharing and utilizing your photos, it is easy to utilize and repurpose that set within the library website.

Take Winnipeg’s home page for example. They have only hidden their Flickr tour in the sense that they haven’t added it to the home page under the heading “Really Cool Flickr Tour Check This Out.” It is, instead, sensibly located under the help menu at the top. I looked first under “About,” and it may be better served there, but if the tour is supposed to be a guide, then “Help” may indeed be the better category.

From there, they have chosen to isolate several photos from the tour set to discuss in more detail, but provide a link at the top of the page to the slide show view of the Flickr set (this is a publicly available option for every set). The only problem, in my mind, with linking to the slide show view is that you don’t get to read the captions that the Winnipeg staff have written to accompany the pictures and that add utility to the tour set.  To see these, you have to click “back to uwpglibrary’s Tour set” and view them in the default one-image viewer.

Nice description, sadly hidden in the slideshow

While you’re out there in their photostream, you may notice that uwpglibrary has some other sets, aside from their tour.  Why aren’t these included on their help page?, you wonder.  I wondered that as well, and try as I might, only came up with one other slide show link, which I found by searching “Flickr” in their Library News blog available on the home page.

>sigh< I say, as I page through the 3 results from their blog that contain “Flickr.”  One is a news story that mentions Flickr in general, in passing.  The other contains an improperly embedded photo from one of their Flickr sets (!) but no mention that it is part of their photostream anywhere in the post.  The third is the slide show, but again, no mention of the photostream, the other sets, or even how cool Flickr is!

All in all, Flickr has served Winnipeg Libraries well, and they have tapped into some of the things that Flickr does well or can enable easily: slide shows, image hosting and displaying, virtual “tours.”  But there’s so much more potential here! Perhaps a simple message to the readers of the Library News blog, or how about a badge on the sidebar? I’m loving everything else you guys are doing!

Left: a shameless plug for my former employer. Their site is here, and oddly enough, it says nothing that I can see about their Flickr account. Seems to me that they must be using this as a tool to direct existing Flickr users back to their website, and are not concerned about directing users in the other direction.

That being said, there are some nice historical photographs in their stream, and it is a comforting bit of nostalgia for me to be once again prowling around the site that I called home.

Because of this collection’s relative isolation, I find there is not too much more to be said, and would like to use this space, then, to sound off on the usability of Flickr in general.  As a tool, it seems to be top-of-the-line.  There are endless features, most of which have been outlined in a blog post over at CNET (and I found it more helpful than Flickr’s own docs).

For me, the main issue with Flickr is that all its available features give it a high learning curve.  It is a tool for sharing and utilizing photographs, and so it feels more like a big swimming pool (to borrow a little of their vocab) than a traditional “photo album” hosting site like PicasaWeb which is designed more to recreate your living room mantle.  You can constrain your Flickr photos into collections and sets if you like, but that’s not really a primary function.  By default, each new image is added to your “photostream” and the very word enacts and mimics the fluidity of the site itself.

web 2.0 in action

Flickr photos are instead organized by tags, and are explored by users en masse.  This gives your image web-like flexibility (and also library-like folksonomy), but it also extends the photo’s definition beyond normal boundaries. Flickr photos aren’t just family keepsakes to be filed in one place, they are documents meant to be explored and exploited using any and all available web technologies. This is perhaps where some of the fear comes in; Flickr requires a shift in perception of what the photograph is designed to be.

As I continue to dig into more specific library collections, I will attempt to further expound upon the specific ramifications that this “new image” inflicts upon patrons and caretakers.

I thought to begin, I would first have to spruce up my own Flickr account. Nothing more embarrassing than evaluating a service you know nothing about. So for my detractors, kindly take notice of the custom “blog” embedding of a Flickr photo (at left). See also the “Libraries and Librarians” widget on the right.

Not only did I spend much too much time playing with these tools, but I also could not help being fascinated (as every time I get lost online) with the extent to which you can share and interact on different platforms. In addition, I updated my profile and re-tagged some of my 28 photos. I suppose I could upload a few more, but, then again, this is an ongoing project.

But this is digression.  My real goal in starting my project this way was to check out the popular “Libraries and Librarians” Flickr group.  Founded way back in 2005, according to libraryman’s first discussion post, the group has been around to serve exactly who it says.  A group used to share photos of libraries and the librarians that inhabit them.

The welcoming description

I quickly signed up, and took a look around.  This is a great forum for librarians, and a good place to share resources.  The discussion board is popular and actively moderated.  There are some 2,500 members and more than 23,000 photos added so far.  Many more are being added, as well.  I put in a couple that I had taken of VPL and Koerner library, and they had only a life of about an hour or two on the front page before being buried by newer additions to the group.

As far as accessibility goes, the group is the number one result for “libraries” when you do a group search within Flickr, but it is pretty much unavailable from Google.  A Google search for library flickr group comes up with some related resources on Flickr but not the group itself.  It is so popular in the blogs on the topic, however, it should be pretty easily noticed by an intrigued searcher.

For individual users and libraries in general, the group seems like a great go-to resource for anything from advice on what to do if you get anti-Flickr email from concerned patrons, photos for promotional material or just plain fun.

There’s a lot of writing out there about how to use Flickr in libraries, but it seems to me that once you’re ready to try it out and get your hands dirty, like I was, this is the best place to start.

So, I feel a little late.

I was all excited to start my blogging assignment (see the About page) and then I read the other day that blogging was on the way out.  I consoled myself with the thought that Libraries were just starting to pick up on this “Library 2.0″ thing, so even if blogging was dead, well, I could have some super current topic to write on.  Turns out, of course, that not everyone started library school this fall, and, likewise, people have been fascinated with social networking and its possibility for libraries for quite some time.

I am also late in the sense that I am a relatively new social networker.  I’ve been “wired” for a long time, and read my share of blogs.  I use an RSS reader.  I did get a facebook account way back when you had to be a university student to get one, but I don’t Tweet or Stumble around the web.  I eschew emoticons. I wrote a blog chronicling my road trip this summer, but didn’t ask anyone to Digg it.  My flickr photostream has a measly 28 pictures, and I put them all in a set together because still like to see my photos in “albums,” archaic term that that has become. I have no Flickr contacts.

What I’m getting at here is the struggle I face as someone who is linked in, and yet still remains on the outside to some extent.  And so, what I am about to begin is the process that so many before me have undertaken: investigating and attempting to immerse myself in the world of social networking, more specifically those in libraries.  If I get too excited, please excuse my enthusiasm. But it’s new to me.

To keep things manageable, I am going to focus primarily on Flickr, a completely personal and non-symbolic choice.  I like pretty pictures, let’s put it that way.  But because to be a part of one social network usually means taking part in many, I suppose I’ll find a few others along the way.

Here’s hoping we both come back with limbs intact.