- Celebrations, Flatekval, 1898. A popular image from Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane on Flickr Commons. Photo: unknown
Five years ago, on the 16th of January, 2008 The Commons was launched as a part of Flickr, the international website for photo sharing with millions of viewers and users. The initiator of The Commons was the Library of Congress in the U.S.A., in collaboration with Flickr. Since then, more than 250 000 beautiful, interesting and amazing images have been uploaded to The Commons.
56 cultural heritage institutions from all over the world are today showing and sharing parts of their historical photo collections on Flickr Commons. The viewers are invited to help describe the photographs, all labelled “No known copyright restrictions“ and free to download and use for different purposes.
Since the Swedish National Heritage Board joined in March 2009, our uploaded photos (today more than 1Â 100) have been largely viewed, commented on and used, and about 9 % of them have had valuable information added in comments by Flickr members. To be part of The Commons is really rewarding in many ways – not to mention all the joy it brings!
To celebrate the 5th anniversary of The Commons on Flickr, the Library of Congress has created four picture galleries – Flickr Commons Favorites 1, 2, 3, 4 – with images chosen among the most popular and interesting on The Commons.
Happy 5th Birthday Flickr Commons!
