Reflections part 2

Flickr is definitely my favourite thing so far. I love the possibilities that arise from the interaction between word and text. And despite my doubting attitude to tagging, I have to say that I've been proved (a bit) wrong:

In my previous post I started to write some reflective material about Cam23 so far. I searched Flickr for keywords "reflection woman mirror", expecting to find pictures of a woman looking in a mirror. But then I fell in love with this photo of a woman and her reflection. And here's the thing: Library of Congress had allocated subject headings

Airplane industry
Women--Employment
World War, 1939-1945
Bombers
Drilling
United States--Tennessee--Nashville

but all the things I'd searched under were listed not in the LC headings but in the tags on the right hand side. Someone had the imagination to see that it was a picture of a woman's reflection in a mirror and tag it accordingly.

Catalogue makeovers

After looking at cataloguing images on Flickr I have a whole new idea: library catalogue makeovers. Do you have a boring looking catalogue that nobody notices? Do people routinely assume that your catalogue is five years older than it is? It's time to update your look: add balloons to your catalogue terminal, plus perhaps a colourful label.

For over-fifties catalogues who want to stay age-appropriate, add a traditional lamp or pot plant. This can really help to soften hard lines



It's such a pity this Cam23 isn't just about trying to be witty. I could spend hours on it if so. But here is the work bit. Something I don't get asked very often is "What's retrospective conversion?" You may not be asked it either but your job title isn't "Head of Retrospective Conversion". Well, for those of you that haven't already switched off, retrospective conversion is the ultimate makeover process, turning ageing housebound catalogue cards into electronic catalogue records that are flexible and fully mobile and travel all around the world. We're about to finish converting the UL sheaf catalogue and start on the UL supplementary card catalogue. Which means publicising the end of the sheaf catalogue and raising funds to convert the card catalogue. And I think Flickr images can be a useful way to do that. After all, you all know what retrospective conversion is now.

Flickr

Oh, I like Flickr! This is a screenshot from a Flickr page created by Glasgow University Library Special Collections department. I'd definitely like to do this for the Tower Project, we've got some great images. But I can't see any special collections stuff from Cambridge libraries - has anyone else found them?