Sharing Harding History

There is no doubt that social networking has changed the way American culture communicates and shares information. Facebook, Linked In, and other sites may have initially been seen as a trend, but it is now common for them to be the primary communication point between family members, teachers and students, and within organizations.

In recent years, digital library collections have also grown in popularity. Brackett Library Director Ann Dixon wanted to make the university's collections of pictures available online and began looking for options. Following the lead of The Library of Congress and several academic libraries, Dixon chose to use Flickr, a photo-sharing site with social networking components. After an initial planning stage, hundreds of hours were spent scanning archive pictures and slides and the Brackett Library Flickr site was born.

Thanks to the work of graduate assistants Jenny Thurston and Catherine Canterbury, thousands of images from Harding's history have been added to the collection. Images range from black and white images belonging to the past to brightly colored collections from Spring Sing and Homecoming productions on the Benson stage. Dates span from Harding's earliest days to the late 1980's.

The library had two goals in making the images public. The primary goal was simply sharing the pictures and helping others enjoy the memories. The second goal? "We want you to find our mistakes," said Librarian Lisa Burley. "Many pictures did not include identification information. Who are these people? Where was this? When was this? If we have made mistakes, please let us know."

If you have questions or comments about the Flickr project, please email them to brackett.library@yahoo.com .