Blog Juice for Educational Technology

Welcome to the daily news scene from almost a hundred years ago, as photographed by the Bain News Service in about 1910-1912.

This is the opening text of the posted description for 25 pages of black and white images that dramatically illustrate our history. Does this come from the Library of Congress, or from Flickr? Yes and Yes!

Found first on David Weinberger’s JOHO the Blog (Library of Congress Partners with Flickr…and You) and then the official Library of Congress Blog (My Friend Flickr: A Match Made in Photo Heaven), this partnership places within the collaborative photo sharing site more than 3,000 images where an online community is encouraged to “..tag, comment, and make notes on the images, just like any other Flickr photo.”

We’re also very excited that, as part of this pilot, Flickr has created a new publication model for publicly held photographic collections called “The Commons.” Flickr hopes—as do we—that the project will eventually capture the imagination and involvement of other public institutions, as well.

It makes me shutter to remember those precious National Geographic Magazines that I mutilated with scissors in hand, so that I could bring a mere handful of pictures and maps into my classroom, only two decades ago.

“The Library of Congress’ Photos.” Flickr. 8 Jan 2008. Library of Congress. 16 Jan 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/>.