Two states, two cool ideas
I poked my head out of budget season tonight and was proud to encounter cool things coming out of two state library systems near and dear to my heart. Bobbi Slossar, of whom NHSL should be extraordinarily proud, responds to the LOC’s Flickr initiative.* From Bobbi:
This seems like a good time to talk about metadata. Instead of trying to tag (assign keywords) each photo with the appropriate library-approved subject headings, LOC has embraced social tagging (on Flickr) and is allowing the general public to tag its photos for them. Again, why have they abandoned the traditional, restrictive approach? The answer is the same: to allow for greater access and community participation… Go to where the people are. (Did you know that a keyword search for “new hampshire” on Flickr brings up nearly 130,000 photos! Trust me, many of your users are already there.) Allow for more user participation. Your users want to participate in their library. Take a look at the comments on this LOC photo.
While Bobbi makes a concise, well-reasoned argument, the Board of Library Commissioners in neighboring Massachusetts launches a fantastic gateway designed to push traffic to local libraries. It’s part of a three-year public awareness campaign. I love every single library who has made an investment in marketing (I’m talking to you, Wyoming). Via Brian.
As part of my participation in the budget, I made up a wish list last night. Top on that list? A graphic designer to create a consistent brand for us and a PR firm to develop a marketing plan.
* Since when does LOC have a blog!? I really need to get out more.
Tags: and Librarians, flickr, Libraries, Services, and Librarians, library of congress, loc, marketing, massachusetts, new hampshire, nhsl, pr, public relations, Services, state libraries