When the Tables are Turned and a Library Asks the Public for Information Help

The National Library of Ireland has a photographic collection of about 5.2 million photographs. They needed help in identifying some of the photos from the 1800s onward.  By joining Flickr Commons in 2011 and becoming part of a photo-sharing community, about 34,000 photo-detectives have provided information about some of the previously unidentified photos.  By identifying the places and people, they have been able to put things into a larger context. For example, a photograph of a group of children from the 1970s, not only identified the names of the children, but it also identified the building as the former home of Irish author, Sean O’Casey.  “Corbet found that the building had once been the home of Irish writer and playwright Sean O’Casey, renowned for his realistic portraits of life in Dublin’s slums during the country’s civil war and the 1916 revolution against British rule. The area now hosts a community center in his name.”

“The NLI has turned the results of the project into an exhibition, Photo Detectives, at the National Photographic Archive in Temple Bar, Dublin, which runs through September 2018.”