Flickr

I explored Flickr in March, and made notes on some of the ideas I had. Unfortunately I didn't get my blog post written then, so this post is based on my notes.

• I took the Flickr tour and created my account. I hadn't realized until then that Flickr was a Yahoo product.
• I haven't yet done anything with Flickr to use my account.

The same week I took the Flickr tour, my husband Roger was helping out our granddaughter, Sierra, with a really interesting assignment. It occurred to me that the library might be able to combine this assignment with Flickr to create a different kind of online tour of the library.

Our granddaughter Sierra's school assignment was based on the Flat Stanley Project. The project was inspired by the 1964 book, Flat Stanley, by Jeff Brown. Sierra sent Roger a picture of herself that she had drawn. She wanted him to take her picture, named Flat Sierra, to interesting places in Boone and Todd (where we live). He photographed Flat Sierra in those locations and wrote a story of Flat Sierra's journey to accompany the pictures. Each picture had a caption of a few lines, moving the journey along but also informing Sierra about the place/building shown in the photograph. Roger sent the pictures and captions to Sierra so that she could present it to her classmates.

I was thinking that a tour of Belk Library & Information Commons could be modeled on the Flat Stanley Project and created in Flickr. If I'm understanding Flickr correctly, the tour could be a Collection. There could be sets of Flat Yosef (maybe? or Flat someone else appropriate for the task) photos for different types of tours--one arranged by floor, another arranged by collection, yet another arranged by tasks that people might want to accomplish in the library (get help; study; learn information literacy skills; create a digital project; etc.). 

I also thought that it might be interesting to use a child's drawing and name, linking the Flat Tour with our IMC and our work with children's literature and the IMC. 

Below I've posted three of Roger's Flat Sierra photographs. Flat Sierra came to the library during her journey. I've added Roger's captions that helped narrate her library tour.

Flat Sierra in the book stacks. Caption: "There are so many books that I am having a hard time picking one out!! But maybe Glenn Ellen (who is a Professor and Librarian) can help me out. I sure hope so."

Flat Sierra inside a Second Floor reading room. Caption: "The Library seems even bigger inside than from the outside! And it is very bright and pretty. I know I would spend lots of time here if I was an Appalachian student."

Flat Sierra outside the library with a statue: "After our visit with Glenn Ellen, Grandpa and I left the Library to go see where he teaches. On the way, I met a student on the Library deck and helped her with her homework. She was very nice and thanked me for all my good ideas!!!"