Library Liaison
Library Liaison
Copyright-Friendly Images
- Animal PhotosThousands of free to use animals photos divided up in to easy to browse categories.
- British Library flickr collectionBook covers, typography, ads, and more public domain images from the British Library collection.
- compfightCompfight is an image search engine tailored to efficiently locate images for blogs, comps, inspiration, and research. We make good use of the flickr™ API, but aren't affiliated with flickr. After searching, on the results page, on the left-hand side under "Any license", select "creative commons" to narrow the results down to images that will be free to use.
- Creative Commons SearchSearch images with a Creative Commons license
- Flickr: Creative CommonsMany Flickr users have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license, and you can browse or search through content under each type of license.
- Flickr: The CommonsImages added to Flickr by reputable institutions. Under "The Commons," cultural institutions that have reasonably concluded that a photograph is free of copyright restrictions are invited to share such photograph under their new usage guideline called "no known copyright restrictions."
- Getty ImagesShare more than 50 million images. It's easy, legal and free.
- Library of Congress Flickr ProjectOver 5,000 images from the Library of Congress collections.
- MorgueFileThis site provides the public and creative community with free raw photo materials.
- MorphBankDatabase of biological imaging
- Open Access Images from the Metropolitan Museum of ArtOpen Access images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
- US Government Photos & GraphicsMost of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee.
- WikimediaDatabase of over 2 million freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute
- Smithsonian Open AccessNearly 3 million 2D and 3D digital items from the Smithsonian collections.
- Manar al-Athar free image resource for Middle Eastern StudiesFree images related to the study of the Middle East, made available by University of Oxford. It provides high resolution, searchable images for teaching, research, and publication.
Google Images
To improve your chances of finding high quality, copyright-friendly images:
Starting from the "Advanced Images Search" screen -
Under Size - Return images that are: Larger that 1024x768 to limit your results to images of larger sizes (giving you the ability to zoom in closer without fear of pixelation).
Under Usage Rights - Return images that are: Labeled for reuse with modification - meaning that the copyright owner is okay with your using the image and changing it as well.
Don't forget - You'll still need to cite this image!