The Flickr Commons:
The Flickr Commons:
Smithsonian Institution
Effie Kapsalis, Smithsonian Institution Archives
@digitaleffie kapsalise@si.edu

12 Divisions
• American Art Museum
• American Indian Museum
American Indian Museum
• Anacostia Community Museum
• Archives of American Art
• Archives of American Gardens
• Astrophysical Observatory
• Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
• National Museum of Natural History,
Division of Fishes
• National Postal Museum
• Smithsonian Institution Archives
Smithsonian Institution Archives
• Smithsonian Institution Libraries
• National Portrait Gallery

What we track on Flickr
1 Quantitative
Number of views, changes in comments and ‘favorites,’ and notes about
significant referrers/spikes in traffic and potential causes.
significant referrers/spikes in traffic and potential causes
2 Qualitative
Case studies on how images
Case studies on how images
are used (blogs, craft projects,
Wikipedia) and other
qualitative results (donations,
research, Wikipedia). Collect
research Wikipedia) Collect
comments and tags for
archiving purposes.
3 Press Mentions
Significant press/blog coverage
(Google Newsreader)

Quantitative
Highlights
2200 + photographs,
p g p
prints and graphics
+ 4.75 million views since
+ 4 75 million views since
June 2008 (~160K/month)
55% images commented
87% images favorited
87% images ‘favorited’
99% images viewed
g

Quantitative results:
Smithsonian Libraries Portraits of Scientists
After 3 months on Flickr,
received nearly as many visits as
received nearly as many visits as
during the previous 5 years
on Smithsonian Libraries website.

Case Study: Photo
Discovery on Flickr Leads
Discovery on Flickr Leads
to Significant Donation
September 2008 :
p
Uploaded previously unpublished photos
documenting the Tennessee v. John Thomas
Scopes Trial *
July 2009:
Henrietta Silverman Jenrette contacted the
Smithsonian after seeing photographs on
Flickr, offering a donation of 10 photos of the
, g p
trial from her father who attended with his
high school biology teacher.
“I appreciate the way the photos
I appreciate the way the photos
the Smithsonian has are available
online for all to see.”
‐ Henrietta Silverman Jenrette
*http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/
2898243103/

Case Study: Improving
Collection Data
Most of Smithsonian Archives photos have
collection‐level finding aids and no
descriptions at item‐level.
Experimented posting 8 unidentified
photographs from the Science Service
morgue file and asked public for help in
fil d k d bli f h l i
March 2009 . 4 of 8 identified.

“To see this story go from an image
with initials to a full biography with
with initials to a full biography with
images and living memories, through
crowd‐sourcing, is wonderful, one of
the very coolest parts of the whole
Flickr Commons project for me,”
Flickr volunteer, Penny Richards.

Other Results
Increased Traffic to Smithsonian Archives Websites & Use of Resources
I d T ffi t S ith i A hi W b it & U fR
• Flickr.com is the blog’s #13 referring site
• Visitors have low bounce rate, view more pages on the blog, and spend more time than the
average visitor on the main website as well.
• The Flickr Commons accounts for 23% of the Smithsonian Archive’s overall press.
• The Flickr Commons Women in Science set has successfully increased traffic to and use of
the Science Service Finding Aid (Single Digits to 78 views/month)
New Audiences
• Ichthyologist s on Fish Specimen
Groupp
• Research scholar affiliated with
UCLA’s Center for the Study of
Women
• Wikimedia/Wikipedia users
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Effie Kapsalis
Smithsonian Institution Archives
Smithsonian Institution Archives
@digitaleffie
kapsalise@si.edu