Library of Congress experimenting with Flickr

Here’s a great example of a major cultural organization experimenting with Web 2.0. The Library of Congress has recently started using Flickr to expand awareness of their collections, and to solicit the more active engagement of viewers.

“The Library of Congress invites you to explore history visually by looking at interesting photos from our collections. Please add tags and comments, too! More words are needed to help more people find and use these pictures.”

Initial photo sets include “1930s-40s in Color” (with photos from the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information) and “News in the 1910s.” The URL for the Library of Congress pilot project on flickr is: http://flickr.com/commons

We are exploring putting some images from our special collections in Flickr as well. Stay tuned.

5 comments February 1st, 2008