Task : Flickr

Even though the task is technically to create a Flickr account, I don't have any images on my desktop handy that I would want to bother to post online. And I keep forgetting to do this when I'm at home with my lappie or digi cam which stores all my photos. So instead, I'll talk about Flickr generally.

I will admit that though I don't post to it or have my own account (it actually threw me for a loop that I needed to create a Yahoo account to have a Flickr profile - what does that say about my Google-centered universe?), I have been known to look through Flickr. I've definitely used it to find uncopyrighted images for my own use. I've also viewed friends posted wedding pictures. I must also admit to looking at a silly number of cute dog pictures. After looking at the site a bit more critically this time around, there are several features that I like a lot. First, I really like that they've added the Creative Commons copyright options. Knowing that you can post your images and choose to make them available for use on several levels would ease my mind at posting my own. Additionally, now that I realize that you can also set your photos to private and require that you've approved the viewer to look at them will definitly impact my interest in posting.

But overall, I enjoy their searching capabilities. While I don't always celebrate tagging for searches, it does make some searches much more specific. On the other hand, a search for very general words does bring up just too many images. Like any library searching, clearly the user needs to think critically about what language to use for a search and alternate search techniques. The big kicker for me though was the searching by map for location specific images or tags. This seems to me what John Reimer was talking about regarding bibliographic data and searching within OPAC's. I had fun looking at images posted from my hometown, our childhood vacation home, my grandmother's neighborhood, etc.

Several groups caught my eye. There are an amazing number of groups that focus on libraries and librarians. Several that were really quite fun to look through included:
Libraries from around the world
Social Software in Libraries Alternative Book Cover Contest
Librarian Trading Cards
Librarians in Shower Caps