Flickr: a Face in the Crowd

I have chosen a picture of a face in the crowd from Flickr because it seems to me that as convenient as it is to share photos on the web, the sheer size of the collection that is available to anyone, is diluting the power that the image has had in modern society. So many images race through our consciousness every day, that even if we see one that could potentially have meaning to us, it is likely to pass us by unnoticed. A diluted drop in the ocean. I think too we tend not to value anything that is made available to us free and on mass. Would you have the same reaction to an image discovered hidden away in a Fryer Library archive box, if it was just another jpg amongst a million others on Flickr?

Of course there is another side to the story. Not all images on Flickr are open to everyone. And I suspect that these are the ones that are most valued. Of course the value is only partly in the content of these images. It's the shared story of the individuals behind these images that provides most of the value. Like post cards on a shared notice board they become meaningless when nobody can remember who sent them.

So what does this mean to libraries and librarians? I'm not sure. However I do think we should always think about who we are collecting for. I think also we should remember that sometimes the more we make a resource accessible the less what we do is valued. Of course in this world of convenience the danger is that if something is not a click away, then it will be ignored as “just to hard”. This unfortunately is the Catch 22 we are stuck with.