Digital Literacy and Reference Librarian
Louis J. Blume Library
One Camino Santa Maria, San Antonio, TX 78228-8608
What does Public Domain and Creative Commons mean?
Public Domain
"A work of authorship is in the “public domain” if it is no longer under copyright protection or if it failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former copyright owner." (US Copyright Office)
Many US federal documents and images are not covered by copyright and are in the public domain. There are other public domain sources from international sources, libraries, museums, and other sources.
Creative Commons (CC)
- Creative CommonsDevelops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation. Provides a set of copyright licenses and tools that create a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates.
Citing Images
You will need some basic information to cite images that you find. A free or public domain images also needs to be cited.
You should note the following information if possible:
- Title of work
- Creator's name
- Artwork size
- Date created
- Archive, library, museum, repository, owner
- URL (if available)
- Rights
I encourage you to use Zotero to save information about images you find. Most likely, you will use the "Artwork" category for these images.
- Zotero Citation Software guideBlume Library guide describes the free Zotero citation management program with instructions on how to install and use Zotero to easily manage and cite sources.
Image Collections with Public Domain and Creative Commons content
List of large image collections. Many of these collections include public domain or Creative Commons license images. However, for each images you use, check the copyright information provided by the organization and/or website. You will always need to cite your sources whether they are under copyright or not.
Portals
- Creative Commons SearchUse the CC search portal "to find images that you can use and remix across several open archives."
- The Commons on FlickrDatabase of photographs from archives, museums, and other public institutions from around the world. Contributors include the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian, George Eastman House, National Archives UK, etc.
- Google ImagesSearch for images. Some images, but not all, are in the public domain.
- Internet Archive - ImagesOver a million images uploaded by Archive uses. Includes photographs, artwork, astronomical images, and maps. Some images, but not all, are in the public domain.
Institutions
- The British Museum - Online CollectionsImages and other sources from the museum's collections. "Most images in the collection online are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license."
- Europeanadigital collections from Europe's libraries, archives, and museums. Content includes documents, books, images, audio files, videos, maps, etc.
- Getty Search - Open Content Images"The Getty makes available, without charge, all available digital images to which the Getty holds the rights or that are in the public domain to be used for any purpose. No permission is required. "
- Library of Congress Digital Collections: Search"A gateway to the Library of Congress’s vast resources of digitized American historical materials." This portal includes the content from the old American Memory site and additional digital sources. LOC.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art Images (Open Access)Open Access images from the Met.
- New York Public Library: Digital CollectionsNYPL's digital collections includes a variety of soruces including drawings, illuminated manuscripts, photographs, posters, maps, etc.
- Smithsonian Libraries: Image GalleryImages freely available for educational use with attribution.
- Smithsonian Open AccessIncludes images, 3D models, websites, digitize artifacts. Able to download, share, and reuse images. Includes results from Smithsonian museums, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.