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E-skills for Libraries and Learning Services E-skills |
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How to find and use images in your publications
How do we find images that represent or augment some aspect of our written work? When is it okay to use an image that is protected by copyright? How can we manipulate the image to fit the page layout?
In this course we will look at a sampling of sources from within the library databases and on the open web that provide a range of images.
We will also look at basic manipulation of images and some simple rules around working with images.
The sources we include here are by no means exhaustive: you may know of some yourself that are not included here. If you come across a great resource not listed here, please contact us.
Library databases
Database name | Notes | Description |
Libraries and Learning Services home page. You need to trace each image back to its source to find conditions of usage. | Use Refine My Results to eliminate everything except images. | |
| Access through Libraries and Learning Services databases page. Need to set up an account and log in each time to download images. | A searchable online database containing over 1,000,000 images intended to serve art historians and related social sciences. Also has an Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) function that makes available publication-quality images for use in scholarly publications free of charge. |
| Access through the Libraries and Learning Services databases page.
Libraries and Learning services home page>Databases>O>Oxford Art Online Go to Advanced search and click on images. | A searchable online database from Oxford University Press comprising Grove Art Online, the Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.
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| Access through the Libraries and Learning Services databases page. Library home page>Databases>B>Britannica Image Quest
| A searchable image database produced by Encyclopedia Britannica, offering over two million images that have been rights-cleared for non-commercial educational use. Comprehensive tags plus citation examples.
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| Access through the Libraries and Learning Services databases page. Library home page>Databases>E>EBSCOhost | A suite of databases, mostly full-text, with an emphasis on peer-reviewed journals.This database contains within it an image database (choose images from the blue title bar).
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Open web
More restrictive conditions of use than most image sources due to the requirements of the contributing institutions. For details of conditions of use, click here.
| Access to 50 000 pictures, sounds and objects from Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland City Libraries, Christchurch City Libraries and Otago Museum.
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Conditions of use depend on the contributing institutions' terms. Usually personal, educational or research use is okay. Anything more requires permission. | Image portal run by Penny W Stamps School of Art and Design based at the University of Michigan. Extensive links to other image sources for Art History. | |
Search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license.
| Searches across a vaiety of content on the web. Is possible to search for specific CC categories such as share alike, commercial purposes etc . | |
There are costs involved for image use so this may be a better option for academic staff looking for high quality images for publication. Images for theses and dissertations or other educational purposes are free for up to 5 images per year. | Smithsonian Institute with links to extensive online image collections.
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The material contained in the Wellcome Collection website is provided for general purposes only. Although we endeavour to ensure that the content is accurate and up to date, Wellcome Collection accepts no responsibility for loss arising from reliance on information contained in this site or other sites that may be linked to from our site from time to time.
Unless otherwise stated, all content on the site is © The Wellcome Trust and is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 UK. This database allows images for use for free in academic publishing. This means that you are free to share the content by copying, distributing and transmitting it, but please attribute it to the Wellcome Collection and provide a link to its website - http://www.wellcomecollection.org. For any reuse or distribution, you must make these licence terms clear to others. | Social, medical and biomedical history and contemporary medical research images. | |
NASA still images; audio files; video; and computer files used in the rendition of 3-dimensional models, such as texture maps and polygon data in any format, generally are not copyrighted. You may use NASA imagery, video, audio, and data files used for the rendition of 3-dimensional models for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages. This general permission extends to personal Web pages. | NASA images -Space | |
The presence of a resource on this list does not guarantee that all or any of the images in it are in the public domain. You are still responsible for checking the copyright status of images before you submit them to Wikipedia.
| Public domain image resources is a copy of the master wikipedia page at Meta, which lists a number of sources of public domain images on the Web. Provides exhaustive links to other image sites. |
Evaluating for image quality
Use this checklist to evaluate whether the image you have found will be suitable for its intended purpose:
- How would you describe the image quality? Is it clear or blurry? Is it stretched or faded?
- Is the reproduction you’re looking at a high enough resolution? Is it suitable for publication purposes, quality-wise?
- Is it able to be used in the context that you’d like to use it? Is it culturally appropriate to use? (eg human remains, people sitting on tables, certain taonga)
- How can you be sure it is safe to use without breaching copyright?
- What is its likely purpose?
- Who is its intended audience?
- Is its metadata complete and accurate? There is currently no single standard for metadata so your referencing style needs to be your guide here.
Example
Go to Google images and search for Mona Lisa. Filter out the parodies and joke versions by clicking on a heading like mona lisa original painting by leonardo da vinci. Note the variation between the images you have left. These all purport to be the original Mona Lisa, however some are faded and stretched; some have blue, yellow or green tones dominating; some are "warm" and some are "cool"; some seem to depict a slightly different model altogether (darker features with a slightly different expression on her face).
Which is the "real" Mona Lisa? In this instance, the most reliable reproduction will be from ARTstor.
Activity
Choose one or two image sources from the library databases or the open web and conduct an image search.
Choose from the following keyword searches if you wish:
- Mona Lisa
- Picasso
- Water
- Tangi
- Collaboration
- Internet
- Search and find
- Information overload
- Historical anatomy
- Saturn
Try and match the image need with the likely source. When you have found images you like, try using the criteria provided to evaluate them.
Referencing
Images are just another piece of information when it comes to referencing.
If you are using images from a library database, this should be reasonably straight forward-and some databases such as ARTStor will show you how to cite the image correctly.
The following site at the University of Southern Queensland has an extensive list of examples with regard to citing images using APA style:
http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/referencing/apa#av
This site at Southern cross University has both Harvard and APA style referencing guides:
http://libguides.scu.edu.au/harvard
This guide at University California Irvine has guides to both APA and MLA:
http://libguides.lib.uci.edu/content.php?pid=55242&sid=404490
Further resources
The following links are to websites at other universities that provide access to image resources coupled with extensive information, tips and guides to using and evaluating images.
If you come across any others that are not listed here, please contact us so we can add them.
http://libguides.lib.uci.edu/content.php?pid=55242&sid=404490
Useful library guide to finding and using images. Provides extensive links to a variety of image sources
http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/findimages/intro/
Published by Boston University Libraries this site lists image archives, collections and search engines. Instructions for downloading and inserting images are provided.
http://www.bu.edu/library/guide/findimages/isengines/
Boston University library guides including finding images by category
The University of Auckland Use of Copyright Materials for Staff
The University of Auckland Copyright Guide for Students.
http://www.copyright.org.nz/viewOwnerCat.php?category=184
Copyright for visual artists from the Copyright Council of NZ
