Thing 5: Flickr and Photo Sharing


A limited number of digital cameras are available for staff to use and play with on Thing 5 . P
lease contact Jennifer, Rich, Ruth, or Toby to check out a camera.

DEFINE

There are a number of spaces on the Internet that allow people to upload and share their favorite photos. While sites like Shutterfly, PhotoBucket, and Twango have attracted small audiences of their own, it's Flickr that has managed to really captured the online zeitgeist.

Flickr's secret weapon comes in the form of "tags," user-defined keywords that you can assign to every photo you upload to the site. Tags function much like subject headings in our Library's catalog. When used properly they can help us to organize our collection of photos, grouping like-photos together and provide us with quick and easy ways to find specific snapshots. But it's not just for your own photos. Tags help unlock all the social features of Flickr, where the really fun stuff is. We're going to look at the many features of Flickr, and hopefully we'll help you unleash your inner shutterbug.

For more information, we suggest these two articles:
  1. The Newbie's Guide to Flickr. Pay particular attention to terms like Tags, Sets, and Collections. You may also want to refer back to this page as you take Flickr out for a spin.

  2. 16 Ways to use Flickr @ Your Library. Keep these ideas in the back of your head as you start to explore Flickr's different features.

DISCOVER
  1. Visit Flickr

  2. Explore Flickr

  3. Take a tour of Flickr

DO
Please make sure you follow each step in this exercise.
  1. Take a digital photo, or two, or 10. You can use your own digital camera, a cell phone, or one of the Library cameras that we'll have available for checkout.

  2. Log into Flickr using the 10 Things account. The user name is "askskokie" and the password is [removed]. If you need help at this time, refer to the Flickr FAQ page or The Newbie's Guide for assistance.

  3. Upload your photos by clicking "upload photos" and following the steps on the proceeding page. Flickr will do most of the work for you.

  4. Add tags and a brief description to your photo by entering text in the corresponding fields. Try to use at least two tags, though you can enter as many as you'd like.

  5. Once you've uploaded your photo, search around Flickr and see what other photos have the same tags.

  6. Post your photo to your blog using Flickr's "Blog This" tool. If you're logged into Flickr, just click on the photo you want to use and you should see a "Blog This" link directly above that photo. You'll need to follow the steps to link the Flickr account to your blog. After you add the photo to your blog, you MUST complete step 7.

  7. Once you've added a photo to your blog, be sure to remove your blog from the list of blogs stored on the 10 Things Flickr account.

  8. Write a blog entry about your experience with this task. Make some suggestions on how the library could make use of its Flickr page? Suggest two or three tags that would be most useful for the Library's Flickr page.

BONUS CHALLENGE (optional)

Browse through some of these mashups and see what others have been able to do with Flickr. If you see something you like, make a note of it in your blog.

Now move on to Thing 6: Social Bookmarking.

7 comments:

Karen Soto said...

Now that was cool

Chick n Acq Blog said...

I have issues with the 10's Do #6 under Flickr. Here's what's happening while trying to Blog This Photo in Flickr. Person A came to me and said the picture she tried post to her blog was posted to Person B's blog. I went to B's blog and was able to remove the picture by editing the post. I went back to A but when we tried to post to A's blog, B's blog address was the default. After wasting much time, I went back to #6, clicked on the link word "list" and removed person B's blog address. Knowing that was the cheater way of fixing it, I decided I'd better tackle the Flickr Thing myself. Same problem but I was able to remove mine. I think. Can ya'all at the Skokie 10 give us a break and explain specifically how to remove our blogs from the list of blogs??

The Skokie Ten said...

Thanks for your feedback, Chick. The 10 Things Team is aware of the Flickr snag.

Apparently, using the "blog this" option on one Flickr account with multiple users is more complicated than we anticipated. We'll be restructuring the Flickr Thing to make it run smoother.

We appreciate you letting us know how it worked (or didn't work, in this case) for you.

Stay tuned!

-Ruth :-)

The Skokie Ten said...

We added step #7 to help alleviate this problem.

ruth said...

Hey there!

Once you get the hang of Flickr, check out some of the fun Flickr Toys at BigHugeLabs.com

GusPalas said...

Quick Tip...To remove your Blog from Flickr, Look on the top of Flickr. Click on the "Down" arrow next to where it says "You", then click on "Your account" then click on "Extending Flickr" and then remove your blog. Hope this helps and isn't confusing. If I shouldn't have posted this then I'm sorry. Please don't hit me.

Djadai said...

Definitely the best site which I use to photo sharing is imgsnap