Discovery Exercise #4

I love looking at pictures, they always tell a story. Using Flickr was an eye opener; in as much as you can get involved in other people’s lives so easily & see what they are doing but also it’s a way to join in on a worldwide scale & share common interests in a much more sociable way. Great to see the library sites & how we love to communicate with other librarians but also the photos – esp the historical ones that we would not have known about - I would never have thought to look for National Library photos of WWI or II or even send a Christmas card with them via Flickr – Wow! Searching photos by Places makes you feel part of a group, esp if you have also ‘been there’; I can see how that would appeal to some young travellers. By suggesting other tags that relate to your subject, Flickr can draw you down a variety of pathways – however as common tags are used by ‘everyone’, you need to use clusters to narrow your search although you can still end up wading through pages to find ones you are looking for. If you were a regular user though, it would be sensible to have your own groups & not do the ‘public’ thing. I also feel uncomfortable about looking at what feels like someone else’s private photo albums, but that’s the key here I guess, the purpose is to share wonderful images with each other & encourage a common ground for meeting other like-minded people. A great way to find out what is going on in the ‘personal world’.
I enjoyed so many images – click this link to see a place my girlfriend visited recently:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fesign/2418357814/

this link is a great close-up of Gaudi’s work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/machinemade/3762870249/

isn’t this one simply wonderful?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejbot/3764180692/