Top of page

Flickr Commons: What’s New!

Share this post:

The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division.

More than 75 libraries, archives, and museums now participate in the Flickr Commons to make it easy for you to discover and help identify photographs with no known copyright restrictions. The pool of pictures has grown to more than 1.25 million images! As the Commons mission states, “Your contributions and knowledge make these photos even richer.”

DextraPhotoFlickr
What type of machine is this? The DEXTRA Photo Collection in Norway would like to know, http://www.flickr.com/photos/dextraphoto/8786631102/

The Library of Congress is the founding member for the Flickr Commons. As the 6th anniversary for this long-running social media community arrives on January 16th, here’s a snapshot of why the Library continues to value the Flickr Commons so highly. Adding 50 new photos each week has enriched more than 20,000 pictures with community comments that provide personal experience as well as factual biographical and geographical connections. (Numbers are rounded.)

  • Critical identifying information added to 5,700 catalog records at the Library
  • Comments in Flickr: 45,000 from 13,500 community members
  • Tags in Flickr: 190,000 from 4,000 members
  • Favorites: 17,000 photos have been selected as favorites by at least one user. Overall, our photos have been selected as favorites 275,000 times
  • Followers:  51,000 Flickr members keep up with the Library of Congress
FSAColor1a34202
New information continues to be added to photos that have been in the Flickr Commons from the start. In 2013, this scene was linked to a photo of haying in Russia. Hay stack and automobile of peach pickers, Delta County, Colorado. By Russell Lee, 1940, http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2178331373

Check out what the 22 new members who joined the Commons in 2013 are contributing!

Learn more:

Add a Comment

This blog is governed by the general rules of respectful civil discourse. You are fully responsible for everything that you post. The content of all comments is released into the public domain unless clearly stated otherwise. The Library of Congress does not control the content posted. Nevertheless, the Library of Congress may monitor any user-generated content as it chooses and reserves the right to remove content for any reason whatever, without consent. Gratuitous links to sites are viewed as spam and may result in removed comments. We further reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to remove a user's privilege to post content on the Library site. Read our Comment and Posting Policy.


Required fields are indicated with an * asterisk.