The Library of Congress - the world's largest library - have become one of the best users of social media to broaden its reach and to provide greater access to its digital collections. Although these digital collections are available on their website, in January 2008 they set about posting their photos to Flickr. After this pilot project "resoundingly exceeded expectations" the library have since added their videos to YouTube and audio files to iTunes. Here is a brief overview of some initiatives the library has put in place.
YouTube
Currently, these videos span the gamut from some of the earliest movies made through to recordings of contemporary happenings at the library. The project started with more than 70 videos, in April 2009, with a commitment to continuously update content; a commitment they have honoured with over 336 videos available on the channel. Here is a cute wee cartoon from 1921:
Flickr
Uploading the pictorial collections to Flickr was an experiment to "gain a better understanding of how social tagging and community input could benefit both the Library and users of the collections."
Abraham Lincoln, Pres't U.S. (LOC):
Benefits to the Library
Not only does social media allow the library to, in the words of James H. Billington - Librarian of Congress - "remove many of the impediments to making our unparalleled content more useful to many more people" but it also reduces the work of library staff. For example, the Flickr project has not only allowed users to comment and tag photos in the collection, it has even helped librarians identify the location of travel paintings which staff could not identify.
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