Heard around the Commons:

• Archives sharing content in the digital age — The Australian War Memorial summarizes an online research project by the Nationaal Archief, Afscheid van Indië (Separation from Indonesia).
• Graduate Student Projects — Take a sneak peak at the next Flickr set from the George Eastman House.
• Also, check out their blog post, Exploring the Archive.
• 1stfans Twitter Art Feed Artist for June 2009: Nick Fortunato — Read about a fun project from the Brooklyn Museum.
• Arts of the Islamic World Reinstallation — A quick tour of the behind-the-scenes goings-on at the Brooklyn Museum [video].
• The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web — This Friday’s collection of links from the National Library of New Zealand includes articles on copyright.
• What Katie Does — A design and craft blog that discusses the coolness of the Flickr Commons.
• The Collective Picture — A blog about old photographs which weaves stories around them.
• Free Family Fun at the Getty — A round-up of all the cool and free things families can do at the Getty Villa.
• The Library of Congress posts resources for you to learn all about Justice Sotomayor.
• Ghost Remains After Black Hole Eruption — More exciting adventures in outer space from the Smithsonian’s Chandra X-ray blog.
• All about Astronomy Visualization Metadata, also from the Chandra blog.
• Owney! A very cool video of Owney, the US Postal Service mascot … from the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum.
• Everyone into the White House Photo Pool! Nice summary from the Smithsonian Photography Initiative on being a photographer for the White House pool. Includes Flickr photos from the White House!
• The History of the John Oxley Library — Part Four — The State Library of Queensland, Australia, continues its series on its history in celebration of its 75th year.
• The D.C. Public Library Social Sciences division puts Flickr Commons images to use on the blog. Yay!
• A big shout-out to the ROTC from the Oregon State University Archives.

Go Visit!

30 & 31 May — Treeless Mountain is showing at the George Eastman House DrydenTheatre. “Director So Yong Kim’s second feature is a gentle and restrained semi-autobiographical account of two little girls, told from a child’s perspective.”

31 May – Last chance to apply for Rock Camp 2009 at the D.C. Public Library.

Commons institutions won awards at the Media and Technology 20th Annual MUSE Awards, held on April 30 at the Loews Philadelphia!

Podcasts
Gold: George Eastman House for General Collection Podcasts.

Video
Silver: National Portrait Gallery (Smithsonian Institution) for Presidents in Waiting.

Interactive Kiosks
Bronze: Library of Congress for New Visitor Experience.

Multimedia Installations
Hon. Mention: National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) for Digital Wayfinding.

Community
Hon. Mention: Royal Observatory, Greenwich (National Maritime Museum), for Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

Also Heard around the Commons:

• How We ‘May’ Protect Our Cultural Treasures: from the Library of Congress.
• The Powerhouse Museum celebrates its Commons collection by awarding copies of ‘Then and now: stories from the Commons’ to their blog commenters!
• They also announce their acquisition of the Bruno Benini archive.
• The Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), a database administered by the Law Library of Congress, wins an Excellence in Government award.
• TIMBER! The Oregon State University Archives presents historic mill pictures in the Harold Frodsham Photographic Collection.
• The Smithsonian’s Chandra blog resolves a galactic mystery and interviews Eli Bressert, the guy responsible for making the Chandra images. Wow. That’s a cool job.
• SQUEE! Cute overload with baby leopards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
• Podcasts: ‘Face-to-Face’, from the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian.
• Petrina Foti, Computers Collection at the NMAH, Smithsonian, processes objects from Ralph Baer, the Father of the Video Game.
• The Source: news about digital libraries and library innovations from around the web, every Friday, from the National Library of New Zealand.
• ‘Visualizing search data: What’s the right amount of visibility?’ from the New York Public Library.
• ‘MW2009 Clouds, Switches, APIs, Geolocation and Galleries – a shoddy summary’, by Seb Chan, Powerhouse Museum.
• Call for submissions to the 2009 Bradford Animation Festival by the National Media Museum.
• The State Library of Queensland, Australia, reports on the success of ‘Discovering Queensland’, their community history course. They’ll hold another in October.
• Podcast of the DC Public Library Board of Trustees Meeting, held on March 25, 2009
• Notes from Anzac Day, by the Australian War Memorial.
• Join the Museum Twibe. It’s a Twitter thang.
• Sowing Culture: an interesting blog on history that we ran across this week when they linked to our Morse post.

