I have been looking for a good cloud computing option for my pictures. This exercise gave me the opportunity to look at several options in detail. I think Flickr will be the best option for my personal needs. It allows me to store images entirely online eliminating the need to keep them on my computer (which will free up some memory on my computer). I am personally not concerned about losing these images because I have hard copies of all my photos, but if I didn't I might for something like Picasa instead.
In addition, I am happy with all the different community options, such as tagging, leaving notes on the photo, commenting, groups, etc. It seems like a great opportunity to get feedback, keep up with friends' photos, and/or meet people with similar interests as mine.
I think social photo sites such as Flickr would be an excellent option for libraries given the reasons I mentioned above. However, I think libraries should apply a specific strategy when using Flickr as a marketing tool. If a library just throws up a bunch of random pictures and tags them all as "such and such library" only people really interested in that library will come across them. But if the library takes a more directed approach (i.e. a creative photography approach in the library, or an event centered approach) and tags it appropriately, it could direct new users to the library.
In addition, Flickr could serve as a great communal tool for fellow librarians to keep track of what other libraries are doing and maybe even get to know some new colleagues.
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