WOW! The Library of Congress has joined Flickr. They have over 1500 images in two main sets right now. The entire Flickr community can help join in the tagging process so that the folksonomy will just keep on growing and getting richer.
This is part of Flickr’s “The Commons” project. This is a pilot that they hope:
can be used as a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world.
What power! Using the collective (you know I love the collective) to help describe and even organize, to some extent, the huge collection of images in the LOC. My little librarian heart is both aghast and aflutter, all at the same time.
I also really, really love their ever so subtle plea for decency:
*Any Flickr member is able to add tags or comment on these collections. If you’re a dork about it, shame on you. This is for the good of humanity, dude!!
Flickr: Photos from The Library of Congress
Flickr: The Commons