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Alison Moffat
Manager of Library Services
715.319.7336
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Lori Weigel
Instructional Designer
715.788.7124
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Fair Use of Images

Below are resources on Fair Use and searching for images available for use in education.

Google Image Search

You can use Google Search to search for images that are open available to use under Creative Commons Licenses, including Fair Use for education.

From Google:

1. Enter keyword(s) in the search bar
2. Select the Images tab
3. Click on tools
4. Under usage rights, select Creative Commons licenses to filter results
5. Click on an image and select license details to learn more about how the item is licensed
6. If you use an image, remember to include an attribution

Unsplash

Built directly into Blackboard, you can use Unsplash to search for stock photos that are licensed for educational use.

From within your Blackboard course you can add images to Modules, Folders, Documents, Discussion Boards, Message, pretty much anywhere.

Adding an Unsplash Image to a Module or Folder:

When creating or editing a Module or Folder, you can scroll through the pane on the right down to Image and click to Add Image or edit a current image you already have.

Adding an Unsplash Image to a Document, Announcement, Discussion Board post, or other locations

Anywhere you see the text editor, you can add an image from Unsplash by clicking on the Add Image icon in the tool bar.

Search for an image in Unsplash

From the image source dropdown, choose Stock images from Unsplash

Enter your search keyword(s) and browse for an image you would like to use

Outside of Blackboard

You can also search for images outside of Blackboard by going directly to Unsplash's website.

Fair Use Image Repositories

There are many websites that maintain a repository of images available under Creative Commons and other Fair Use licenses.

• Creative Commons Search Portal: search for CC-licensed work in a variety of modalities (images, music, videos) across multiple platforms.

Sciences

• Science Figures: diagrams/clip art for natural sciences.
• MedPix: provided by the National Library of Medicine, contains nearly 59,000 images. Robustly searchable (by symptoms, organ system, image modality, diagnosis, ect.). Especially for health sciences.
• Free Nature Stock: openly-licensed nature photographs and videos

Historical Images

• Library of Congress: over 1.2 million digitized images (photographs, drawings, posters, and ephemera in the public domain).
• Smithsonian Open Access: provides access to over 4.9 million 2D and 3D images from the Smithsonian's collection.
• Flickr Commons: collection within Flickr of historical photographs with no known copyright restrictions.

Stock Photos

• Unsplash
• Nappy
• Gratisography
• Kaboompics
• Pixabay
• Pexels

GIFs/Vector Icons/Clip Art/Stickers

• Clipyly: animated clips
• Flaticon: SVG icons and stickers

Tips and Tricks

Always check the individual image for copyright and guidance on how to image may be used.

Cite your source (title of image, creator, source where the image is located, and copyright license). Include hyperlinks if this is in a digital environment to shorten your attribution (examples).