Library Research Guides: Copyright for Staff: Images

©-Friendly images and media for education

Would you like to use a still or animated image or video clip in your PowerPoint presentation, or iLearn site? Public domain and open access websites contain a multitude of mixed media items which are royalty free, or have a creative commons licence. There are many websites which contain links to still images, clip art, video, animation and sound, and you do not need the copyright holder’s approval to use the material contained in these sites, however …

Before you download any material from any internet site always check that you understand the Terms of Use of material on that site. Copyright information may also be found under other various headings such as: About Us, Conditions of Use, Permission, Copyright, FAQs or Legal obligations.

Include a citation with the selected image.

See referencing / citation examples below.

Creative Commons & Public Domain images

The British Library Photo Stream
The British Library’s collections on Flickr Commons offer access to millions of public domain images.
Creative Commons
Search in Creative Commons for images/art/graphic designs across 19 collections, photos from Flickr and even CC0 3D designs.
CSIRO ScienceImage
An image library specialising in science and nature photographs from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organisation (Australia). All images are free to download under a Creative Commons license
DrStockPhoto
DrStockPhoto.com provides royalty free stock photos and images under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
ImageBase
These images are free to use: non-profit, commercial, business, print, web, screen, film, or anything else.
The Met Collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides Open Access images of artworks, believed to be in the public domain, available under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.

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Unrestricted use of OA labelled works in accordance with the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) designation and the Terms and Conditions of the Met website.
NASA
NASA has a large collection of current and historical astronomy related images to browse through. The images are generally not copyrighted and are available for educational and informational use. The images are all high resolution and file sizes can be quite large so images may need to be resized for use.
New York Public Library
This public domain collection spans the breadth and depth of NYPL's holdings, from the Library's rich New York City collection, historic maps, botanical illustrations, unique manuscripts, photographs, ancient religious texts, and more.
OpenClipArt
OpenClipArt images are in the public domain.
Open Photo
A moderated photo community with thousands of Creative Commons licensed photos in various categories.
Paris Musees
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Paris Musées offers Open Content (free and unrestricted availability) to more than 150,000 digital reproductions of works from the collections of the museums of the City of Paris in high definition.
Pixabay
A repository for outstanding public domain images
Pixnio
Pixnio contains public domain images which are free of copyright restrictions.
Smithsonian Open Access
Share and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to nearly 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centres, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Unsplash
All photos published on Unsplash are licensed under Creative Commons Zero which means you can copy, modify, distribute and use the photos for free, including commercial purposes, without asking permission from or providing attribution to the photographer or Unsplash.

More 'free' images and media

Flaticon
The largest database of free vector icons.
pngtree
Royalty Free PNG Images, Vectors, Backgrounds, Templates for personal non-commercial use
Generator
Generator is a creative studio space for teachers and students. Comment, tag, and share creative work and education resources. Variety of licences used.
morgueFile
Images on this site are made available for remixing only.
Pics4Learning
Copyright-friendly images for education.
Sunipix
Sunipix provide royalty free photographs (100 dpi) free of charge for personal and business needs.
Unprofound
A great collection of designer photos for personal or professional use only.
VAD The online resource for visual arts
Access to collections of images which may be used for research or teaching purposes but if used for teaching must be restricted so that access is only available to users who have signed an appropriate undertaking. See the VAD Common Access Agreement for Individuals - http://www.vads.ac.uk/common_access_agreement.html
The Getty Trust
The Getty Trust has made more than 10,000 images from the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Research Institute available through their Open Content Program. The Open Content search filter has already been applied to the link above, but you can apply other filters to your search in the menu bar to the left.
Freeimages
- This link opens in a new window
These images are free as long as you adhere to the rules in the Image License Agreement: https://www.freeimages.com/license
Compfight
Many good quality photos. Make sure the Creative Commons filter is on!
picjumbo
Free stock photos

Creative Commons licenses require attribution to the creator and a link to the Creative Commons licence.

Below are examples of how to reference a Creative Commons image.

Bilbao

APA Referencing Style (suggestion)

Colli, M.G. (2009). Bilbao_6 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, photograph, retrieved from <http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355315@N08/5757476385/>. Creative Commons Licence CC BY 2.0.

Creative Commons Referencing Style
Bilbao_6 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, by Colli, Flickr, is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Harvard Referencing Style for Creative Commons
Colli, MG 2009, Bilbao_6 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, photograph, accessed January 2012, <http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355315@N08/5757476385/>. CC BY 2.0

What should be included:
Elements for an APA reference for an image within a publication are: Person/s responsible for the image, date the image was created, Title in Italics, format, retrieved from <URL if electronic>. CC licence link (if applicable).

An image from the Internet with an author

In-text:
(Colli 2009)

Reference list:
Colli, MG 2009, Bilbao_6 Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, photograph, retrieved from <http://www.flickr.com/photos/52355315@N08/5757476385/>. Creative Commons Licence CC BY 2.0.

An image from the Internet with no author or date

In-text:
(Nefertari with Isis n.d.)

Reference list:
Nefertari with Isis, n.d. photograph, retrieved from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ankh_isis_nefertari.jpg>.

Note: Use pointed brackets around <URL> with full-stop after bracket.

Copyleft: You can use, modify and distribute freely on condition that any derivative works are released under the same conditions.

Creative Commons Licence: The copyright holder keeps copyright but allows people to copy and distribute copyrighted work provided they meet the stipulations in the license.

morgueFile Free Licence: You can not sell, license, sublicense, rent, transfer or distribute images exactly as they are without alteration.

GNU Free Documentation Licence (GFDL): A copyleft licence that stipulates that any copy of the material, even if modified, carry the same licence.

Public Domain: Works in the public domain are those whose intellectual property rights have been forfeited or have expired.

Royalty Free: The right to use copyrighted material or intellectual property without the need to pay royalties or licences fees.

Contact

Antoinette Cass

Subjects:Research

Copyright for Staff

Images

©-Friendly images and media for education

Creative Commons & Public Domain images

More 'free' images and media

Citing Images

APA Referencing Style (suggestion)

What should be included:
Elements for an APA reference for an image within a publication are: Person/s responsible for the image, date the image was created, Title in Italics, format, retrieved from <URL if electronic>. CC licence link (if applicable).

An image from the Internet with an author

An image from the Internet with no author or date

Contact

Bond Library

Contact us

Content Licence

Copyright for Staff

Images

©-Friendly images and media for education

Creative Commons & Public Domain images

More 'free' images and media

Citing Images

APA Referencing Style (suggestion)

What should be included: Elements for an APA reference for an image within a publication are: Person/s responsible for the image, date the image was created, Title in Italics, format, retrieved from <URL if electronic>. CC licence link (if applicable).

An image from the Internet with an author

An image from the Internet with no author or date

Contact

Bond Library

Contact us

Content Licence

What should be included:
Elements for an APA reference for an image within a publication are: Person/s responsible for the image, date the image was created, Title in Italics, format, retrieved from <URL if electronic>. CC licence link (if applicable).