“The Commons on Flickr” launched in 2008 with the Library of Congress (LOC) as its first partner.
Since then, the Flickr Commons has grown into a unique collection of historical photography, with over 100 cultural institutions in 24 countries around the world participating.
Program objectives
- To increase public access to archival photography collections, and
- To provide a way for the general public to contribute information and knowledge.
- To propagate updates from and to member catalogs and other sources, and
- To protect and attend to the long life of this unique collection.
“It’s a garden to tend. You need to water it for it to flourish. The point is you need to interact.”
– Helena Zinkham, Chief of Prints & Photographs, Library of Congress
Are you interested in joining the Flickr Commons?
The program was originally designed to help cultural institutions around the world share photography collections where copyright was unclear. There are lots of other benefits too.Learn more about how Flickr Commons worksRecent program development
In 2021, we conducted extensive research with the existing Flickr Commons community and related culture workers to explore ideas on how to restore the program. It had languished. We also surveyed how the sector has evolved digitally over the last decade.
We published the Strategy 2021-2023 – Flickr Commons Revitalization in September that year, and we’re mapping our work to it.
Work plan
0. Reconnect with the current members
We’re still trying to connect with every Commons member. If you’re in the program and haven’t talked to us about all this yet, can you please reach out?
1. Stuff we should just do
- Add new Discovery layer and encourage contribution – first iteration launched January 2023
- Co-design granular, comparative, exportable stats- in progress
- Improve description tools for regular researchers
- Incorporate CC0 and Public Domain Mark (PDM) into Commons
- Streamline onboarding to easily manage membership and participation
Our research revealed many Commons members are quite passive in the community. We want to help connect them more easily to people. That way, views of photographs become a place for conversation and a stronger community emerges.
2. Alpha work
These developments have emerged through our research as responses to changes in contemporary practice:
- Develop content mobility policy to facilitate more accessible movement of content and metadata
- Co-design support for development of indigenous and dispossessed collections; formally adopt C.A.R.E. Principles for data governance
- Launch Best Little Museum Shop and micro-donations pilot
3. Policy development
Everyone we interviewed was concerned about the lack of governance in the program. Cultural institutions have a long history of skilled governance, and it’s no surprise people were nervous about it lacking at Flickr. We need a collection development policy, at least, and will definitely be asking for input.