Thing 3: Image Banks

One reason I enrolled in this program is to learn more about tools for promoting library services and resources. Last year, some of my colleagues and I designed a portal intended to support small businesses and entrepreneurs. We think they will benefit from our content, and we want to increase site visits.

Selecting images to represent abstract concepts is challenging. For the concept of “business,” for example, should we focus on people or on products and services? What image best represents an entrepreneur or small business owner? How do we capture the broad range of businesses in the state? Is our current image, a (presumably urban) skyscraper, the best choice for a largely rural state? Would a rotating gallery of images address these questions?

Enough musing. Time to complete the Thing.

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I searched for “entrepreneur” in Pixabay, limiting results to photos with a horizontal orientation, and retrieved 127 results. Scrolling through, I saw a few problems. I would describe many of the images as “hip white dude.”

There are some examples depicting racial and ethnic diversity...

...or women.

It’s clear, however, that in Pixabay’s universe, an entrepreneur is generally young and works in a contemporary office setting. Given Maine’s demographics and economy, those images pass over much of our potential audience. I had to scroll to the bottom of the first screen of results to find a choice of images I felt would be more appropriate.

Call it entrepreneurship without the entrepreneur.