A Call to Action:

Enter The Smithsonian Institution’s YouTube Video Contest. Tell them how to position the Smithsonian for the New Media Generation.

Go Visit!

Just opened – I Do Solemnly Swear: Photographs of the 2009 Inauguration, at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. See some of them online at CNN.

April 30 through May 4 - drop by the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Services booth at the American Association of Museums annual meeting in Philadelphia.

May 2 - Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum; enjoy free programs of art and entertainment from 5–11 p.m.

May 7 - Star Trek IMAX, the new film by J.J. Abrams (Lost), screens at midnight at the National Media Museum! Beam me up, Scotty, with a racy, young James T. Kirk, too.

May 7 - Poet Laureate Kay Ryan reads at the Library of Congress in the Coolidge Auditorium.

Throughout May – Asian Pacific American Heritage Month at the Library of Congress.

Recent uploads from the Commons:

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Dutch Queen Juliana’s birth on April 30! The Nationaal Archief honors this occasion with a set of photos of this beloved queen.

Koningin Juliana, 100ste geboortedag

Last week, Australians and New Zealanders celebrated Anzac Day. The Australian War Memorial posts photographs of this year’s ceremonies in Canberra.

ANZAC Day, 2009

A timely Sam Hood Photo: 12,000 Australians died of the Spanish Flu outbreak in 1918-19.

Compulsory mask

The State Library of New South Wales honors International Book Day. Get your read on!

International Day of the Book, 23 April 2009

The Bibliothèque de Toulouse adds more bridges and aqueduct photographs from France.

Ponts et aqueducs

The State Archives of Florida informs us, In 1898 national attention focused on Florida as the Spanish-American War began. The port city of Tampa served as the primary staging area for U.S. troops bound for the war in Cuba.

Spanish American War from the Florida Shore

Enjoy more interior and architecture scenes from the Biblioteca de Arte–Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Instituições bancárias

They’ve also posted a wonderful set of images of the Concelho de Vila do Conde in Portugal. Lots of possibilities for a Then and Now series!

Concelho de Vila do Conde, Portugal

Delve into more charming Carl Curman photographs, courtesy of the Swedish National Heritage Board.

Carl Curman – Sweden

Here are 50 new images from the Bain News Service at the Library of Congress’ photostream, featuring big ships, the London Bridge, and the charming Lady Constance Stewart Richardson.

News in the 1910s

See Installation shots of Tavares Strachan’s The Distance Between What We Have and Want We Want (Arctic Ice Project), 2004-08, at the Brooklyn Museum.

Arctic Ice Project Installation

Heard around the Commons:

• Anzac Day across the Commons. The Australia War Memorial has an excellent tribute and a report on the Simpson Prize awarded for Anzac Day.
• The John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland, Australia) records responses on the Apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples and also reports on the Anzac Day presentations.
• The Library of Congress reports that the World Digital Library received 14 million page views between Tuesday and Wednesday its first week.
• For Earth Day, the Oregon State University Archive recommends “The dawn of the color photograph: Albert Kahn’s archives of the planet” by David Okuefuna. Check out more of the OSU’s Earth Day resources here.
• Opposing viewpoints laid out at the Smithsonian 2.0 Forum.
• The WaPo reports on the 77 American self-portraits now on display at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: ‘Reflections/Refractions: Self-Portraiture in the 20th Century‘
• We Are What We Photograph: an article by Merry A. Foresta, Smithsonian Photography Initiative.
• Lincoln’s Other White House: a podcast from the D.C. Public Library.
• The Spider and the Web: an online experiment by Dan Cohen. He posts an item from the Smithsonian Institution to Twitter, asking for it to be identified. I’m anxious to see the results.
• Smithsonian Institution Facebook Page Fans: How to add their updates to your newsfeed.
• Let Freedom Ring: an article by the Smithsonian Photography Initiative on what’s legal to photograph.
• How stuff happens: H.R.586 – Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009: to direct the Librarian of Congress and the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to carry out a joint project at the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement, and for other purposes.
• The Powerhouse Museum describes the assembly of the astrographic camera.
• Meet the conservator at the Brooklyn Museum: Carolyn Tomkiewicz explains the process of arranging the debris.
• The Brooklyn Museum approves an API key for an iPhone app.
• A study by Simon Tanner at the Mellon Foundation on the cost and policy models adapted by US arts museums in arriving at pricing structures for delivering imaging and rights services.
• Don’t miss the Friday wrap-up of digital news and notes that the National Library of New Zealand puts out weekly.
• The Telegraph and Argus discovers hidden treasures at the National Media Museum.

