Research Guides: Visual Literacy: Finding and Accessing Reliable Images

Finding and Accessing Reliable Images

The visually literate student finds and accesses needed images and visual media effectively and efficiently.

This involves this following steps:

Selecting the most appropriate image sources (databases, websites, books, journals).
Searching effectively for images but creating useful search strategies and terms.
Evaluating the quality and appropriateness of the images found.

See more information at http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy

Library Resources

Artstor This link opens in a new window
A collection of images from major museums. ARTSTOR images cover art, architecture and archeology. Useful for personal or shared uses, and creating and delivering presentations. ARTSTOR is available solely for educational and scholarly uses that are noncommercial in nature. Images may NOT be placed on publicly accessible websites. UNC Charlotte students, faculty and staff can register for an account which allows off-campus access; this registration must happen while on campus.

The following selection of multi-disciplinary databases include images in their search results.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
A great database to get started with for your research on any topic. Use it to search for articles from scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals, newspapers, and magazines.
The database highlights images on the right-hand side of search results.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides access to academic journals and books covering a wide range of disciplines; it also includes some limited primary source collections.
You can find images in JSTOR from both Artstor and from PDF articles.

Websites

The following are multidisciplinary image resources from museums, libraries, and archives.

For additional image resources by discipline, visit the Open Access Images & Videos Guide.

The British Library Flickr Commons Photostream
WHAT CAN YOU FIND: Over 1 million images scanned from pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books in the library. Includes maps, geological diagrams, illustrations, illuminated and decorative letters, paintings, etc. Browse all images or by album. You can also search by keyword.
HOW CAN YOU USE IT: Many of these images have no known copyright restrictions and are free to use. You can apply a creative commons license to any images under copyright.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
WHAT CAN YOU FIND: Includes millions of objects from the collections, including print, images, and audio-visual items. Highlights: books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photographs, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings.
HOW CAN YOU USE IT: As a publicly supported institution, the Library does not hold the rights to the images. However, many images are in the public domain. Each collection should include its own rights statement. No permission fees. The Library generally does not grant or deny permission to publish.
New York Public Library - Digital Gallery
WHAT CAN YOU FIND: NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to almost 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. Over 180,000 of these images are in the public domain.
HOW CAN YOU USE IT: Browse items that have no known U.S. copyright restrictions, or you can can limit a keyword search to the "Search only public domain items" option in the upper left corner. These images have no known U.S. copyright restrictions, which includes its photographs.
OpenGLAM Open Collections
WHAT CAN YOU FIND: International collection of images from libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions.
HOW CAN YOU USE IT: Search all collections at once or by tags/subjects. The participating institutions have provided digital scans or photos that can be freely used without any restrictions.
Smithsonian Institution: Flickr Photostream
WHAT CAN YOU FIND: Over 3,000 photographs collected from Smithsonian staff and outside sources. Images represent a broad range of subjects and themes in the fields of art, history, culture and science.
HOW CAN YOU USE IT: All photographs are under a Creative Commons license through Flickr.

Searching for Images: Library of Congress Subject Headings

When looking for early photographs or other primary documents, it is always important to understand how events were described during the time they happened.

A good example of this is when we talk about World War I in the present day, we must remember that when the event was happening it was described as the Great War.

This problem has been solved by archivists and librarians by providing researchers with a set of rules that translate this for them called the Library of Congress Subject Headings. This website works as a bridge between what the researchers know about their subject and how it is described by past terms.

Visual Literacy

Finding and Accessing Reliable Images

Library Resources

Websites

Searching for Images: Library of Congress Subject Headings

Search Google by Reuse License