Library of Congress Photos on Flickr:
Frequently
Asked Questions
About this Project | Access
on Flickr | Things
You Can Do | Technical Information
About this Project
Why is the Library placing pictures
on Flickr?
Will this replace putting photos
up on the Library's Web site?
How were the items selected/why
did you pick these pictures?
How long will these photos be
available on Flickr?
Does the Library have plans to
add more photos to its Flickr account?
Did the Library add any tags to its content on Flickr?
Access to the Photos on Flickr
Do you have to create an account
on Flickr to view the Library’s pictures
on Flickr?
Is there a fee to create a Flickr
account?
How do I find the Library
of Congress material on Flickr?
Are these pictures only on Flickr?
Things You Can Do
How can I participate
in the pilot?
Will the Library do anything
with the tagging info once I add it to the Flickr
photos?
I have more information
or a question about a particular picture.
Whom should I contact?
I noticed an error in the
data associated with the picture. Whom should
I contact?
Can I reuse the photos the Library
has made available on Flickr? What are the rights
and permissions on these? Can I reproduce
these pictures?
Are higher resolution copies
available?
How do I get copies of these
pictures?
Where can I find other photos
like these?
Where do I find out more about
LC image collections? What else do you have?
Technical Information
How did you load the photos and
descriptions onto Flickr? Did you load them
one by one?
How did you digitize the photographs?
Why was a Sinar camera used to create these
images?
Did you alter these photos in
any way? Is the color real? Why do the pictures
look so “flat”?
Why is there no EXIF data?
Why is there no IPTC or XMP data?
For information about the Library of Congress Historic Newspapers on Flickr, see:
Library of Congress Newspapers on Flickr: Frequently Asked Questions.
About this Project
Q: Why is the Library
placing pictures on Flickr?
A: We have several
goals:
- To share photographs from the Library’s
collections with people who enjoy images
but might not visit the Library’s own
Web site.
- To gain a better understanding of how social
tagging and community input could benefit
both the Library and users of the collections.
- To gain experience participating in Web
communities that are interested in the kinds
of materials in the Library’s collections.
With the launch of the Library of Congress pilot, Flickr began a new initiative called "The Commons." Cultural heritage institutions that join The Commons are sharing images from their photographic collections that have no known copyright restrictions as a way to increase awareness of these collections with the general public. For more information on The Commons, see: http://www.flickr.com/commons.
A webcast about the project is available: "Opening
the Photo Vaults: A Web 2.0 Pilot Project to
Enhance Discovery and Gather Input for the
Library's Photograph Collections" (presented
Jan. 29, 2008).
Q: Will this replace
putting photos up on the Library’s
Web site?
A: No. The Library
will continue to make digitized collections
available on its site.
Q:
How were the items selected/why did you pick
these pictures?
A: We have picked popular images for which no restrictions
on publication or distribution are known
and for which high quality files are available. In our initial offering, because
we are also interested in tags and comments
on the photos, we picked one set (George
Grantham Bain Collection) for which we have
minimal identifying information, and another
(Farm Security Administration/Office of War
Information color photographs) that has some
subject indexing.
Q: How long will these
photos be available on Flickr?
A: The length of the pilot
will be determined by the amount of user
interest and tagging activity related to
the materials.
Q: Does the Library have
plans to add more photos to its Flickr account?
A: The Library has other
candidate collections in mind. Leave us a comment on what you’d
like to see.
Q: Did the Library add any tags
to its content on Flickr?
A: We placed only one tag
("Library of
Congress") and two machine tags on each
photo when we loaded them. Any other tags you
see were added by the community; we are generally
not controlling the content of Flickr tags,
notes and comments, but we reserve the right
to remove added content for any reason.
Top of Page
Access to Photos on Flickr
Q:
Do you have to create an account on Flickr
to view the Library’s
pictures on Flickr?
A: No account is required
to view the photos. If you want to leave
tags or comments on the photos, you will
have to create a Flickr account.
Q: Is there a fee to
create a Flickr account?
A: A basic Flickr account
(the type of account required to tag images
in the Library_of_Congress sets) is free.
Q: How do I find the
Library of Congress material on Flickr?
A: Go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/Library_of_Congress/.
Q: Are these pictures
only on Flickr?
A: These pictures are all
available on the Library of Congress Web
site as well. To view and read about some of the initial offerings:
Top of Page
Things You Can Do
Adding Tags, Notes and Comments
to the Photos
Q: How can I participate
in the pilot?
A: As you walk back in time
through the eyes of photographers who worked
for the Bain News Service, or explore the
color views of American life between 1935
and 1943, please contribute your own tags,
comments, and identifying information.
Q: Will the Library do anything with
the tagging info once I add it to the Flickr photos?
A: The Library will decide
what to do with data added through Flickr once the
pilot is over. Because resources to update
catalog records are limited, the Library cannot promise
to incorporate contributed data into its own records.
Q: I have more information
or a question about a particular picture.
