Thanks to a post on the Not Very Bright blog, I’ve just learned that Richland County Library has joined the ranks of those that are starting to use Flickr effectively to post historic images. The collection contains historical artwork as well as early photographs. It looks like most of the photos are not in high resolution. However, they are large enough to be usable online for educational purposes – generally about 800 X 600.
The library has made great efforts to include metadata for each image. The library has also made extensive use of tags and descriptors. Not only is there detailed information about each image, but also a link to the item in the library’s catalog. You can even check out the photo reproduction, if you wish.
Since these are photos of the state capital, they include images of prominent politicians and other famous events. These should have an appeal for not just Columbia but the entire state.
I really like the way Richland County has done this. They actually have two Flickr accounts. The one with the historic images is part of their digitization project. The second account is for activities and life at the library. I think this is a marvelous way to keep the historic images and day-to-day library activities separate. Kudos to the RCPL.
[tags]Flickr, Columbia, Richland Library, Library, historic images[/tags]