The easiest way to avoid dealing with the hassle of copyright law and Creative Commons licenses is to create your own content. Take your own pictures, create your own graphs and tables, or even create your own diagrams. Canva can be helpful for creating figures and is available for students.
You should credit the content you create by adding an Image by [your name] under the image.
If you autogenerate images in PowerPoint, you should state "Generated by PowerPoint" under the image.
You may reuse content found in scholarly articles or other materials that have a Creative Commons license, as long as you follow the procedures on the Reusing Images page for the particular license.
The Libraries license agreements for the following databases also allow us to reproduce the content they contain without obtaining additional permission:
Wikimedia Commons is the best place to search for Creative Commons licensed images that are free to download and adapt. NOTE: All images found on Wikipedia are provided through Wikimedia Commons. The Digital Public Library of America and other online museums also upload their photos through Wikimedia Commons.
Once you find a photo, click the image title or the More Details button to access all the download sizes and the license information.
Check the Reusing Images page to make sure you are following the license terms, and attributing the photo correctly.
The Creative Commons (CC) Search Portal works across multiple platforms, such as Openverse, Flickr, and Europeana. Not all images are licensed for reuse or adaptation. Check the CC License!
You can narrow the search to find either "Use Commercially" or "Modify or adapt" using the license section filter.
Find an image and select "Get this image"
Scroll down to "Additional info" to find the license information - you should see a link for either "All rights reserved" or "Some rights reserved." When you select the link, it directs you to the Creative Commons License for the image. You will need to link to this Creative Commons License page for your citation.
