Flickr--can I buy an E?
Flickr can be a great tool for libraries if you used right. The NC State Library and the Palos Verdes library really use it well. When a library has such a great collection of archive photographs, it only makes sense to put them on the web and allow anyone to see them. It's so much better to have them out in the world, searchable and taggable, and not just locked up in a vertical file in a forgotten corner of the stacks. Using Flickr like this not only gets your collection out into the light, it also advertises your library, reminding people that a library has some rare, one-of-a-kind things.
However, I'm not sure what to make of it when libraries use flickr just for "fun pictures." Not to sound too much like a jerk, but, if you've seen one picture of an old person reading to a kid, you've seen them all. I'm sure these Flickr pages are fun for the people involved, but as I was going through all examples, they just all seemed the same. I had no idea what library I was looking at or what I supposed to get out of them. They don't really brand the library or distinguish it any way. If I was searching for pictures of old people reading to kids, or teenagers playing video games, I might find these images and be able to use them, but they do not promote the library in anyway to me. (Not in the way that the Palos Verde images do.) It's fine that libraries use Flickr this way, I'm not saying they should stop, but I don't think it is some sort of revolutionary use of social media. It's just some pictures.
The MSU library tour is interesting. It's a good idea at least to have photos of your library and use them as a kind of virtual tour of the library. But it doesn't quite work. Looking at the page, there's a photo of a bookshelf here, a photocopier there, and then another bookshelf. And then another photocopier. There's not enough context to connect the images together and give you a real sense of the library. A video or an interactive map would serve the purpose much better.
Flickr is a great tool, but like everything else we've learned about here, it needs to be used well to be something special and vital.
