CDNLAO Newsletter
No. 63, November 2008
Introduction
The Singapore National Album of Pictures (SNAP) is a library of photographs collected by the National Library Singapore (NLS). With this service, the public can access the pictures not only through NLS website (http://www.nl.sg/) but also through the public photo-sharing website, Flickr. The reduced resolution images are hosted on Flickr. This allows NLS collection to be more visible and more accessible through better search engine indexing. Using Flickr allows the public to collaborate by contributing information about images and sharing their own photographs on the Flickr website. Where photographs shared by the public are of interest to the collection, NLS would make a request to the owner to donate them to SNAP. This arrangement facilitates collaboration with the public while allowing the Library to manage the SNAP collection more effectively.
Singapore National Album of Pictures (SNAP)
The SNAP collection has been growing through a number of avenues. NLS has been regularly receiving donations of photographs and collections of photographers in recent years and its staff have also been taking photographs for a variety of work-related activities, including images of its own history. Starting in April 2008, these images have been made available on the SNAP website, where NLS holds the appropriate copyrights.
SNAP Landing Page
Flickr SNAP
Rather than have SNAP remain a passive public access portal to the Library´s collection, an agreement was reached with Yahoo!'s Flickr service to duplicate SNAP's collection on Flickr. As images hosted on Flickr are of reduced image quality, users are linked back to the SNAP website for high quality images. This is in line with the Library´s goal of connecting people with resources by creating access in places where people are more likely to find them in their daily routines. The website, Flickr SNAP, is at <http://www.flickr.com/photos/snapsg/sets>. It was launched on 2 August 2008 in conjunction with National Heritage Month in Singapore. However, not all of the SNAP's collection is available on Flickr SNAP - only those images where NLS owns the copyright are ported over.
Flickr SNAP Landing Page
Contributions by Public
As a photo-sharing site, Flickr is designed for people to post their own images online. This is one of the important features of Flickr SNAP - the public is able to post their own photographs alongside those from the library´s collection. In this way, the collections can be enriched by public contributions. Together with the ability to post comments, this allows the public to contribute and become engaged with the collection and with each other. As images and comments posted by the public remain on Flickr, a photo-sharing site, NLS does not need to select and index such contributions. Contributors also retain control of their images and can remove their contributions anytime.
Only where images posted on Flickr are deemed of interest to the permanent collection does the Library contact the contributors to request for their donation to SNAP. These donated photographs will then be catalogued and loaded onto the SNAP website as well as the Flickr SNAP site.
Donation Page
Advantages of Collaborating with Flickr
Raising the profile of SNAP -- One problem with many online collections and services is that they are out of the public eye. While SNAP has an Internet site, it is not a known destination for people searching for images. Flickr on the other hand, is an internationally known site for the public sharing of photographs and videos. The collaboration gives SNAP publicity in a popular space of the Internet.
Leveraging on ready infrastructure -- Flickr has well-developed software that manages and maintains public contributions and comments. By tapping onto Flickr´s administrative infrastructure, SNAP does not have to incur any development and maintenance cost.
Library as a collaborator, not an authority -- Public comments and contributions to an institutionally owned site have to be monitored for anything that might reflect negatively on the institution's image. The SNAP site unavoidably puts the Library in the role of being an authority and an overseer. Flickr SNAP however, as a public photo-sharing platform, allows the Library to take on the role of facilitator and collaborator.
Organisation and Mechanics
Both SNAP and Flickr SNAP have their collections organised in ten categories. The categories were chosen as broad fields to cover the range of photographic subjects of interest to the SNAP collection.
Any new SNAP content is sent for indexing, after which it is loaded on the SNAP server. Copyright control is done through the use of metadata. Where the Library owns the rights, the server duplicates a copy for Flickr SNAP.
If a member of the public wishes to post a photo on Flickr SNAP, he/she has to first join the Flickr SNAP community. Once registered as a member, he/she may freely post images and make comments. The administrator monitors for unsuitable images and comments and has the authority to ban members. Banning is used mainly to evict spammers.
If an image posted by a member of the public is of interest to NLS, an email asking them to consider donating it to NLS is sent to them along with a link to the digital donation site at <http://deposit.nl.sg/>. Donations are kept separate from the Flickr SNAP website due to the Library´s request for high-resolution images.
Current Usage
For the SNAP website, usage is currently averaging around an estimated 5,400 views per month since May 2008. For Flickr SNAP, there have been 29,916 views during the first three months of operations (nearly ten thousand views per month). For Flickr SNAP, the largest volume of visits came from within Flickr itself: 51% of all visits. This is an indication that Flickr users are discovering SNAP.
The Library's SNAP collection has 555 images to date, of which we are able to port 536 of them over to the Flickr SNAP site. In addition, 234 members of the public registered and contributed 1,536 images to Flickr SNAP to date. This gives a combined collection size of 2,072 images in Flickr SNAP.
Given the promising start to the project, we hope this collaboration with the public will expand further to eventually become an indispensable tool for Singapore's visual heritage.
Copyright (C) 2008 National Library Board, Singapore
