Finding images

There are many ways to find images to use in your lectures and teaching resources.

Remember, you can use most images already in electronic format for educational purposes without additional checks on the copyright status.
See What images and diagrams can I use in teaching resources? for more details.

Take care when using images uploaded to sites such as YouTube and Flickr by individuals. Images may have been uploaded to these sites without the permission of the copyright owners. It can be difficult to tell if this has happened and the source you cite may not actually be the legitimate copyright owner.

Some sites require you to agree to particular terms or conditions or to pay for use of the images before you can download usable copies without a watermark. These use conditions may override Australian copyright law.

Many people load photos and images on public web sites under licences that facilitate sharing of resources, such as Creative Commons licences. The Creative Commons Organisation explains the different types of licences that can be used by creators and what that means for you, as a user of the images.

While some creators may not require attribution under a Creative Commons licence, remember it is University policy that all images, diagrams and photos uploaded to Learning Management Systems must be accompanied by a citation.

It is your responsibility to acknowledge the creator and source of any images you use and to abide by the conditions of any agreements you accept.

Sources of images

Image search engines
General image sites
Creative Commons collections
Commercial pictorial libraries
Subscription image databases

Image search engines

• Google image search
• Yahoo images
• Everystockphoto
  Searches millions of freely licensed photos.

General image sites

• BUBL image collections
• LIFE magazine photo archive
• NASA Visible Earth
  Images and animations of the planet earth.
• Picture Australia from the National Library of Australia.

Many other national and state libraries, museums and art galleries have online image galleries which can be used for teaching purposes, for example:

• American memory- Library of Congress
• The National Gallery, London
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery
• RIBApix
  Showing the collections of the British Architectural Library at the Royal Institute of British Architects.
  Low resolution images are available for educational purposes, otherwise a fee applies.

Creative Commons collections

• Flickr
  Much content has been deposited under one of the creative commons licences. You can limit your search to find these.
• or use the Flickr Commons search
• Wikimedia Commons hosts freely licensed images.

Commercial pictorial libraries

• The British Library
• Getty Images
• Science Image from the CSIRO, specialises in science and nature images.
• stock.xchng
  Free to use stock images (as of April 2008) submitted by keen photographers. Any usage restrictions are stated clearly for each image.
  Sister site stockexpert, charges small amounts for royalty-free photos.

Subscription image databases

• University of Sydney Library subscribes to a number of specialised image databases including images.md and ArtStor.