Flickr

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About Flickr

flickr is a photo sharing service. Basic accounts are free and images can be given various levels of privacy. Libraries use flickr for a range of purposes - from internal collections of party pics to event and collection promotion via the library homepage.

Flickr uses tagging to allow users to add keywords to their images and collections. These tags can be very useful for organizing your own collection as well as finding other images. For example, here is a page of <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/tags/library/clusters/">library related tags</a> grouped into clusters for easy navigating. For more information about tagging, see the <a href="../tagging_notes.html">notes from the Social Tagging Workshop session</a>.

Another useful aspect of flickr is that it allows user to attach a <a href="http://flickr.com/creativecommons/">creative commons</a> license to images. Among other things, this means that the creators of some images have given permission to reuse their images. So flickr can be a great source for stock photos etc.

So, what can you do with flickr?

The Basics

  • Sign in or create a new account - flickr
  • Find photos - Find photos by searching (there are different search options under the search button). If you're looking for photos to use, try searching via the reative commons page.
  • Upload your photos - via the main You link at the top of the page. Follow the step-by-step instructions. You will be able to upload multiple photos at once, set their privacy level, and tag, title, and describe them.
  • Organize your photos - via the Organize link, you can:
    • add or change tags, titles, and descriptions (individually or batch edit)
    • put your photos into sets and collections (if you have the pro account)
    • add photos to a group you've already joined (see below for more about groups)
    • change permissions (who can see images, edit creative commons license)
    • put your photos on the map
  • People - You can connect with other users by finding their account page and then adding them as your contact. To add someone as a contact, hover your cursor over the user's icon/avatar and an arrow button will appear to the right. Click this and select the first option "Add USER as a contact?" You then get the option to set their access level. When you add photos to your account, this access level will determine who can see each of your photos.
  • Groups - There are groups on just about any topic. The idea is that this allows users with similar interests a place to share photos on that topic. Anyone can create a group. Groups can be open to anyone, by invite only, or by permission. Group pages often have rules about tagging, # of photos allowed, etc. - so make sure you read any rules provided. Groups also often have discussion boards to encourage discussion of related topics.

For example, go here to join the MLibrary2.0 group

  • Maps - flickr uses yahoo maps to allow images to be connected to a physical location. To view the map of everyone's images, click Explore and then World Map then search for your location.

To assign your photos to the map, click Organize click the Map tab and search to find your location (zoom in/out and select "hybrid" to pinpoint your location) > drag photos from bottom frame to a location on the map.


Advanced Flickr

  • Change your settings - click You > Your Account. Of special interest might be the privacy and license settings (under Privacy & Permissions). Here is a description of the different <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/">Creative Commons Licenses</a></li>
  • Get updates - If you use an RSS feed reader, you can be notified anytime someone comments on one of your photos, adds an image to a group, a contact adds photos, photos are added with a certain tag, etc. Look for this <img src="../images/feed.png" style="width:15px; padding-right: 0.5em;" />icon (or others that say RSS, XML, Feed, etc.) that will sometimes appear on a page or in the URL address bar of some browsers. It indicates that you can get to the feed by clicking on it. See the <a href="../blogrss_notes.html">Blog/RSS workshop notes</a> for more information.

Examples of how other libraries are using flickr

  • PictureAustralia
    Flickr collection of images of Australia to view or contribute to
  • Smithsonian Collection
    A collection of 6,288 images from smithsonianimages.si.edu which appear to be overwhelmingly in the public domain

Library related flickr groups

  • Coming soon!

flickr tools and other cool things

  • Coming soon!

A few ways to embed flickr image feeds

  • Coming soon!
Retrieved from "http://webservices.itcs.umich.edu/mediawiki/ml2sig/index.php/Flickr"
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