University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Digital Wunderkammer: Flickr as a Platform for Amateur Cultural and Heritage Content

Terras, Melissa

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/26431

Description

Title
The Digital Wunderkammer: Flickr as a Platform for Amateur Cultural and Heritage Content
Author(s)
Terras, Melissa
Issue Date
2011-06
Keyword(s)
  • Flickr (Electronic resource)
  • Cultural property -- Protection
Abstract
Many memory institutions are now digitizing their holdings to provide online access. Although recent developments in technology have allowed users to create high quality digital resources outside institutional boundaries, little consideration has been given to the potential contribution that the general public can make to digitizing cultural heritage. This article seeks to scope the growing trend of the creation of digital images of cultural and heritage materials beyond library, art gallery, or museum walls, particularly focusing on the use of the image-hosting site Flickr (www.flickr.com) as a forum for hosting, discussing, and collecting vintage ephemera. This article discusses how Flickr is currently being used and provides empirical data that demonstrates that the most successful examples of this approach can teach best practice to traditional memory institutions in how to make their collections useful, interesting, and used by online communities. The use of a common, centralized access point to image-based heritage allows a central point for discussing and accessing collections. Furthermore, the adoption of Flickr by libraries and archives can extend the use of collections and the interaction that this affords both the institution and the individual.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26431
Copyright and License Information
Copyright (2011) Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 59 (4) Spring 2011: Involving Users in the Co-Construction of Digital Knowledge in LAMs PRIMARY
Library Trends 59 (4) Spring 2011. Edited by Paul F. Marty and Michelle M. Kazmer