Visual Literacy: Finding OER images

OER stands for Open Educational Resources. 

When you use images that you did not create in your work, it is important to make sure that you don’t violate anyone's copyright. The images you find on the Web may not be available for reuse at all or only available for reuse if you pay license fees or ask for permission. 

There are resources that provide quality images that you can use freely as long as you attribute the images to their creators and meet the terms of the license.

How to search for a freely available image in Flickr

1. Go to https://www.flickr.com and type your keyword in the search box.
2. Click on Any license on the search results screen to bring up license options. Then click on All creative commons to limit your search results to images that are freely available for reuse.

3. Choose an image you would like to use by clicking on the image. This will take you to the main image page which provides information about the image.
4. Click on the Some rights reserved link right below the image to find the license information. This will open up the summary of the license under which the image is offered. The license specifies what you can do with the image and the terms you have to meet.

"Rays of Hope" by Mick Talbot is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

How to search for a freely available image in Google Images

1. Go to https://www.google.com and type your keyword in the search box.
2. Click on the Images tab right below the search box. Then click on Search Tools to bring up search filter options.

3. Click on Usage rights and choose the option that meets your needs. Note the default is “Not filtered by license”.

4. Choose an image by clicking on the image. This will open the image in a larger size with information about the image.
5. Click on Visit page to find license information. Note sometimes you have to dig deeper to find the license information.

"The last hope" by Johnny Martínez is licensed under CC BY-ND 3.0

How to search for a freely available image with Creative Commons 

1. Go to https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/ and type your keywords in the search box. This searches hundreds of public repositories, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and New York Public Library. You can limit your search to specific repositories if you wish.

2. Click on the image to see the attribution information, including a link to the source and the license type. 

3. Click on the license type to see information about that license and attribution requirements. 

How to attribute images to their creators

There is a tool to help you create attributions.

1. Go to http://www.openwa.org/ and click on Open Attribution Builder at the top right of the screen.

2. Locate the title, author, and license information of the image you are going to use and enter the relevant information into the Builder. The Builder will generate the attribution for you.