Illustration in a collection of Anderson's Fairy tales (1899) Helen Stratton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Copyright
- Copyright Guide for StudentsYou are responsible for making sure that all the materials you use comply with copyright law.
Assume that these materials are protected by copyright unless you can determine with confidence that they are not.
Databases
- JSTOR (including ARTSTOR) This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text access to a broad range of resources about the humanities, sciences, and social sciences, including primary sources, images, articles, and books. Does not contain the most recent journal articles.
Try searching JSTOR images for a vague search term ("fairy tales") and versus specific fairy tale characters ("Snow White") or even greater specificity ("Snow White and Rose Red"). Notice how the results change, sometimes greater specificity can result in more exact matches but you may lose some great options the more specific you get!
Public domain collections
- Digital Public Library of AmericaLetters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and other resources from America's libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions
- Flickr: The CommonsPublic photography archives
- Internet archiveAudio, video, and text works that are in the public domain
- Project GutenbergBooks in the public domain
- Wikimedia Commons Public DomainA listing of media items that are in the public domain
Using images and media
Copyright protects digital items just as it does non-digital ones. However, in the digital environment it can be very difficult to see what copyright or license applies and even more difficult to track down a creator to ask for permission.
So what can you do?
- Use images and media with stated licenses.
This includes Creative Commons and public domain works which are usually clearly labeled so that you understand what you need to do to edit or reuse them. - See if your use qualifies as fair use or a subject to the classroom use exception.
You will still need to provide citation information to give proper credit to your sources. - Create your own images or media.
Thanks to technology, creating your own images and media is easier than ever before. - Purchase the rights to use images or media.
There are many sites where you can pay to be able to use images, videos, etc. We recommend pursuing the other three options first!
(The original content created by the Butler University Libraries (CC BY)
and modified by the Salisbury University Libraries)