LibGuides: Open Access Resources: Open Access Images

Why Creative Commons?

Creative Commons licenses are found all over the internet. It is a good idea to be familiar with what they look like and what they stand for.
This is especially important if you wish to publish your own images online you can protect your rights by using one these licenses.

About Open Access Images

These images should be attributed to the original creator. Often you need permission to adapt or modify an image.
For commercial use you must get permission.

When to use Open Access images?
Open Access images are good to use in papers, presentations and online posts or communications.

Free Images Sites

Arab Image Foundation This link opens in a new window
"Collection of over 500,000 photographic objects and documents from and related to the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora has been gradually assembled over the last 20 years by artists and researchers and through donations. "
Biodiversity Heritage Library This link opens in a new window
"The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL is revolutionizing global research by providing free, worldwide access to knowledge about life on Earth."
Creative Commons Search This link opens in a new window
Most, if not all, of these images are available for use with giving credits to the original source.
You must check with each image if you wish to modify, adapt or use the image commercially.
Europeana Fashion This link opens in a new window
"Explore fashion – historical clothing and accessories, contemporary designs, catwalk photographs, drawings, sketches, plates, catalogues and videos – from more than 30 European public and private institutions."
Flickr This link opens in a new window
Getty Royalty Free Images This link opens in a new window
Google Images Advanced Search This link opens in a new window
Pay intention to the usage rights
Internet Archive Book Images This link opens in a new window
List of 21 free stock photo sites This link opens in a new window
Metropolitan Museum Open Access images This link opens in a new window
National Digital Libraries list This link opens in a new window
Pixabay This link opens in a new window
Smarthistory This link opens in a new window
Umbra Search African American History This link opens in a new window
umbrasearch.org brings together more than 500,000 digitized materials on African American History from over 1,000 libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions from across the country.

About Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licences
"Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s most pressing challenges."

CC BY
This license lets others distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. This is the most accommodating of licenses offered. Recommended for maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials.
CC BY-SA
This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work even for commercial purposes, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms. This license is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses. All new works based on yours will carry the same license, so any derivatives will also allow commercial use. This is the license used by Wikipedia, and is recommended for materials that would benefit from incorporating content from Wikipedia and similarly licensed projects.
CC BY-ND
This license lets others reuse the work for any purpose, including commercially; however, it cannot be shared with others in adapted form, and credit must be provided to you.
CC BY-NC
This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
CC BY-NC-SA
This license lets others remix, adapt, and build upon your work non-commercially, as long as they credit you and license their new creations under the identical terms.
CC BY-NC-ND
This license is the most restrictive of our six main licenses, only allowing others to download your works and share them with others as long as they credit you, but they can’t change them in any way or use them commercially.