Tool: Flickr

What:
Flickr is, according to Flickr, "almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world." Their two main goals are "to help people make their content available to the people who matter to them" and "to enable new ways of organizing photos and video." 
 
Why:
Flickr is about access and organization of content.  Libraries are too. Of all of the social networks that the Butte-Silver Bow Public Library is using to connect with the community, Flickr is the most active. In February 2010 we had more than 10 times the number of user interactions on Flickr than we did on Facebook and Twitter combined.  Maybe I should say instead, that Flickr users are more active than Facebook and Twitter users. 

Some of our more popular bits: Click on image to go to Flickr and see comments.




How:
The Butte-Silver Bow Public Library is using Flickr to host digital images collection content.  We also use Flickr as a highlighter, pointing device, and a way to publicize and share images with the greater public.  The library's content on Flickr is also cataloged (using borrowed Dublin Core standards) and organized into sets based on topic. Each image on Flickr links back to where the digital object is hosted on the Montana Memory Project, where the object is in the local catalog, and also links back to the library's website.  All of these links dramatically increase the findability of both the collection and the library on search engines.
       

Who: 

Uses of Flickr:

Content hosting, organization, access, and management:

Butte-Silver Bow Public Library - Columbia Gardens, Butte, Montana. 

Montana State University Libraries - Collection 2451 - August "Gus" Ludwig Hormay

 Promote, advertise, and explain a resource:

Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library - What can you do in the Topeka Room?

Missoula Public Library - River Market (Bookmobile)

Cedar Mill Community Library - How to Place a Hold

Show the public's tax dollars at work:

Miles City Public Library - Children's Remodel

Cedar Mill Community Library - Bethany Branch Expansion 2009

Cover an event:

Missoula Public Library - Parades 

Cedar Mill Community Library - Winter Reading Festival 2007

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