Nation’s Library Goes 2.0: Library of Congress on Flickr

Flickr, the popular photo-sharing site, just got another subscriber. A big one. In an effort to enhance sharing of its image collection, the Library of Congress (LOC) has uploaded more than 3,000 photos to its new Flickr page. The goal: to afford better access to a vast trove of historical photographs and invite user feedback, according to the LC Web site. This initial photo set includes Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information images from the 1940s and, like all photos on the LC Flickr page, has no known copyright restrictions.

“The real magic comes when the power of the Flickr community takes over,” writes Matt Raymond, LC’s communications director, on LC’s blog. “We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo. For instance, many photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.”