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Last Updated: 2-Jun-2015

These sites are sources of high-quality, well-cataloged images.

The use of digital images is often subject to copyright and/or licensing restrictions. Consult each site's information on rights and reproductions--especially if you plan to use an image in a publication. It is equally important that you cite images properly.  See the "Citing images" section of this guide.

Art images

Historical images

News images

Science images

Citing images

Several universities provide excellent guides to citing images in papers and presentations. One standout:

Colgate University's Visual Resources Library (MLA, Chicago, APA)

ARTstor also provides its own guidelines.

In general, the following details are necessary for any image citation, no matter which citation style you choose:

* The title of the image, if applicable. For example, this could be the title of the artwork or, if it's a media image, the original caption.
The name of the image's creator.
The repository of the image. This is the institution that owns the original: the museum, the library, the archive, the individual, etc.
The source. This could be a database such as ARTstor, a Web site, a book, etc.
The date you accessed the image. This is most important for Web sources, which can be quite ephemeral.

Copyright resources

The Art & Architecture Library's Visual Resources Center uses the Image Collection Guidelines published by the Visual Resources Association and the Provost's yearly Copyright Reminder as its primary copyright guidelines.

Other Copyright Resources:

Copy Photography Computator, created by A. Kohl.
Copyright and Art Issues, Christine L. Sundt, University of Oregon
Intellectual Property and the Arts, moderated by the College Art Association
Fair Use, the Stanford Libraries' website on Fair Use
* Use the VRA 's Digital Image Rights Computator (DIRC) to determine the intellectual property rights status of the image you intend to use.