Library Reports Flickr Project Success
Less than a year into the Library of Congress' pilot project to place its photographs on the popular image-sharing Web site Flickr, the photos have drawn more than 10 million views, 7,166 comments and more than 67,000 tags, according to a report from the team overseeing the initiative. Last January, the library uploaded a few thousand images (including "Letter for Santa Claus," shown at right) from its vast collections to see how "crowd-sourcing" might enhance the quality of the information the institution could provide about its historic holdings.
"The popularity and impact of the pilot have been remarkable," said Michelle Springer, project manager for digital initiatives in the Office of Strategic Initiatives. The site is averaging 500,000 views a month, she said, adding that Flickr members have marked 79 percent of the photos as "favorites." The report recommends that the library continue to participate in an area within Flickr called The Commons and explore other Web 2.0 communities.
"Increasing the ability to engage and connect with photos increases the sense of ownership and respect that people feel for these photos," the report states. "Lessons learned from this project provide guideposts to the type of experience that people would like to have with our collections." Since the project began, 16 additional institutions from the United States and other countries have begun sharing their photo archives and inviting the public to contribute information, the library said in a blog post.
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