Library of Congress Meet Flickr Part 2
I reported yesterday that the LOC has teamed up with Flickr. Here is what the LOC blogster, Matt Raymond, has to say about the first two days of the collaboration. What a wonderful endeavor--as I said yesterday, "too bad Flickr is blocked by my district".
By Matt Raymond on LC Web site
I need to start out this post with a single word: thanks.
If it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then thank goodness for those 3,100 pictures, because words are failing me right now.
The response to the Library’s pilot project with Flickr has been nothing short of astounding. You always hope for a positive reaction to something like this, but it has been utterly off the charts—from the Flickr community, from the blogosphere, from the news media—it is nothing short of amazing.
Let’s start out with a few statistics, as of last night (thanks, Justin!):
• 392,000 views on the photostream
• 650,000 views of photos
• Adding in set and collection page views, there were about 1.1 million total views on our account
• All 3,100+ photos have been viewed
• 420 of the photos have comments
• 1,200 of the photos have been favorited
And just look at all of those tags!
I’ve been writing this blog (although not nearly often enough) for about nine months, and this topic lit it up like fireworks. I was handed a sampling of what you all have been posting about this on your own blogs, and after only about 24 hours, the stack must have been close to two inches thick. Even Wil Wheaton wrote about it! (Yes, the Trekker inside me is giddy.)
The Flickr blog had more yesterday—and I almost unintentionally stole their headline:
We had a call today with the Library of Congress team to catch up on what had happened overnight with The Commons pilot project. There was a lot of laughter as we shared stories about watching all the activity overnight, and frankly, none of us could quite fathom how fantastic the response to the pilot has been.
They also update the number of comments at more than 500.
A common question we get is, “When will you upload even more photos?” Or, “What will you do with all of this information?” For right now, we are marveling at the response; a lot of very eager curators are watching with rapt attention and enthusiasm. I’m not sure what the next step will be and when it will happen, but I can tell you that the reaction to this two-day-old project has already vastly exceeded our expectations. To paraphrase Bogey: I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, with a wonderful community of image enthusiasts.
Don’t forget folks, while we have put 3,100 images on Flickr so far, there are about 1 million others online where those came from, not to mention millions more in the physical world.
(Bain Collection photo apropos of the general mood here)
By Matt Raymond on LC Web site
I need to start out this post with a single word: thanks.
If it’s true that a picture is worth a thousand words, then thank goodness for those 3,100 pictures, because words are failing me right now.
The response to the Library’s pilot project with Flickr has been nothing short of astounding. You always hope for a positive reaction to something like this, but it has been utterly off the charts—from the Flickr community, from the blogosphere, from the news media—it is nothing short of amazing.
Let’s start out with a few statistics, as of last night (thanks, Justin!):
• 392,000 views on the photostream
• 650,000 views of photos
• Adding in set and collection page views, there were about 1.1 million total views on our account
• All 3,100+ photos have been viewed
• 420 of the photos have comments
• 1,200 of the photos have been favorited
And just look at all of those tags!
I’ve been writing this blog (although not nearly often enough) for about nine months, and this topic lit it up like fireworks. I was handed a sampling of what you all have been posting about this on your own blogs, and after only about 24 hours, the stack must have been close to two inches thick. Even Wil Wheaton wrote about it! (Yes, the Trekker inside me is giddy.)
The Flickr blog had more yesterday—and I almost unintentionally stole their headline:
We had a call today with the Library of Congress team to catch up on what had happened overnight with The Commons pilot project. There was a lot of laughter as we shared stories about watching all the activity overnight, and frankly, none of us could quite fathom how fantastic the response to the pilot has been.
They also update the number of comments at more than 500.
A common question we get is, “When will you upload even more photos?” Or, “What will you do with all of this information?” For right now, we are marveling at the response; a lot of very eager curators are watching with rapt attention and enthusiasm. I’m not sure what the next step will be and when it will happen, but I can tell you that the reaction to this two-day-old project has already vastly exceeded our expectations. To paraphrase Bogey: I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship, with a wonderful community of image enthusiasts.
Don’t forget folks, while we have put 3,100 images on Flickr so far, there are about 1 million others online where those came from, not to mention millions more in the physical world.
(Bain Collection photo apropos of the general mood here)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ian Carmichael on
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Super!
This was kind of where I came into CR2, with a question of how tags could interface with library cataloguing. Here's where information retrieval can come to a whole new level in interconnectedness and accessibility - through the world libraries network (but I'm ahead of myself.)
Thnaks for the info Nancy - exciting indeed!
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Permalink Reply by Kevin H. on
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I saw this yesterday in my RSS feeds and was blown away by the possibilities for the classroom and for understanding history through photographs. Just think of the possibilities for digital storytelling and understanding the lives of others through these resources.
It's about time the government started putting more resources in our hands.
Thanks for sharing
Kevin
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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on
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Actually the resources have always been there at Library of Congress and National Archives and hundreds of other sites, you just have to know where to look. I've started a blog on using primary source in the classroom, always been an interest of mine. Here's a find from the National Archives---Elvis visiting with President Nixon!!
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