[Web4lib] images

[jqj at darkwing.uoregon.edu]

Raumin Dehghan asks:

>Would somebody please share with me their favorite site or sites where 
>I could borrow images for free?  I actually mean images, not photographs.


"Borrow" for personal study?  Or use on a website?  Or modify?  Or ...  It
matters.

If you need to be able to republish the images, e.g. on a web site, then a
good bet is the Wikimedia Commons image collection (high quality, and almost
all under well documented licenses that allow reuse though many don't allow
modification and/or require attribution).  US Government works are obviously
in the public domain and so fair game; I like them as a source for maps and
scientific imagery, but be careful since many images on .gov web sites are
actually produced by contractors and so not PD.  Many images on flickr are
published under CC licenses.  Some other collections I like whose use terms
generally meet my needs are the LOC American Memory Project and NYPL Digital
Gallery.  See also Thomas, Ruth (2007). Finding Images on the Web.  Boston
University Libraries, <http://www.bu.edu/library/instruction/findimages/>
(accessed 25 Apr 2007).

I'm a believer that Bridgeman gives me the right to use photos of old master
paintings (but not of sculpture) without worrying about copyright
infringement.  However, I still have to attend to contract and license
terms, for instance the license my institution signed with ARTSTOR.

JQ Johnson, Director                 Office: 115F Knight Library 
Center for Educational Technologies  mailto:jqj at uoregon.edu
1299 University of Oregon            phone: 1-541-346-1746; -3485 fax
Eugene, OR 97403-1299                http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jqj/