Many faculty love to use photos in their presentations. However, it is difficult to find images that are available to the public. We also want to model ethical use of images on the web to our students. Here are some ideas.
1. Google Search
Many faculty obtain their images via a Google search. You can also find images that you can freely reuse by using the Google search engine. It is best to use images that Google has designated as “Labeled to reuse”. Here’s an animation to help you find such images.
StockSnap
Google’s image search with “labeled to reuse” is fine but the selection of images won’t be very satisfying. Why not search multiple great free photo sites at once? StockSnap is a great tool for this purpose. This site allows you to search for images from many sites that you can download free of charge.
Images with Creative Commons Licenses
Flickr, Vimeo, and Wikimedia all contain open resources that can be searched by media type. They can also be screened for Creative Commons licences to ensure that they are available for use.
Flickr
Flickr offers a Creative Commons-licensed photo collection that makes filtering easy. Here’s how you search Flickr for licensed images:
1) Go to flickr.com/creativecommons.
2) Click to see more information under each license collection.
3) Type your keyword into the search bar.
4) The license information is at each photo’s bottom. It’s a link! Click it to access more information on Creative Commons.
All Creative Commons licenses require you to attribute images downloaded and used. Include the following information in your citation:
Title of the photo
Name of the creator
A link to the website hosting the image
The type of Creative Commons licence attached to the image.
Here’s an example:
[Title] by [creator] licensed under CC BY–SA 2.0.
Wikimedia Commons
All photos are either under Creative Commons licenses, or in the public domain. The Wikimedia Commons structure makes it easy to find information about image licenses. Here’s how you search Wikimedia for licensed images:
Go to commons.wikimedia.org.
Enter your keyword in the search bar:
After clicking the Download button, you can copy the license information.
Vimeo
Vimeo offers a separate Creative Commons-licensed video collection that makes filtering easier. Here’s how you search Vimeo for licensed videos.
Go to vimeo.com/creativecommons. The video bel9w shows how to search for the term “moon”. Once you’ve found the video you like click the Share icon. You can choose to either copy the embed code or the email function.
We hope you found this information useful!
