1. It's Not Just for Squirrels
Building and Sharing a
Digital Image Collection With flickr
The Payoff
flickr allows for easy sharing and use with social media.
Image metadata (tags) is pushed to Google quickly.
You can geo-tag pictures as well!
You can connect with other users (including students and alumni) to build a community of interested photographers.
Groups allow you to pull together like images from different users.
The Problem
We need an easy way to host personal or departmental images and make them easily found and shared.
Opportunity
flickr is a great image sharing service used my many University of Michigan departments already and can easily be used by you and your department.
Process
Create a free account with Yahoo!
Load pictures (any size or format – including video)
Share with social Media services (Pinterest, twitter, facebook, etc.) or embed into webpages.
Keep backups of your images – commercial solutions can go away!
Campus Examples
Current flickr accounts at Michigan:
Engineering
UM Library
UM Ford School
UM Dearborn
Lessons Learned
Don’t skimp on tags – more terms the better.
Conversely – no tags=hidden.
Add descriptions with links to drive traffic to your website.
Keep backups – no commercial solution is foolproof or permanent.
Adding Image Details
Be descriptive!
Use tags for findability. Tags are basic search terms to help people track down the images.
Tags may be for basic search terms (like “students” or “MBA Students”) or coded for grouping purposes (“Squirrel ”).
Use albums for programs and events.
Results
While there are many options for storing your graphic images, flickr does a great job of making images found and used.
Images may be organized and arranged in just about anyway you need and desire.
More information
See Corey’s RLC 2016 Presentation & UM Handout: tinyurl.com/csflickr2016
Corey’s flickr page: flickr.com/cseeman
Contact:
Corey Seeman (Kresge Library Services, Ross School of Business)
Chris Seeman (LSA – Statistics – ‘17)
2016 U-M StaffWorks Best Practices and Technology Conference