Previous by Date | Next by Date | Date Index
Previous by Thread | Next by Thread
| Thread Index
| LM_NET
Archive
| |
thought this was interesting.... Archivists at the Library of Congress need your help, and Flickr's, to identify these photos. By Brian Braiker Newsweek Web Exclusive Updated: 6:26 PM ET Jan 24, 2008 A koan for our digital age: if a picture is worth a thousand words, what is the right word worth? The Library of Congress aims to find out. The venerable old institution has teamed up with Flickr, the popular social-networking and photo-sharing site, to create "Flickr Commons." By putting 3,115 of its archival photographs on the site, the LOC hopes Flickr's community of users will apply tags—usually one-word descriptions—to them. The photos are already online at the library's Web site, but the LOC hopes Flickr's 23 million members will tell them something about the images they don't already know. "It's akin to bringing the mountain to Muhammad," says Matt Raymond, the LOC's director of communications. "It's an excellent way to use the technology." If giving the unwashed masses the power to tag (effectively index and organize) the LOC's photo archive sounds, well, potentially risky, the response has been instantaneous and overwhelmingly positive. Within 24 hours of the project's launch last week, all 3,115 images had been viewed at least once (with 650,000 total views), more than 500 pictures had received comments, and 4,000 unique tags had been added. And some of them are already proving useful: users have added new information in tags and comments to portraits of boxers, sulky racers, base stealers, Riveting Rosies and many, many more. for the rest of the article. http://www.newsweek.com/id/103198 ~~~~~~ mary gavlik library media specialist chuckey-doak middle school afton, tn 37616 423-787-3048 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians. — Monty Python skit --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law. You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book. To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL 3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation. * LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ * LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/ * EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://lm-net.info/ * LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html * LM_NET Wiki: http://lmnet.wikispaces.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------