10. Careful Curation for Serendipitous Discovery
Libraries and archives have long been tools for serendipitous discoveries where an unexpected connection is found seemingly by accident.
“[S]cholars can become inspired by visions of wandering through vast corridors of deserted stacks and then happening on a passage in some long-dormant volume that unexpectedly reveals a special insight. For some, the promise of such treasured discoveries is at the heart of deeply felt sentiments about the library’s role in scholarship.” – Patrick Carr, College and Research Libraries
Sometimes good curators can nudge this along. This photograph of Betty Broadbent from 1938 is part of a set of images from PIX Magazine acquired by the State Library of New South Wales as part of a larger acquisition, as seen on the Flickr blog and the State Library of NSW’s blog.
That image, when uploaded to Flickr Commons, was put into four different albums so that viewers could find it alongside other images which shared certain characteristics.
1. Images of Ms. Broadbent
2. Images from PIX Magazine
3. Images from Australia Consolidated Press including this basket of puppies
4. Images that are uploaded with known date information which has some serendipitous discoveries of its own
We’ve also got stories about Irish folktales, UFO Desks, epic kayaking, caravaning over Christmas, Washington DC oddities and history, decorated war pigeons, community-based photo id-ing, meeting some photographers, prisoners-turned-artists, turkish street photography, aviatrices, books in motion, a cool bell, surprise celebrities, and, of course, cat pictures.
All part of Flickr Commons’ sixteenth birthday.