Flickr has lots and lots of pictures of squirrels, and this I like. I was practically beside myself over the squirrel pics, but ultimately the excitement faded. After all, I would much rather spend my time out looking for squirrels in real life, instead of taking pictures of them, posting them on Flickr, and looking at other people's posts.
Work-wise, I was not initially too inspired. There are lots of great ideas about how the library can reach out to people using Flickr (see http://jessicatwopointoh.blogspot.com/ for a fine example), but they seemed a world away from my daily library existence. How could I incorporate Flickr into my duties in the circulation department? Then it came to me! Take pictures of the various damaged items that come in, post them on Flickr, and include the URL on the damage notice we send the patron. It would save a little time for the patron; they could view the damage from the comfort of home. It could also serve as sort of a cautionary gallery for the world at large. And perhaps a sort of morbid hobby for those involved in the damages trade. We could try to outdo each other, a la "my patrons are more negligent than your patrons".
I am freshly inspired, and plan to get right on this as soon as I dig myself out from the current pile of filthy, warped, underlined, highlighted, sticky, burned, and torn items that await me.
2 comments:
Make sure you get pictures of the ones with blood and urine stains. They're always my favorites! You could pose next to them, wearing a HazMat suit. The main problem, I think, is that Flickr won't convey the smell of the damage. That's really part of the whole experience, in my opinion.
Still, this could be a great idea for the SCPL damages crew. I have seen other libraries using Flickr for this sort of thing (also as a way to communicate between TS and branches about problem items).
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