More Info from the Museums and the Web 2009 Conference:

Shelley at the Brooklyn Museum says, Paula Bray and Seb Chan from Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum came to visit us on Monday. They just produced a Blurb book from their materials on the Flickr Commons and Brooklyn had done a Blurb book for Click! so we made a trade!

Brooklyn Museum

With the Powerhouse peeps (Seb and Paula) at dinner with the dinos in the Australian Museum.

Shelley Bernstein

Go Visit!

23-25 April 2009 – The Rochester International Film Festival at the Dryden Theater, George Eastman House – Celebrating the festival’s 50th year, this event hosts films from around the world.

Through April 26 – Photographs by Andy Lock at the George Eastman House.

27 April – An EPA official discusses global approach to environmental challenges at the Whittall Pavilion, located on the ground floor of the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building – this event is free.

28 April – The Federal Writers’ Project will be the focus of an excerpted film screening and panel discussion, “Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project,” in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the Library of Congress.

Starting 30 April – Directions by Walead Beshty, at the Hirshhorn Museum (Smithsonian Institution). “Beshty’s mesmerizing photographs blend an enduring fascination with modernist visual culture and an astute inquiry into the nature of photography.”

Courtney Johnston, National Library of New Zealand, explains the joint uploads in the Commons today that honor Anzac Day:

Kia ora everyone

On 25 April New Zealanders and Australians mark Anzac Day, the anniversary of the 1915 landing of Allied troops at Gallipoli / Gelibolu Yarımadası in Turkey, and the beginning of the nine-month long Gallipoli Campaign.

This year, Australian and New Zealand members of The Commons are marking Anzac Day by making a joint upload of photos either taken in Gallipoli, or relating to Anzac Day celebrations. (Thanks to Ellen at State Library of New South Wales for sparking this idea off.)

First up is the National Library of New Zealand. Courtney points out two photos from this set that illustrate life in the trenches, ‘the interior of George Denniston’s dug-out‘ and ‘the interior of Captain Withers dug-out‘. The photographs in this set depict the Auckland Battalion landing at Gallipoli, Turkey, during World War I, incredible wartime images in the moment of action.

National Library of New Zealand

Next up is the State Library of Queensland, Australia, with images of Gallipoli landing and Anzac Day celebrations throughout the years in Brisbane, Mackay, and on the Victoria Bridge. Brenda Anderson notes of ‘Australian soldier in a dug-out at Gallipoli, Turkey‘, Could just be a photo of an ordinary bloke outside until you notice the artillery that he’s handling.

State Library of Queensland, Australia

The State Library of New South Wales offers a series of poignant portraits of people killed in action on Anzac Day and crowd scenes of Anzac Day events. Courtney says of ‘Australian Sisters on board Mooltan‘, It’s great to see some servicewomen included here too, in this photo of Army sisters en route to the Third Australian General Hospital at Lemnos.

State Library of New South Wales

The Australian War Memorial offers images of the troops arriving at Anzac Beach. Courtney and Brenda both picked ‘The first field dressing station of the 7th Battalion, AIF‘ to highlight from this set. Brenda says, I’m starting to think that pipes were very popular!

Australian War Memorial

You can find out more about the Gallipoli Campaign & Anzac Day on the NZ History website. Visit each set above by clicking through the photos or try this tag search on Flickr for AnzacDay.

George Silk
Unidentified sailors on HMAS Perth, 1941
Australian War Memorial: 006602

view + comment on Flickr

Heard around the Commons:

• The Glenview Public Library suggests using the Commons for genealogy.
• Help the Medical Museion at the University of Copenhagen decide to join the Commons.
• Derivative Images, of the University of Colorado (Yay! Buffaloes!), discusses the Commons.
• Some brief summaries of the Flickr Commons session at the Computers in Libraries conference in Arlington, Virginia: Digitization 101 (Jill Hurst-Wahl and David Lee King), Librarian by Day (Bobbi L. Newman), and Library Geek Woes.
• Lots of logging information from the Oregon State University Archives’ April Fools set! Timber!
• The Powerhouse Museum’s Photo of the Day blog celebrates its 500th post … and you can win a print!
• Meet curator Erika Dicker at the Powerhouse Museum’s new blog, Object of the Week.
• Elizabeth Thomsen explores Commenting the Commons.
• Profiling Social Networks: A Social Tagging Perspective. Hat tip to the National Library of New Zealand for this find.
• The Brooklyn Museum posts a series of articles, “Wikipedia Loves Art: Lessons Learned.” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
• Seb Chan at the Powerhouse Museum also discusses Wikipedia and that the museum’s online documentation is now licensed under Creative Commons.
• The Smithsonian Institution (SI) tells us about Ray Strong painting the Golden Gate Bridge. See more at the SI’s Flickr group, 1934.
• Hat tip to the SI for this info on U.S. stimulus funding for research. Government money—It’s not just for Wall Street!
• The Library of Congress reports that the public-domain status of early sound recordings is delayed until 2067.
• The National Media Museum aims to open a London satellite for photography exhibits.
• The Bibliothèque de Toulouse posts a review of Jean-Paul Lilienfeld’s “The Day of the Skirt,” a broadcast about women, racism, and the integration of young people.
• The Australian War Memorial reports on the conservation of the Mark IV tank. Oooh, tanks.

Go Visit!

April – It’s Jazz Appreciation Month! Check out the Smithsonian’s offerings.

03 Apr. – Live webcast from the Smithsonian’s Chandra Observatory! Part of Around the World in 80 Telescopes.

03 Apr. – Charles Parker Day, from the National Media Museum.

Starting 03 Apr. – Film screenings in 200-seat Art Deco theater resume at Library of Congress Packard Campus. A Hard Day’s Night!

04 Apr. – Target First Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum—Swing-era tunes, French and Italian arias, dance, talks, and more.

04 Apr. – Join the National Galleries of Scotland for a selection of faces in the Portrait Gallery’s collection, including Mary Queen of Scots.

05 Apr. – Open day at the John Oxley Library (State Library of Queensland, Australia) in honor of its 75th birthday.

05 Apr. – Join the George Eastman House for a screening of Victor Fleming’s 1934 Treasure Island. Arrrrr.

Heard around the Commons:

• The Luce Foundation Center, part of the Smithsonian, discusses how Flickr “citizen curators” help with their projects.
• The Powerhouse Museum reports on a talk given by Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology at the Brooklyn Museum, at the Transformation in Cultural and Scientific Communications Conference.
• Free photos, an audio report on the Commons from Radio New Zealand, featuring our own Brenda Anderson and Courtney Johnston of the National Library of New Zealand (audio file – 16 min.).
• The National Library of New Zealand summarizes the Designing & Sustaining Creative Communities workshop from Webstock, including good bits from Heather Champ, Director of Community at Flickr.
• Peer inside Lincoln’s watch, from the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian).
• Tweet! “Smithsonian Photos on Flickr Commons got as many visitors in the first 3 months, as last 5 years on our sites.”
• The National Museum of American History (Smithsonian) discusses the portrayal of women in science, a nice adjunct to its Flickr set for Women’s History Month.
• Oregon State University Archives and the Powerhouse Museum also blog about International Women’s Day here, here and here.
• Humour: Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff Person, from Michael Edson of Smithsonian 2.0.

Recent uploads from the Commons:

An enjoyable set of lighthouses from the Nantucket Historical Association, the newest member of the Commons. The waters around Nantucket are deceptively dangerous. Many boats have been ripped apart in the shoals and rips around the island, and few older Nantucketers don’t have stories about shipwrecks and disasters at sea.

Nantucket Lighthouses, Lightships, and Lifesavers

Photos of heroism from the Australian War Memorial. In the clear skies over the Western Front in France and in the Middle East, young men fought in flimsy machines of wood, linen, and wire.

Over the Front: aircraft and airmen from the First World War

The Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian features photographic advertising for products, companies, and shops, produced by Studio Mário Novais.

Publicidade

The State Archives of Florida brings to life folk musicians, artisans, storytellers, folklife interpreters, and other Florida peoples and their traditions.

Florida Folklife Collection

Elegance and grace, from the State Library of New South Wales.

