Patrick searched 18,290 photos across all 19 Commons institutions, finding that 5,123 had not received any comments, notes, or tags from Flickr members. That’s fully 28% of the total collection. While that seems like a large percentage, the underlying numbers are more informative. The Commons collection is very large in many respects, but it is still small enough that certain outliers skew the average significantly, as we will soon discover.

Let’s take a look numbers institution by institution, examining how many photos out each collection have not received any tags, comments, or notes. [Data collected on February 11, 2008]

Large Collections

Library of Congress – 44 out of 5,421 (0.8%)
Brooklyn Museum – 167 out of 2,554 (7%)
Smithsonian Institution – 327 out of 1,414 (23%)
Powerhouse Museum Collection– 336 out of 1,101 (30%)
New York Public Library – 561 out of 1,300 (43%)

The Common’s largest and oldest contributor, The Library of Congress, has had tremendous success in attracting attention and metadata from Flickr members. Less than 1% of their collection on Flickr goes without comments or tags from Flickr members. The Brooklyn Museum has had comparable success.  These institutions demonstrate that it is possible to maintain large collections while virtually no photos fall through the cracks. The Smithsonian Institution is also above average, although less obviously so.

The Powerhouse Museum has a primarily regional focus (Australia), which sets it apart from the other large collections, and falls slightly below the average rate of Flickr member contributions. The NYPL is relatively new to The Commons and has uploaded many photos in a short period. It may require time before the Flickr community discovers and interacts with these photos.

Mid-Sized Collections

State Library of New South Wales – 1 out of 250 (0.4%)
George Eastman House – 60 out of 592 (10%)
Nationaal Archief – 141 out of 590 (24%)
Library of Virginia – 93 out of 314 (30%)
Musée McCord Museum – 86 out of 236 (36%)

These collections, between 200 and 1,000 photos in size, show a wide range of activity. The State Library of New South Wales behaves like some of the smaller, more concentrated collections in The Commons. George Eastman House has a broad focus, more like the Library of Congress and Brooklyn Museum, with comment/tag rates to match. The Nationaal Archief is about average, but had Flickr member tagging disabled until very recently.

Like the Powerhouse Museum, two regionally focused collections fall below the average. Musée McCord Museum focuses on Canadian history, and The Library of Virginia focuses on the state of Virginia.

Small Collections

Imperial War Museum – 0 out of 10 (0%)
Australian War Memorial – 1 out of 42 (2.4%)
National Galleries of Scotland – 8 out of 107 (7.4%)
National Media Museum – 16 out of 130 (12 %)
National Library of New Zealand – 36 out of 161 (22%)
National Maritime Museum – 48 out of 191 (25%)
State Library of Queensland – 83 out of 152 (55%)

These institutions are pretty much all above average. The State Library of Queensland provides an exception but is so new to Flickr that it almost shouldn’t be in this list.

Smaller collections concentrate activity, and fewer of their photos are missed by Flickr members.

Non-English Collections

Bibliothèque de Toulouse – 378 out of 652 (58%)
Biblioteca de Arte–Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian – 2,745 out of 3,073 (89%)

60% of all untagged and uncommented Commons photos are from these two institutions, which are both from non-English-speaking countries. The outlier statistics from Biblioteca de Arte–Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian require a bit of context, however. Unlike most Commons institutions, The Biblioteca uploads photos with a thorough set of tags, applied by library staff. It may be that these photos don’t need as much metadata from Flickr members, and thus receive less.

Conclusions

The analysis presented here is very simplistic, and reaches for only the most simplistic conclusions.

Smaller collections become easily saturated with tags and comments, but very large collections are also capable of similar saturation. Regionally focused institutions have challenges drawing activity through the entirety of their collections if they grow beyond a certain size, and institutions from non-English-speaking nations seem to have even greater challenges in this regard.

Here are the statistics relating to comments, tags, and notes. The institutions are displayed in the order in which they joined The Commons. Links are also provided to the photo at the top of each category within an institution. These are useful for discovering photos that have received a lot of attention. [data collected between February 7 and 8, 2009]

Library of Congress, Washington, DC, United States

Launched on 16 January 2008, currently has 5,421 photos in 5 sets.
11,675 comments, for an average of 2.15 per photo. Max = 133
75,143 tags, for an average of 13.86 per photo. Max = 72
2712 notes, for an average of 0.50 per photo. max = 33

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia

Launched on 7 April 2008, currently has 1,101 photos in 27 sets.
1,464 comments,for an average of 1.33 per photo. Max = 97
4,619 tags, for an average of 4.20 per photo. Max = 34
305 notes, for an average of 0.28 per photo. Max = 19

