LibGuides: Images for the Web: Guidelines for MIT Libraries: Find images

Useful tips for finding and evaluating images

Searching for visual content in online environments is often confusing even for those who are quite experienced with text-based searching. The following are strategies for finding images in online retrieval systems:

Images are non-verbal form of information. Take a minute before searching to understand how they are described.
START SMALL. Use one or two keywords and add additional keywords if your results are too large. Be willing to experiment with different search strategies.
Use synonyms and variant spellings (example: Shanghai and Shangai)

Visual literacy is the ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use visual information.

For more, consult ACRL Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." Dorothea Lange, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, August 13, 1978

A sampling of interdisciplinary image content

Copyright Friendly Image Resources
From teacherlibrarianwiki: Most of the images in the linked collections include images with a variety of less restrictive licensing.
Marketing Team's Image Resource List
MIT Libraries professionally shot photos; Publishing Services Bureau (PSB) images available to license and other resources.
Finding and Using Public Domain Photographs
Some of these resources have a mix of public domain and copyrighted photos. Make sure you check before using.
Public Domain Sherpa
This page lists resources for high-quality public domain photographs.
Image*After
Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial.
Europeana
Provides access to over 4 million research-oriented images, texts, and audio files in libraries, museums, archives, and other research institutions all over Europe.
Wikimedia Commons
Historical and contemporary images contributed by participants. Millions of high-resolution images of art, architecture, design, people, historical events, diagrams, maps, and more.
Flickr Commons
Cultural heritage institutions share photographs from their collections
Library of Congress American Memory
More than 7 million sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience drawn from more than 100 collections
New York Public Library Gallery
650,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities--illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, fashion plates, and other printed ephemera