Visual Resources on a Budget
This site is now archived. There will be no further changes following its move to the new Google Sites on 11/15/2022 and deletion of now-extinct sites, but the live links will remain available.
Online Northwest :: February 5, 2010
Thanks for attending our presentation. The first column lists the sites we discussed today, and columns two and three include annotated links to many more places to find usable images online. We've also attached the handouts from today's presentation at left, if you were unable to attend, or wish to share them with your colleagues.
Any content below may be copied and pasted freely into course pages, subject guides, and elsewhere on library websites, with or without attribution.
Sites Discussed at Online Northwest
Selected Image Sites with use licenses
Librarians may want to link to licenses for each site in their annotation
for library web pages.
20,000+ images. There are two drop-down menus (one for textures, one for images) for category browsing. Imageafter allows you to use their images on printed material for resale.
Selected Public Domain and Government Image Sites
More than 60,000 images of public lands, mostly in 12 Western states, including Alaska. A special collection maintained by the BLM’s National Operations Center includes 3,600 historical photos dating back to the early surveys of the West.
The Commons Project is a collection of medium and high resolution imagery contributed from archives around the world, including the US National Archives, OSU's Archives, NYPL's Archives, and many many more. The photos contributed to this have no known copyright restrictions. Read more here. However, many of these images explicitly state they are for educational use only, and some state they may not be modified (ex: Smithsonian). Read the rights statement to be sure what you can and cannot do with these images before using them.
Image courtesy: Imageafter.com
Access the California State University IMAGE Project, containing 60,000+ images. Global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery, its images may be freely used for non-profit educational purposes.
Image courtesy: BLM
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Image Gallery (large) Includes direct links to the NASA Image Exchange, the Dryden Image Gallery, the Kennedy Multimedia Gallery, the Earth Observatory, Great Images in NASA (GRIN), and the Planetary Photojournal.
Image courtesy: Library of Congress/Alfred T. Palmer
The Creative Commons is a way for digital content creators to license their work for use by others online. There are multiple creative commons licenses. The pdf attached to this page lists and explains these licenses.
Image Courtesy: NASA
Image Courtesy: Imagebase/David Niblack
Owned by Getty Images, 350,000+ stock images for use, keyword searchable. Non-commercial use only.
Image Courtesy: stock.xchng/mmagallan
Free high resolution images for personal or commercial use, under this license. You can filter your search by size, color, geotag, and more. From the site: The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits.
Image Courtesy: Department of Defense/National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Jonathan Young, JTF-DC
Pixnio, formerly Public Domain Images Site (3500+ images) From the site: "All pictures are explicitly placed in the public domain. You can use all public domain pictures (public domain wallpapers) from this site for whatever you want, use it freely for personal and commercial use."
United States Government Imagery:
Library of Congress Prints and Photograph Collection
The Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog offers digital images of much of the Prints and Photographs Division’s holdings including architecture, design and engineering, among other categories.
Image courtesy: LOC/Prints & Photographs Division
Public Health Image Library (PHIL)
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a searchable database of photographs, micrographs and illustrations relating to public health. Most images are public domain, some are copyrighted and require permission for use
Image Courtesy: Public Health Image Library
Learn more:
Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org
Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org
The Electronic Frontier Foundation: http://www.eff.org
Public Knowledge: http://www.publicknowledge.org
Center for the Study of the Public Domain: http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd