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Image Guides: Creative Commons Images

The purpose of this Guide is to help you understand how to find and legally use images in your research projects.

Use Creative Commons Images!

Creative Commons Man,
Some rights reserved by Mickipedia
Use Creative Commons logos and license images to point back to the license info page.

Health images

Health Education Assets Library -

The Health Education Assets Library (HEAL) is a digital library that provides freely accessible digital teaching materials of the highest quality that meet the needs of today's health sciences educators and learners.

History of Medicine -

 The collection includes portraits, photographs, caricatures, genre scenes, posters, and graphic art illustrating the social and historical aspects of medicine dated from the 15th to 21st century.

Sources for CC Images

Finding Creative Commons Images Sites - Please note that search.creativecommons.org is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations.

Flickr - A social networking site where Creative Commons photos can easily be found. Here is an easy to read guide about using Flickr. 

This is a Video Tutorial! Find Creative Commons images in Flickr  (2:14)

This is a Video Tutorial! Download from Flickr  (4:48)

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System - A searchable treasure trove of photographs, videos, images, and more.

Photopin - Offers an easy way to search Creative Commons images and are easy to download.  Generates a code you can embed crediting the photo owner automatically!

Stock.xchng - Contains both paid and free images. On the free images, some people want a link back to their site, other images are just free.

Google Images - Another image search engine.  Use the Advanced search for finding copyright-free images. Harder to make the CC determination here.

Yahoo Images - Yahoo now owns Flickr but retains its own search engine for finding CC images.

Wikimedia Commons - Rather unorganized, but has offers unique CC materials, which are also used in Wikipedia.

Library of Congress - Holds a wealth of images and photos of historical significance.  Read this page for more information about using LOC prints and images.

The Commons - A gathering of the world's public photography archives, a cooperative effort between Flickr and the Library of Congress.

Slideshare -  A source for presentation slides done by others and then shared. Some presentations are from academia, the business world and students for assignments.  While the slides can't be copied directly, you can find images you like then locate them using their source information.

General Images

Luna Commons -  
The LUNA Commons provides free access to hundreds of thousands of images from reputable sources for educational and public use.

Students may download and use images in their own work. A credit to (c) Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com is required.
An individual teacher may make use of the images in the course of their own personal teaching work. A credit to (c) Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com is required. For Universities, colleges, etc. you may use the Internet size images for free. A credit to (c) Ian Britton - FreeFoto.com
Some of the images in the Digital Gallery may be subject to third party rights such as copyright and/or rights of privacy/publicity. Before using any of these images please review the Library's Terms and Conditions. The Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
 
Ephemera Collection -
This site is devoted to the identification, preservation, publicizing, and study of ephemeral publications that provide more-nuanced pictures of American culture and life. Because intended to aid scholars as well as collectors, this site focuses on artifacts preserving obscure information and imagery. (It excludes already-familiar ephemera such as posters, labels, comic books, and most cards). (Mission Statement)