The Commons -Library of Congress Pilot Program

Did you know you can view images from the Library of Congress on Flikr? Through a pilot program called The Commons, the Library of Congress has partnered with Flikr to post collections of images online in hopes of the public helping with the tagging process and possibly more identification information. Flikr, which routinely requires Creative Commons licensing, is also working with the Library of Congress for a new rights designation on these images.

Currently there are two collections of images online. These are: 1930s-40s in Color and News in the 1910s.

While some people seem to be taking the project seriously and are trying to help preserve the history, many more are intent on making snide remarks about the images and their subjects. For example, on the image of a woman aircraft worker, some of the comments are: "Inspector my eye! That's a model!", "Remember back in the day when a war stimulated an economy instead of killing it! If robots existed then she would be begging like the rest of us", and "shoulder pads". Thankfully, there are also serious comments on the image and on the technology of photography. Some of these comments are: "I didn't know photos from 1942 can preserve color as nice as this.", "And by the way, the color's not surprising....Kodachrome's been around since the mid-30's.", and "I suspect that this is not a pen. It is probably a continuity tester of some type, looking for wiring problems".

What do you think?

Photo of Woman Aircraft Worker at Vega Aircraft by David Bransby - 1942
Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Part Of: Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Collection 12002-66 (DLC) 93845501
General information about the FSA/OWI Color Photographs is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.fsac
Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsac.1a34456
Call Number: LC-USW36-273