We’re no longer babes in Flickr Commons! February 14th, 2009 seems like ages ago – and I can say that we’ve learned a lot, interacted a lot, winced a lot, and smiled a lot in the last year. Want to see all the OSU Archives images in Flickr Commons?

To celebrate, we rolled out the big SmartBoard and played a slideshow in the lobby of the Valley Library, looping through all we have to offer … Though not all the people reading this blog are in Corvallis — or within walking, running, biking, bus riding, driving, flying distance.

Want to read the “tribute” to our first year on the Flickr Commons user blog? Read the indicommons post, which sums up our first year, our mission, and all the things that make us so delightfully unique!

And, for those of you who want to see the slideshow yourself, check out our photostream and click the “Slideshow” link.

But that’s not all! We have a whole second account full of historic and contemporary photos!

We’re ready for another great year, one with lots of fun photos and feedback from all of you.

• Have an idea for a set? Let us know.
• Have some thoughts on the kinds of photos you’d like to see us add? Let us know.
• Have some inside information or experiences you want to share? Let us know.

Guess what? OSU has had quite a few guys & gals vying for those sparkling medals…

This set is just a sampling of images of the athletes that we celebrate.

Want to know more? The OSU Athletics site has put together this list of Olympians, which shows us all the students, as of January 2010, who participated in the Olympics – going back to gold medal winner Forrest Smithson in 1908!

Just when you thought you knew our pattern — we go on & change it! This month, in honor of our 1st anniversary as a Commons member, we’re releasing a new set each week. And, of course, we’re beginning where we began and adding some fabulous pictures to our Flickr Commons Williams Collection …

What treasures will you find this week? Workers, logs, trains, bridges – oh my! Yes, it’s a set dedicated to “Railroads and Trains” in the Gerald Williams Collection.

Loading logs in Clatskanie, cruising through Cow Creek Canon, standing on the tracks near Seaside, traveling a trestle through the timber belt … This set is full of beautiful black & whites, as well as full color postcards from the Williams Collection. And who can resist the visual proof for the “Highest piling bridge in the world, P.R. & N. Railroad” or the “Donkey engine in the Willamette Valley”? And for those of us in the mid-Willamette Valley, check out the “Oregon Electric train passing through Albany, Oregon”!

We’re coming up on our 1 year anniversary as a Flickr Commons member, which means a little celebrating and a little reflecting. Sitting in my mailbox (the real one) was a copy of the Northwest Sportsman magazine for February 2010. The issue featured an image from the Gerald Williams Collection and a great write-up about the photo. Had we not been a Commons member — and had the editor not found our image via Google — would we have reached this new audience?

Check out the new OSU Archives finding aids uploaded for January, 2010.

“The oldest active member of the Chemistry Department, Ken Hedberg, turns 90 today. As an emeritus professor, Hedberg still remains very engaged in his research, which involves the determination of the structures of molecules by analyzing the scattering of electrons by them. Hedberg is acknowledged as the world’s leading expert in his field and his work has been continuously supported by the National Science Foundation for more than 50 years. He received his BS degree from OSU in 1939 and has the distinction of having four OSU athletic letters, as an outstanding tennis player.”