Thread by @nightgolfer

1) @Flickr has deleted the Internet Archive Book Images account, effectively removing 5,249,938 searchable @internetarchive book images from every single gallery they were part of, destroying all the added data from comments and tagging done by users over many years.

2) The reasoning seems to be that The Commons is mostly intended for photos, so the book scans didn't really belong, and the account wasn't being maintained: flickr.com/help/forum/721… No warning appears to have been given and there doesn't seem to be a backup of the data available.

3) The sheer immensity of this loss of data is devastating, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. To my knowledge, there is now no way to search for individual images from the hundreds of thousands of books at archive.org.

4) Combined with the loss of the user-generated metadata, this is just heartbreaking. @PublicDomainRev & @openculture, did you hear about this yet? Could you maybe help shine a light on the issue? I'm hoping there's some tiny chance the data can be saved if swift action is taken.

5) Since @Flickr has stated that The Commons is primarily for photos, what's going to happen to the @BioDivLibrary account, which houses 319,000 searchable flora and fauna ILLUSTRATIONS? Will that get deleted, too?

flickr.com/photos/biodivl…

6) I can't help but feel that @Flickr / @SmugMug did this in the dark because they knew it would be problematic if people were aware in advance, but that also means that there was no warning for digital preservationists to make an attempt to save the data before it was gone.

7) @internetarchive, are there any plans for some sort of substitution service at your end? Did you manage to back up the user-generated metadata before the deletion? How will people search for individual images inside the book collection now?

8) RIP Internet Archive Book Images. What a mindless loss. Only hope something can be done to save the data, and some sort of new service can take your place. #savetheinternetarchivebookimages @Flickr @internetarchive

Gone: flickr.com/photos/interne…

Info: flickr.com/help/forum/721…

9) @Flickr what about the British Library account, also in The Commons? 1,073,000+ images, also mostly illustrations. Will their account be deleted, too? @britishlibrary have @Flickr contacted you about the future prospects for your account? #pleasebackup

flickr.com/photos/british…

10) At least some of the metadata is preserved at (drumroll please) The Wayback Machine at web.archive.org. If you happen to have a link to an image on the now-defunct Internet Archive Book Images account at @Flickr, you can test the URL there and see what's available.

11) As an example, this image is no longer on @Flickr:

flickr.com/photos/interne…

But it's available through web.archive.org:

web.archive.org/web/2016070809…

Not in high resolution, but the all-important metadata is there, meaning you can figure out which book it was from.

12) Sadly, this does not seem to be a viable technique for reconstructing @Flickr user gallaries that contained images from the IABI account. At least with the few cases I tested, neither @internetarchive nor Google Cache has copies of user galleries 😓

13) Also, further testing reveals that the results for Wayback recovery are very hit-and-miss. Many of the links I have saved are not available through Wayback, meaning the data is probably lost.
#savetheinternetarchivebookimages

14) Having been aware of the loss of the Internet Archive Book Images account for a few days now, and having been through my bookmark archives, I'm still completely gutted. Every single image in every single user created album/collection, gone, with no way to know what was lost.

15) There were so many amazing curated albums based mainly or exclusively on content from the #internetarchivebookimages, and they're just empty now. All the images in people's Favourites albums, missing. Such a huge volume of hard work from so many people, invalidated.

16) Because of the nature of these galleries, most users probably haven't noticed that anything has happened, yet. How often do you check to see if your bookmarks are all still there? That's pretty much the nature of those albums; they're public bookmarks of curated content.

17) My only consolation right now is that @Flickr says they're in talks with @internetarchive about options, and that restoring the account is technically possible: flickr.com/help/forum/en-…

That, and I know some big voices are getting ready to fight back ❤️ #savethebookimages

18) If we do manage to save the account, I only hope that all the user galleries are restored to their former glory as well. And I'll be right there helping with backup efforts. And trying to figure out how to get the remaining 11 million images from the original project online.

19) Adam Green and his @PublicDomainRev team just published this fantastic post on their blog earlier today: publicdomainreview.org/blog/2022/04/5…

As one of the most important voices on historic art and literature in the public domain today, I can't imagine a better champion for this cause.

20) Please consider signing the @PublicDomainRev open letter addressed to @Flickr and @internetarchive, asking them to reinstate the #internetarchivebookimages account and its related metadata: openletter.earth/open-letter-to…

I'm very hopeful that we'll have a fighting chance now 🎉

21) We won, #internetarchivebookimages is getting un-deleted! 🎉❤️

@Flickr CEO @DonMacAskill writes:

https://twitter.com/DonMacAskill/status/1511033739706478594?s=20&t=O5Zlr-vZZqPCZxn0nwLrBg

And incoming Flickr Foundation Director (and The Commons creator!) @ukglo says: flickr.com/help/forum/en-…

Thank you @PublicDomainRev fighting this fight!

While I have your attention — @DonMacAskill & @brewster_kahle, the original goal was to upload 14M images (as per blog.archive.org/2014/08/29/mil…), but the project halted (funding?).

You just saved the 5M, how do you feel about getting the remaining 9M up there? 😀