If a picture paints a thousand words…
Guest blog by Julia Maltby at Ordnance Survey
…then what do 40,000 pictures do? 40,000 is the approximate number of images in the Ordnance Survey Picture Library. I say approximate as I can’t be completely accurate as the number is increasing all the time as our dedicated photographers are adding images each day.
From tellurometers to tapes and from Royal Engineers to Royal visits, the collections illustrates the story of Ordnance Survey and it’s 222 years, from illustrations of early equipment to current activities. You will see from some of the accompanying images that the collection is varied and how much change there has been to the equipment we use and the way in which we use it. As well as all aspects of work, the collection also reflects the staff of the organisation, their successes and major events such as the recent opening of Explorer House and the Bicentenary celebrations in 1991.
Currently part-way through digitisation, the collection is currently available online to colleagues, but the intention is to make the collection more widely available when the backlog of images has been scanned, identified and catalogued. It is a huge task, and identifying images of equipment and working methods that are no longer in use is sometimes quite challenging. Thank goodness for the internet and retired staff members!
If you would like to know more about the collection, or require images for use in presentations or publications, please contact Julia Maltby (julia.maltby@ordnancesurvey.co.uk) for more information.
Themocracy
Have you putting pictures on Flickr Commons? This would save the need to develop your own solution and mean you could put pictures up in batches rather than having to wait for them all to be digitised.