Flickr

Flickr (www.flickr.com) is a Web-based photo management application.

One of the early, and most successful, Web 2.0 sites, Flickr is a heavily user-centric site, that is, the users provide the content, in this case, photographs.

Using Flickr is a great way to learn about, and become experienced in, tagging. Tagging is a method of categorization that is becoming increasingly popular on the Web. It involves applying keywords to describe your photographs. For example, if you have a shot of a boy on a bicycle on a beach at sunset, you might want to use the tags, "boy, beach, bicycle, sunset." You might also consider, "summer, solitude, exercise," etc.

After you tag your photo, it joins all other Flickr-based photographs that use the same tags. If, for example, you apply the tag "sunset" to a photo, you can search for your photos later using that term plus any other photos on Flickr that are tagged similarly. This way, you can see how other people use that particular tag. If a photo has the tag "Tokyo," and you search for photos tagged similarly, you'll see how other photographers interpret that tag.

You can keep your photographs private on Flickr, or allow only a select group of people to view them or -- like most people -- allow the entire Flickr-viewing visitors to see your work. It's your choice.

A basic Flickr account is free and it allows you to upload 20MB of photos a month as well as show up to 200 photos at one time, and create three sets. A "set" is a group of photos chosen by you that have something in common. If you have photos of an event in one of your branches, you could create a set called, for example, "author reading" or "book discussion group" or whatever is appropriate.

It's possible to upgrade to a Flickr Pro account for more storage and unlimited sets and presently the cost is $24.95 a year.

Why would you be interested?

• To learn about and use tagging.
• To publicize your library and library events to a much larger potential audience than normal.
• Because it's easy to store and show a large number of photos and much easier than using HTML. Slideshows are also part of Flickr capabilities.

Fairfax County Public Library (FCPL) began using Flickr in April 2006, and the address is http://www.flickr.com/photos/fcpl.

How do we handle photos for Flickr?

• Photos are provided by staff
• Internet Services technical staff examine the files for image quality and determine which ones we'll post to Flickr. Most branch staff are amateur photographers at best and resulting photos aren't always usable. We try to only use the best photos and avoid having many shots of the same scene.
• The photos that make the cut are tagged by librarians.

FCPL has a Flickr professional account and our presence on Flickr is funded by the Fairfax County Public Library Foundation, Inc.

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