A walk through of the history and use of GIFs for academic libraries.

1. Adam Koszary
adam.koszary@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
@adamkoszary

2. • Introductions and handouts
By the end of this session you will:
• know what a GIF is
• have learnt how to make a GIF
• appreciate how to use GIFs effectively by
yourself and for your institution

4. Simple answer:
GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format.
Slightly more complicated answer:
It’s a type of image format that can be a single
static image or a moving image. It can be
compressed to a small size but still support up to
256 colours.

5. Think of them as short, silent and looping films…

6. • Invented in 1987, and updated in 1989 to allow animation,
transparency and metadata
• Compatible with all browsers since 1994
• Edged out of the static image market by JPEG and PNG
• Fell out of favour for a bit because of Geocities tackiness

7. • Naff GIFs were among the first memes of the
internet.
• The rise of Web 2.0 and videos didn’t kill GIFs – in
fact, the rising popularity of video and YouTube
just created even more material for GIFs.
• Tumblr became the home of GIFs, but Buzzfeed
perfected their use as narrative tools.

12. • Shareable
– Most social media platforms now have GIF Search
functions
• Relatable
– GIFs are off-the-shelf emotions, thoughts and reactions
– People can reference pop culture and famous scenes easily
• ‘Of the moment’
– Sometimes a GIF is the perfect reaction to an event,
comment, or…anything. See www.reddit.com/r/retiredgifs
• Convenient
– GIFs play in every browser and every social media platform

14. • Shareable
– Most social media platforms now have GIF Search
functions
• Relatable
– GIFs are like off-the-shelf emotions and thoughts
– People can reference pop culture and famous scenes easily
• ‘Of the moment’
– A perfect GIF is the perfect reaction to an event, comment,
or anything. See www.reddit.com/r/retiredgifs
• Convenient
– GIFs play in every browser and every social media platform

15. • Used by everyone; companies
and individuals
• Entire conversations can be had
with GIFs
• A new visual communication
with its own unwritten
conventions and styles

16. • Old-fashioned search engines. Use a Google
Image search for anything, and add ‘gif’ to the
end
• Go to the source, search within
– Giphy.com
– Imgur.com
– Tumblr.com
• The GIF searches available on Twitter and Tumblr
(and kind of Facebook…)
• On your computer! Save your GIFs in one place so
you don’t have to repeat searches.

17. • Facebook – link from Giphy.com or Imgur.com
• Twitter (5MB limit)
• Tumblr (2MB limit)
• Pinterest (but you have to click on it)
• Blogs

19. In conversation

20. To punctuate or soften a message

21. To make a message
less boring

22. To bring collections to life
through manipulation

23. To bring collections and your work to life

24. To bandwagon and
bring in more
followers

25. • The Bodleian’s most popular Facebook post.
• GIFs have featured among our top posts for
Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr for the past
three months.
• Consistently positive feedback from our
followers.
• The quiet
satisfaction of being
‘on trend’…

26. • COPYRIGHT
• Ethics
• Tone
– Make sure you use GIFs responsibly. We use
‘reaction’ GIFs sparingly, as it could damage our
brand.
• GIFs aren’t a silver bullet, they’re just another
way to communicate.

27. • Task 1: Creating a stop-frame animation using
photographs on:
– Gifmaker.me
– GIMP
• Task 2: Making an animated title using GIMP

28. Links
• Smithsonian Libraries guide to GIFs:
– https://blog.library.si.edu/2014/02/library-hacks-creating-animated-
gifs/
• How to make GIFs using Photoshop:
– http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/how-to-make-an-
animated-gif/
– https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/how-to/make-animated-gif.html
• Online gifmakers:
– http://ezgif.com/maker
– http://gifcreator.me/
– http://gifmaker.me/
• Easily create a gif from an online video:
– http://imgur.com/vidgif/