Flickr is a wonderful tool for finding pictures and new and interesting groups. I haven't had much luck with using it personally however. I originally used Yahoo Photos, but when it shut down, I was transferred to Flickr. It was great for a while, as I got a premium membership for free, but after a few months it expired, and I was downgraded. Now I can only show 200 photos (and only the last 200 I uploaded, not 200 of my choice) and the rest of my pictures are basically being held hostage until I pay to re-up my membership. I have no desire to pay, so I'm stuck in limbo. Instead, I've been exploring Picasa, one of Google's many applications, and I've liked what I've seen. I also have quite a few pictures on Facebook. I keep my personal photos private for the most part. Facebook doesn't let you keep things completely private, so I try to avoid posting pictures that I don't want out there, and I never post pictures of my family. To view a fun Picasa album of mine with past yearbook photos generated from a website, visit here. Some of them are definitely better than others! I think so far I prefer Picasa because there is a desktop application as well as a web application, and this allows you to automatically find pictures to upload. There's also no need to create a new log-in--if you have a Google log-in, you're fine!
While I was at USF, I created a Flickr account for their library, and uploaded some pictures of book displays. I absolutely love the Clemens note features for book displays and I can see some real potential there. Unfortunately, not much else was done with this account. I'd love to be able to get some great pictures uploaded to promote my library, with a mixture of displays, events, everyday 'library-ing' and our READ posters.
Flickr is a veritable treasure trove of information. Here are some groups and albums that I find especially interesting:
- Free Use Photos
- Library Cards
- Librarians' Desks
- HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging photos - breathtaking!)
- [citation needed]
- Sleeveface pool
A lot of highly respectable institutions have joined Flickr and uploaded public domain images from their special collections. Here are a few:
- The Library of Congress
- Boston Public Library
- Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
- Bibliothèque de Toulouse
- George Eastman House
- The Smithsonian Institute
- American Libraries
Here is one picture from the HDR pool that is just amazing to look at. It was taken by Dave Zombie and posted Feb. 2, 2009.
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