Library of Congress on Flickr
Yesterday, the Library of Congress launched a pilot project at Flickr to upload and tag select photos and prints from their massive 14-million item collection. So far they’ve uploaded ~3000 images. They’re hoping Flickr users will tag and comment the media to “enhance the quality of the bibliographic records.” I think it’s a great idea and a great use of crowdsourcing.
The photos are being uploaded with a new “No known copyright restrictions” pseudo-license. Flickr and LOC don’t go into the details but I assume this means the images have no known copyright holders but could change if someone does claim them. As museums and institutions dig into their old collections, licenses like this are going to be more common.
As my way of saying “Thanks!”, I’m making it my goal to tag 1 photo a day.
UPDATE: They’re allowing prints too! I think I’ve just found a terrific way to decorate my walls.
