Thing #15

The concept of Creative Commons is not new to me, particularly since I heard a lot of buzz about it at Internet Librarian 2007. I like the whole warm fuzzy feeling about the ability to share images and content. While I believe that stock photo companies have a right to make money off of the content they produce, I think it's hard to justify that expense to an already stressed library budget when you're trying to get a really great image for a promotional or outreach flyer. Creative Commons gives protections to the artist and/or creator, while also giving liberties (or limited rights to their works) to users that stay within the stated licensing agreement. So, I use Flickr's advanced search option to return only results that return only Creative Commons-licensed content (i.e. non-commercial purposes). For example, I just searched using CC restrictions on the keyword knitting, and this is one of the images I get back. I am posting, andlinking back to the creator. Thank you SewPixie for this image of a Blythe doll. I'm a big fan.

As for the Library 2.0 part of this exercise, I really enjoyed Michael Stephens' perspective on the new world of librarianship. I agree that libraries need to design their services around their users, and to make good and fast decisions. Libraries need to keep pace with their users technology and information needs. They (some, not all) are operating in a Web 2.0 world and we need to be able to meet them there. Ah, how I love technology. Thing #15.....check-a-rooni.