Library Guides: Creating, Updating, or Remixing OER: Finding Open Images

Explore these recommended sources for openly licensed or public domain photos

Openverse
An extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio, available for free use sourced from many places. All Openverse content is under a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.
Wikimedia Commons
Browse or search a large collection of freely usable materials. Some material may be openly licensed (and thus have certain requirements for use). Some material is public domain.
Curated Collections of Public Domain Images
The Public Domain Review shares unique image collections that are available for use in the public domain.
Free to Use and Reuse Sets - Library of Congress
Thematic collections of items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use.
Smithsonian Open Access
Find, download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
Open Image Collections - Digital Art History Directory
Find open image collections from around the world.
Open Clipart

Correctly Attributing Openly Licensed Works

Attribution is required when an openly licensed work is...

redistributed
reused
remixed
revised

Attribution should include...

T = Title*
A = Author (tell reusers who to give credit to)
S = Source (give reusers a link to the resource)
L = License (link to the CC license deed)

If the work was updated, remixed, or changed, that must be noted in the attribution.

*The title is not required in attribution for version 4.0 of the licenses, but it is still good practice to include when available.

Attribution Is Not a Choice
Open licenses are a contract. All Creative Commons licenses require detailed attribution for use. Failure to do so breaks that contract.

TASL is from "Choosing and Applying a CC License" (https://certificates.creativecommons.org/cccertedu/chapter/4-1-choosing-and-applying-a-cc-license/) by Creative Commons. CC BY 4.0.

Recommended practices for attribution
This Creative Commons wiki page provides detailed examples of attributing openly licensed works