Ballet

I want to ride my bicycle … and you can, virtually, with this set from the State Library of Queensland, Australia.

Bicycles and more

And a re-cap on all the fabulous uploads for International Women’s Day in the Commons!

International Women’s Day

Go Visit!

18 Mar. – The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and the National Portrait Gallery present two films by Bonnie Kreps: Don’t Fence Me In: Celebrating Women and Girls of Wyoming and Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story, a biography of a woman who played a key role in preserving the magnificent wild and scenic landscapes of Alaska.

19 Mar. – Alex Harris discusses his journey into Cuba, part of the Wish You Were Here travel lecture series at the George Eastman House.

Every Thursday – Meet our Museum at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

One of the biggest draws of Flickr is the social aspect of groups. Any Flickr user can open a themed group with a pool of photos and discussion threads. Here, we explore some of the groups that Commons’ institutions are running on Flickr.

Australian War Memorial:

• Love and War: For people to share their photos and stories of Australians in love and war: how do people meet, do they marry, how do they keep a relationship going in spite of separation?

Brooklyn Museum

• Brooklyn Bridge (Brooklyn Museum Website): Images of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Museum archives, library, and art collections, as well as the text of our 1983 exhibition catalogue The Great East River Bridge, 1883–1983 on our website.
• Brooklyn Museum: For photos of the Brooklyn Museum, Steinberg Family Sculpture Garden, Target First Saturday events and, of course, the Museum’s fountain. Photos of friends and family visiting the museum are welcome too!
• Wikipedia Loves Art: A scavenger hunt and free-content photography contest by the Brooklyn Museum in coordination with a host of other institutions.

George Eastman House

• George Eastman House: Photos taken at The George Eastman House in Rochester, N.Y.

National Maritime Museum

• Beside the Seaside: UK seaside photos — beaches, proms, piers, beach huts, fish and chips, fairground rides, & seagulls.
• Sailor Chic: The Sailor Chic exhibition at the National Maritime Museum has closed but you can still view some of the collections online — and this photo pool keeps growing.

Oregon State University Archives

• What did you see, Where did you go: History in the Making: History is made everyday at OSU and they want to capture it. For photos of some major OSU event or just a beautiful sunset over Milam Hall, it’s something that someone may want to see in another fifty years.

Powerhouse Museum

• Australia in the 1980s: Shots that represent Australia in the 1980s. They might be photos of yourselves, your friends, your haircuts, places, possessions and events, but we want to see how you interpret this decade.
• Modern Times: For contemporary shots that represent ‘Modernism’. This may be architectural, city spaces, furniture, interiors, fashion and design but really we want to see how you interpret this era today.
• Sign design in Australia: To see images of signs, taken in Australia, that have captured your attention in some way.
• Tyrrell Today: Images from their Tyrrell photographic collection taken around the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Post your contemporary images taken from approximately the same location.

Smithsonian Institution

• SIConnections/Lincoln in Your Hometown: For Lincoln images in Washington, D.C., across the country, and around the world (if you can find it!). Connections between history, art, and culture, as well as connections across the centuries, from the time of Lincoln to the inauguration of our new president.
• Twitter picture share: A space for @Smithsonian Twitter Followers to share their images of the Smithsonian, its projects, museums and exhibitions.
• Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and the Renwick Gallery: Photos of the museum and gallery, featuring the courtyard and the cupcake installation.
• National Museum of Natural History: Photos of the exhibitions and of your family and friends enjoying the museum are all welcome.
• Smithsonian: National Air and Space Museums: For pictures from the museum on the National Mall in Washington, DC and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center next to Dulles International airport.
• National Museum of American History: Images of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.
• National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution: Photos taken at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.
• Star-Spangled Banner Share Your Story Project : Share your thoughts about what the American flag means to you and your submission may become a part of the mosaic on the online exhibition: “The Star-Spangled Banner: The Flag That Inspired the National Anthem.”
• @1934: An American Art group inspired by the exhibition, 1934: A New Deal for Artists, February 27, 2009 through January 3, 2010 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• Smithsonian 2.0 Conference: Smithsonian 2.0 was a two-day interactive gathering exploring how the Smithsonian can better and more effectively reach the younger generation with its collections, materials, and expertise through the web and web/new media-based interactive strategies.

Flickr Groups We’ve Noticed Around the Commons