MARAC - Session #15 - Flickr

Today is Saturday April 18. After a very full breakfast meeting, I have gone off to one of the two session blocks that are being held this morning. Mrs. Brave Astronaut will be chairing a session in the second set, so I wanted to get to one of these sessions. I have chosen to sit in and liveblog again from a session. While yesterday I wrote from the front of the room where I was serving as chair, today, I am in the back of the room, working on the laptop keeping people aware of this session.

The presenters for today's session on Flickr are:

• Barbara Natason of the Library of Congress
• Judith Silva from Slippery Rock University
• Jim Gerencser of Dickinson College (filling in for Malinda Triller, who was unable to come to the meeting)

The session is being chaired / moderated by one of my colleagues from the National Archives, Laurel Macondray. As noted, the session is about how archival institution are using Flickr to showcase their photo collections. Barbara is up first, fittingly, as the Library of Congress Flickr collection is one of the best that is out there.

Update #1: Faces (or backs of the heads, I told you I was sitting in the back) in the crowd was very popular (according to the comments from yesterday's session report): 2009 MARAC Distinguished Service Award winner Jodi Koste sitting up front (Congratulations Jodi!), several colleagues from my former archival home, the Rockefeller Archive Center, including Program Committee liaison for this session, Charlotte Sturm - one of the nicest people I know. Amy S. and Kate T. and Jean G. are all sitting closely together, surely dreaming about cupcakes. Jean will be featured at the next session, where Mrs. BA will be moderating. Sitting close by the Brave Astronaut is an archivist from the Central PA region, who is notorious (?) / infamous (?) for skipping out on MARAC meetings and leaving people in the lurch. The DC Caucus chair is in the room as are several members of the New York State caucus, including Ray Lefever, who got the shout out yesterday and University at Albany archivist Geoff Williams (go Great Danes!). Somewhere in the room is former MARAC chair Geof Huth. When Huth arrives at a session, you have surely hit upon a hot topic, because Mr. Huth's time is so important, despite his comment yesterday about people not paying attention in sessions if they are being "electronically distracted."

Update #2: The second presenter, Judy from Slippery Rock, targeted her talk at smaller repositories that are looking for an outlet for their photo collections. The link above will take you to the Flickr group for Slippery Rock. She gave a very quick presentation and turned it over to Jim who began to talk about Dickinson's plan. As Jim was wrapping up, the projector crapped out on him, sort of a bummer when you are talking about photos.

Update #3: A BIG MARAC Shoutout to Rob Jenson, who came in and got the projector up and running so Jim could complete his presentation with picture support! Jim is wrapping up and Laurel will invite questions from the audience. I am out of here so I can take over for Mrs. BA, who is looking after the boys, so she can get to her session.

I will try and put together a more robust wrap-up of MARAC Spring 2009 when I get back to the launchpad, which will be a long car drive away from here.