Brooklyn Museum, New York, United States

Launched on 28 May 2008, currently has 677 Commons images in 6 sets.
[Following are statistics re-collected today Feb, 21]
1,508 comments, for an average of 2.23 per photo. Max = 107
4,875 tags for an average of 7.2 per photo. Max = 65
373 notes or an average 0.55 per photo. Max = 20

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States

Launched on 16 June 2008, currently has 1,403 photos in 12 sets.
1,468 comments, for an average of 1.05 per photo. Max = 68
5,687 tags, for an average of 4.05 per photo. Max = 43
238 notes, for an average of 0.17 per photo. Max = 19

Bibliothèque de Toulouse, France

Launched on 26 June 2008, currently has 640 photos in 39 sets.
297 comments, for an average of 0.46 per photo. Max = 30
1,193 tags, for an average of 1.86 per photo. Max = 42
26 notes, for an average of 0.04 per photo. Max = 7

George Eastman House, Rochester, NY, United States

Launched on 17 July 2008, currently has 592 photos in 9 sets.
2,431 comments, for an average of 4.11 per photo. Max = 116
4,217 tags, for an average of 7.12 per photo. Max = 36
350 notes, for an average of 0.59 per photo. Max = 10

Biblioteca de Arte-Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, Portugal

Launched on 14 August 2008, currently has 3,027 photos in 76 sets.
Most photos are under copyright, only 80 photos are labeled “no known restrictions”.
423 comments, for an average of 0.14 per photo. Max = 35
611 tags, for an average of 0.20 per photo. Max = 11
23 notes, for an average of 0.007 per photo. Max = 4

National Media Museum, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK

Launched on 27 August 2008, currently has 130 photos in 7 sets.
858 comments, for an average of 6.6 per photo. Max = 143
958 tags, for an average of 7.37 per photo. Max = 33
83 notes, for an average of 0.64 per photo. Max = 6

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK

Launched on 17 September 2008, currently has 191 photos in 8 sets.
415 comments, for an average of 2.17 per photo. Max = 37
877 tags, for an average of 4.60 per photo. Max = 26
23 notes, for an average of 0.12 per photo. Max = 3

State Library of New South Wales, Australia

Launched on 29 September 2008, currently has 249 photos in 38 sets.
1,436 comments, for an average of 5.77 per photo. Max = 149
2,944 tags, for an average of 11.82 per photo. Max = 44
163 notes, for an average of 0.65 per photo. Max = 14

Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, United States

Launcheded on 6 October 2008, currently has 314 photos in 2 sets.
233 comments, for an average of 0.74 per photo. Max = 29
1172 tags, for an average of 3.73 per photo. Max = 22
70 notes, for an average of 0.22 per photo. Max = 11

Musée McCord Museum, Montreal, Canada

Launched on 13 October 2008, currently has 236 photos in 3 sets.
255 comments, for an average of 1.08 per photo. Max = 25
851 tags, for an average of 3.61 per photo. Max = 31
18 notes, for an average of 0.08 per photo. Max = 3

Nationaal Archief, The Hague, The Netherlands

Launched on 21 October 2008, currently has 590 photos in 14 sets.
1,407 comments, for an average of 2.38 per photo. Max = 41
1,552 tags, for an average of 2.63 per photo. Max = 27
20 notes, for an average of 0.03 per photo. Max = 3

Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia

Launched on 10 November 2008, currently has 42 photos in 2 sets.
155 comments, for an average of 3.69 per photo. Max = 42
258 tags, for an average of 6.14 per photo. Max = 21
8 notes, for an average of 0.19 per photo. Max = 4

Imperial War Museum, London, UK

Launched on 11 November 2008, currently has 10 photos, no sets.
50 comments, for an average of 5.0 per photo. Max = 22
71 tags, for an average of 7.1 per photo. Max = 22
7 notes, for an average of 0.7 per photo. Max = 3

National Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand

Launched on 27 November 2008, currently has 149 photos in 8 sets.
181 comments, for an average of 1.21 per photo. Max = 23
663 tags, for an average of 4.45 per photo. Max = 14
6 notes, for an average of 0.04 per photo. max = 4

New York Public Library, New York, United States

Launched on 15 December 2008, currently has 1,300 photos in 17 sets.
457 comments, for an average of 0.35 per photo. Max = 18
2,579 tags, for an average of 1.98 per photo. Max = 30
24 notes, for an average of 0.02 per photo. Max = 5

National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK

Launched on 14 January 2009, currently has 107 photos in 7 sets.
209 comments, for an average of 1.95 per photo. Max = 21
811 tags, for an average of 7.58 per photo. Max = 21
30 notes, for an average of 0.28 per photo. Max = 4

State Library of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Launched on 26 January 2009, currently has 150 photos in 8 sets.
61 comments, for an average of 0.41 per photo. Max = 9
110 tags, for an average of 0.73 per photo. Max = 14
7 notes, for an average of 0.05 per photo. Max = 1