Picture this.

I've been to Flickr. I have mixed feelings.

I get the idea. In theory, I'm all for Flickr and like minded sites. I have friends who upload pictures of their kids, their pets, their vacations, their everythings onto these image sharing sites and then friends and family all over can easily see them. My parents would probably like this, assuming I could teach them to use Flickr.

In practice, I'm not so sure it is for me. First, you actually have to take pictures, which I'm not so great about. Surely my children have the most poorly documented childhood ever. My daughter has a baby book that is partially filled out and my son has a shoe box...somewhere. Secondly, you have to overcome the extreme paranoia that prevents you from posting online in the first place. I so appreciate the bloggers out there who let you into their worlds and lives, sharing stories and details of day to day life.

I'm not that person. All my photos would end up as private, and if that's the case, I may as well keep them on i-photo and upload when I have a project.

That said: Flickr was way easy to work with. I had no trouble creating an account, uploading, organizing or tagging photos. I did enjoy taking pictures at my library.


Part of the reason this 23 Things project is so intriguing to me is because libraries have come such a long way. I remember checking books out and getting them stamped. When I went to college, I remember thinking how smart it was to have the books barcoded. How slick!

My kids have no idea that there ever was another way, but then my 6 year old can't imagine life without Internet. I believe that what we have lost doesn't compare to what we are gaining in terms of library services, collections and abilities. I will confess to being a bit distraught over the loss of personal contact. When the librarian used to stamp my books was a time of conversation and contact. I still get that now, with computerized check out, but the whispers of self check out also mean less personal contact with patrons. Face to face contact is a good thing, and we're losing it everywhere. So while I know that hand stamping books is better left in the past, I worry about what else we are losing as libraries embrace more technology.