Orkney Image Library

By popular request the area formerly known as Hoy in our Area categories has been changed to Hoy and Walls. I hope this meets the approval of the folk from Waas.

You could do that in the 60s appparently! Jim Eunson has posted a series of pictures from a scrapbook detailing this operation, and the first half have been uploaded to the public area of the site today. Come back tomorrow for the rest of these fascinating pictures!

I'm delving into pictures that have been bulk uploaded in the past, that I've held back to avoid swamping you with images that are similar all at once. They don't show up in the thumbnails below, which is strictly chronological by the date the pictures were submitted - so you might not see them. But you will if you use the Latest Additions button.

By popular demand (and I mean demand, Bruce Flett, and others, can be very insistent) the Orkneycommunities Image Library is planned to have a life beyond these hallowed pages. Read on to find out how you can help!

I've looked into the logistics, and think that if we produce a 2011 pictorial calendar by summertime we can raise about £3,000 for charities working locally. This year the charities are planned to be CLAN, Macmillan and CLIC Sargent, and if this one is a success I hope we can make this an annual thing and spread the proceeds over other charities too. All proceeds above production costs will go to charity.

Format is to be determined, but likely to A4 with a space for notes on the calendar. One big picture per month, and I'd like use some or all of the comments to tell a story for the pictures, and introduce others to what we have here.

So how can you help? Well, while I have seen all of the 7669 pictures (and counting) over the last 6 years, I can't remember them all. Some indication of appeal is given by the number of comments and the Favourites (which is based on the number of times a picture is added to a personal gallery), but I'm open to suggestions for pictures that would fit the bill- these are pictures that are maybe unique to here, tell a story, are topical for a certain month, or are just great. Bear in mind that all pictures might not be usable, as they might only be available in low resolution, or have copyright reserved by the contributor- this will be established once we have a shortlist.

Other ways to help: buy a lot of them when they go on sale- this is a guaranteed collectors item!; sponsor a page if you are a business- this will help underwrite the upfront production costs for us, and ultimately go to charity; suggest what we should ask for page sponsorship if you are a business- we are thinking in the £50-100 region- that reasonable? Email me directly (click my name above) regarding sponsorship if you are a business (or quango!).