The Library of Congress is on Flickr!

Library of Congress on Flickr

What do the Library of Congress and I have in common? We’re both on Flickr.

I’m trying to wrap my brain around the LoC on Flickr. This is a most extraordinary collection. And a most extraordinary project.

Not only can you browse this remarkable collection (which, by the way, has no known copyright), you can contribute to its usefulness by adding tags. The images on Flickr, by the way, are just a portion of the LoC’s extensive online catalog (not all of which are in the public domain). The tag part, though, this is really cool. The goal here is to have the public contribute to the tags of the images.

This is another example of Web 2.0 / the read/write Web / collective wisdom. Like Wikipedia, this project democratizes the Web and allows people to add value; to contribute information that will be useful to someone they may never ever meet.

Go ahead. What tags can you add?