How to Find Images

If you want to use images in a course assignment, project, or paper, you'll need to make sure you're using them appropriately and legally. This may mean that you cannot alter the image, you can only use the image for not-for-profit purposes, and that you will have to cite the image. Just because you find an image online, it doesn't mean there is no copyright for that image. You ALWAYS NEED TO CITE IMAGES within your work, unless they are completely original work.

Image Databases

The Hartness Library has access to several databases of images that are licensed for educational use (within copyright compliance) by our students, instructors, and staff. All images must be cited properly.

• VSC Art & Architecture Image Database - an art history survey set of 1600 images from the Universal Color Slide Company (More Info & Search Tips)
• CREDO Image Search (Select the "Image Search" tab.) - images from CREDO reference sources, including several major art reference works

Many of the Library's journal databases (Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL Nursing & Health Science with Full Text, Academic OneFile and others) also contain high quality images. You can limit a search to articles with images, view a high resolution image and copy the image. Tips for citing the image are also given.

Web Tools for Finding Images

Some Web-based image repositories and sites may offer information about how images may be used, who owns the copyright for an image, and help you determine whether you can use an image legally. We strongly encourage you to check each image you want to use to make sure you can use it for your work. All images must be cited properly.

• Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
• Google Advanced Image Search
• Wikimedia Commons
  
• Creative Commons
  
• Flickr Commons

Citing Images

A basic image citation should consist of as much information as available for the image; this could be any and all of the following:

• author
• title of work
• institution or organization of origin
• location or country of origin
• date
• medium or type of material
• resource where the image was found (book, journal, database, Web, etc...)
• author of resource
• title of resource
• date of resource
• if online, the URL and date of viewing

Example:

Cenicola, Tony. Photograph from New York Times Article "The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site" by Richard Perez-Pena, January 20, 2010, New York Times Company. Photo copyright 2009, Web. http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2010/01/21/business/21times_CA0.html, viewed August 1, 2011.

Additional Information

• MLA Electronic Sources (OWL Purdue Univ.)
• Citing Images (Univ. of Cincinatti)
• Citing Images (Univ. of Maryland, Univ. College)