A searchable image database created by various faculty, staff and students of the CSU system. Contains over 50,000 historical images from a wide variety of fields, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery. Images have been copyright cleared for non-profit educational use by CSU faculty, staff and students.
This is like wikipedia, only specifically for media files, predominantly images. Quality of photography is not guaranteed, but images are generally available at a high resolution.
Does the database focus on a particular subject or discipline? Is the database focused on current or historical images? Are the images taken by professionals or amateurs?
You will use different image sources for different types of images.
Image Quality
You
may be looking for high-quality images for use in your multimedia
design projects. Images found on the web tend to be low-resolution, for
speed of loading and ease of sharing. Try specialized image databases
for higher-quality images.
Copyright Issues
Do
not assume that just because an image is available on the web, you're
permitted to use it in any way you wish. Creators of images
(photographers, artists, illustrators, etc.) own copyright just as
authors of books and articles do.
Some
creators of images choose to make them available via what is known as a
"Creative Commons License". This means that the individual has chosen
to release some of their rights as the copyright holder to you, the
user. They may specify, for example, that you may use the image for
non-profit purposes as long as you credit the source.
Even
without a creative commons license, for students' purposes (course
projects) you are generally permitted to use images under a law known
as "fair use," meaning that you are using them for educational
purposes. However, there are a few rules of thumb for legal and ethical
use of images:
DO
provide a caption for the image, and an entry in your bibliography —
you must cite an image just as you would cite a book or journal article
DON'T
use more than 5 images by any one artist/photographer, and not more
than 10% or 15 images from any one published collective work
DON'T
disseminate your work by placing it on the web, or by publishing it
(earning a profit from it), without first approaching the creators of
the images to obtain permission. You will need to be even more aware of
this when you become a practicing professionals, because your work will
no longer fall under "fair use" law.