Whom should I contact?
A: If you have a Flickr
account, please send your information through
a comment on Flickr (Library of Congress
staff will be looking at the comments). If
you don’t have an account, you can
use our Ask a Librarian service to make a report: Prints & Photographs Ask a Librarian or Performing Arts Ask a Librarian (for information pertaining to the William P. Gottlieb photographs of jazz musicians and personalities).
If you are providing additional information,
it is helpful if you can also supply information
about how you know what you know
about the image. Preferably, cite a published
source by title, author, and page number
(or URL) to simplify verification. (Note: a suggestion
form is also available on the Prints & Photographs
Division Web site that enables you to fill in this information, if you find that simpler.)
Q: I noticed an error
in the data associated with the picture. Whom
should I contact?
A: If you have a Flickr
account, you are welcome to give us your
information through a comment on Flickr.
(Library of Congress staff will be looking
at the comments.) If
you don’t have an account, you can
use our Ask a Librarian service to make a report: Prints & Photographs Ask a Librarian or Performing Arts Ask a Librarian (for information pertaining to the William P. Gottlieb photographs of jazz musicians and personalities).
If you are providing additional information,
it is helpful if you can also supply information
about how you know what you know
about the image. Preferably, cite a published
source by title, author, and page number
(or URL) to simplify verification. (Note: a suggestion
form is also available on the Prints & Photographs
Division Web site that enables you to fill in this information, if you find that simpler.)
Enjoying and Re-using Photos
Q: Can I reuse the photos
the Library has made available on Flickr?
What are the rights and permissions on these?
Can I reproduce these pictures?
A: Although the Library
of Congress does not grant or deny permission
to use photos, the Library knows of no copyright
restrictions on the publication, distribution,
or re-use of these photos. Privacy rights
may apply. Rights statements with further information relating to sets of images provided so far are available:
For Prints & Photographs Division collections, we offer general rights information and specific rights statements through the “Rights and Restrictions Information” page: //www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/rights.html.
Q: Are higher resolution
copies available?
A. Yes. For items from the Prints & Photographs Division, higher resolution
TIFF versions of the photos are available
through the Prints and Photographs Online
Catalog (PPOC). For photographs in the William P. Gottlieb Collection of photographs of jazz musicians and personalities, higher resolution TIFF versions of the photos are available through the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.[need URL for the landing page] Example: Click on the ”Persistent
URL” link in the data information for
the photograph (the URL looks like "hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a35075")
and when the new catalog record displays,
click on the picture for the larger images.
Q: How do I get copies
of these pictures?
A: You can download and
print copies of the pictures yourself. Higher
resolution TIFF files are available through
the Prints & Photographs
Online Catalog. For photographs in the William P. Gottlieb Collection of photographs of jazz musicians and personalities, higher resolution TIFF versions of the photos are available through the Performing Arts Encyclopedia.[need URL for the landing page] Alternatively,
you can purchase copies through the Library
of Congress Duplication Services. For
further information on purchasing copies,
see the Reproductions
information page
on the Prints & Photographs
Division Web site.
Finding more Pictures and Information
Q: Where can I find other
photos like these?
A. To see Farm Security
Administration/Office of War Information
black-and-white photos (approximately 171,000
of them!), another 40,000 George Grantham
Bain Collection news photographs, more panoramic photographs, as well
as many of the other photographs, prints,
posters, cartoons, and architectural materials
in the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs
Division collections, visit: the Prints & Photographs
Online Catalog. The
catalog includes more than 1 million digitized
items, and descriptions of about 75% of the
entire Prints and Photographs Division collections.
Q: Where do I find out
more about LC image collections? What else
do you have?
A: The Library of Congress
Prints & Photographs Division holds a
wonderful array of photographs, fine and
popular prints and drawings, posters, and
architectural and engineering drawings--some
14 million items, in all. The collections
are international in scope, but they are
especially rich in materials produced in,
or documenting the history of, the United
States and the lives, interests and achievements
of the American people. For more information
about collections in the Library of Congress
Prints & Photographs Division, you might
want to start by visiting the Prints & Photographs
Division Web page,
which includes links to collection guides,
lists of images on popular topics, and the
Prints & Photographs Online Catalog,
which includes more than one million digitized
items and describes millions of un-digitized
holdings, as well.
Other parts of the Library of
Congress also hold images, and you may want
to visit their Web pages, as well, including
the:
Some
of the collections from these units are presented
through the American
Memory part of the Library
of Congress Web site.
The exhibitions
portion of the Web site also
offers highlights from the collections.
Technical Information
Q:
How did you load the photos and descriptions?
Did you load them one by one?
A: We loaded the photos and descriptions in
batches. A Library of Congress computer specialist
used the Flickr API (available on
the Flickr
Services page) and a java wrapper for that API
called "flickrj"
available at: http://flickrj.sourceforge.net/.
