Fair Use for the Web
- It is critical to make sure you have permission to use the images, documents, and objects in your exhibit.
- Even when you are using them for educational purposes, publishing images to the web for which you do not have permission does not constitute "fair use."
- Regardless of where you find items that you want to include in your exhibit, make sure they are available for reuse before including them on a website.
- Library of Congress: Copyright and Primary SourcesAbout copyright, fair use, and permissions.
- Public domain in the United StatesIncludes the current public domain date
Creative Commons Images for Reuse
- Wikimedia CommonsOver 16 million freely usable media files. Like Wikipedia, anyone can contribute to the collection. Copyright and licensing information is provided for every image.
- Flickr: The CommonsCollection of photographs that are free of copyright restrictions from dozens of cultural institutions around the world, including the Smithsonian, several U.S. museums, several state archive, NARA, and New York Public Library. Be aware that this is a separate Flickr stream from the main institutional Flickr sites, which often contain copyrighted images.
- Creative Commons SearchSearch for items that have been licensed for reuse.
- Europeana This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and subject indexing)
A large collections with artworks, artifacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe. Has filters for Open Licenses.
- Google Images > Tools > Usage RightsTo find Creative Commons images, click "Tools" then "Usage Rights" in the results page.
Using Images from Public Domain Books
You can often republish images scanned from books and microfilm that are in the public domain.
- Search Hathi Trust for relevant books.
- Use the "Advanced" search in Catalyst to look for relevant books and limit the search to books published before the current Public Domain date.
- Catalyst This link opens in a new window
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Search the collections of Carleton and St. Olaf College libraries. - HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
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(Searches through citations and the full text)
HathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and digitally accessible. A major source of digitized books and other documents. Some of the collection if available for free to all, and additional content is available to Carleton faculty, staff, and students.
- Internet Archive Book Images (flickr collection)
A collection of 14+ million images extracted from public domain books in the Internet Archive, with related text attached. For a more powerful search, look for the Internet Archive images in Wikimedia, or try an advanced Google Search:
site:https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/ [YOUR SEARCH TERMS HERE]
Captioning Creative Commons Media
- Captioning Creative Commons Images and MediaWhen you caption Creative Commons media (including images), you should include 4 major parts (TASL). You may need to modify the order or add more information based on the citation style you are using.
Title: What is the name of the work?
Author: Who allows you to use the work?
Source: Where can people find the work?
License: How can you use the work?
Example:
"Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by Timothy Vollmer is licensed under CC BY 4.0