Wrappers are available for a variety of programming
languages. Many are listed under the "API
Kits" heading on the Flickr Services page.
With these tools, he developed a java application
that parses the records; creates titles, descriptions,
and tags; locates the images on our file system;
and uploads the whole set.
Q: How did you digitize the photographs?
A. Generally, we provide information about how we digitized each set of photographs with information about the collection. Scanning specifications for the initial offerings are available:
Q: Why was a Sinar camera used
to create these images?
A. During the past 15
years, contractors have produced the majority
of the digital images of the Library’s
photographic collection. The system used to
scan the images seen in Flickr was designed
to accommodate a wide variety of physical formats,
from 35mm film up to large posters and graphic
prints. The contractor used a Sinar 54
digital scan back with a custom built copy
stand setup, rather than a commercially available
camera system. The Library’s specifications
for this work set requirements for the digital
images themselves, but did not specify the
system or equipment to be used.
Q: Did you alter
these photos in any way? Is the color real?
Why do the pictures look so “flat”?
A: The Library produces
digital scans to reproduce the photographs
in our collections. We are concerned, first,
with the physical photograph before us and,
secondarily, with the scene that the photographer
confronted when producing the image. There
is no attempt to clean up dirt or scratches
that might appear in the originals (although
we blow or brush off surface dust before
scanning), and there is no attempt to try
to improve the look of the originals. It
is worth noting that different issues arise
for positive materials--like the
slides and color transparencies in the FSA-OWI
collection--and for negatives --like
the black-and-white photographs in the Bain
collection.
-
Originals
that are photographic positives -
In the case of the FSA-OWI slides and transparencies--and
also with color or black-and-white prints--there
is a sense in which we try to "match" the
original. Since we know that our end-users
make different uses of these images (more
than just looking at them on Flickr), our
matching is carried out in a manner that
accommodates the full range of values--picture
data if you will--that can be seen in the
original. This means that some exposures
will appear to be too dark, too light,
or show colors that may have shifted over
time. The intent is to show the item as
it exists in the collection.
The FSA-OWI color photographs are early examples
of Kodachrome color transparencies. The dyes
and the development processes used for Kodachrome
produced very rich saturated colors, and the
scans of these transparencies represent the
colors of the original 35mm slide or 4x5-inch
transparency as closely as possible.
-
Originals
that are photographic negatives
- When reformatting photographic negatives
like the ones in the Bain collection our
goal is not to match the original. Instead,
it is to produce a digital image that can
provide the same functionality as the original
negative. Analog photographic negatives
are traditionally used in a darkroom to
produce prints that vary according to their
purpose. Prints may have rich tonality
and deep blacks for an art gallery wall
or lighter shadow areas for reproduction
in a book or magazine. In a similar fashion,
our end-users will use our digital master
images to produce outputs that suit their
specific requirement.
The images in the Bain Collection were
produced from original photographic glass
plate negatives. Scanning technicians use
judgment to make sure the light and dark
tones of the digital image represent the
highlight and shadow areas in the negative
without obscuring details. This may make
the images appear to be low in contrast.
In the online presentation the polarity
is reversed to produce a positive image.
As indicated above, the digital images
of both positive and negative originals
from our collections are intended to support
a wide range of uses and applications:
general research in online catalogs, book
publications, newspaper articles, exhibitions,
print reproductions, detailed image analysis,
documentation of photographer's working
habits and printing preferences, documentation
of photographic film production, and more.
Photographs may be used to support forensic
study or to serve other types of analysis.
For example, a researcher may wish to manipulate
tonal representation in order to "see into the shadows" of
a photo, to reveal hidden detail. The Library's
intent is to provide users with access
to the materials in a form that can support
any particular output need.
In addition to the preceding factors, there
is another very practical reason for producing
digital images of the Library's photographic
collections with minimal post-scanning
adjustment. In order to support the Library's
mission to make its resources available,
the scanning operations focus on producing
very high quality master images quickly
and efficiently. We believe that the availability
of over 1 million images in the Library's
online catalog provides researchers with
a vast resource while allowing for detialed
analysis and specialized outputs. The time
and expense required to produce perfectly
executed and restored digital surrogates
would limit the ability to provide scans
of large numbers of photographs.
Q: Why is there no EXIF data?
A: Images
were produced with a high-resolution digital
copy camera, which doesn’t
generate EXIF data. The master TIFF
images available in the online catalog contain
some technical information about the scans
that were produced. (For an explanation of
how to locate the TIFF images, see the question
regarding higher resolution images above.
Q: Why is there no IPTC or XMP data?
A: Descriptive information
about the images is maintained in catalog
records at the Library and displayed in Flickr
and in the online catalog. Since the
Library began making digital surrogates in
the early 1990s, many metadata standards
for embedded metadata in images have emerged
and propagated. The Library is collaborating
with other federal agencies and industry
partners to discuss and consider adopting
these practices.
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of Congress Web pages do not constitute the
Library's endorsement of the content of their
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