Searching #77: Images

“What does a lupine look like? I need a picture of the El Salvador’s state seal. Where can I find a picture of Davy Crockett?"

We’ve all heard questions like these and can usually find pictures for our use or our customers to use. But how to find one that is free to download and use? Every major search engine has its own image search that is relatively easy to use: – Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.
But how to determine if you can use these images?

What’s the difference between free and royalty free? A "royalty free" image means that the price of the image is the same whatever the time of use and the number of prints. You will still need to buy that image under a royalty free license but then you can use this image without limit of time and without limit of number of uses. There are numerous sites to buy photos from – iStockPhoto or Fotolia to name a couple. "Free" means free - we like our stuff free!

Most of our customers feel the same way. There is a search engine just for pictures called Picsearch. When I searched on “lupine” I got 23,582 hits. Typing in “lupine free” gave me only 32 hits. Further exploration showed that these photos are available for use in “non-commercial website/projects only”. They would like for their website to be acknowledged. The photo used is from © BlossomSwap.com.

Then there is Clip Art – art work that can be used to spiff up any poster. I needed a Santa for our Christmas Blog and got several interesting choices. I tried Microsoft Clip Art (available with the Microsoft Office package), iClipArt, and AllFreeClipArt. I had varying degrees of success with the clip art programs. Harris County Public Library subscribes to a clip art program, called Schools.Clipart for library staff use when making posters, flyers, etc. Each clip from this site must be credited with “@jupiterimages” when used.

Exercises:

1. Using AllFreeClipArt, how many clicks did it take to get to a color Santa that doesn’t look like a troll?
2. Read “10 Places to Find Free Images Online”. Blog about 2 of the sites listed.
3. Try logging in to the clip art program for HCPL use. Each branch has their own login and password you can get from your branch librarian. Find an illustration that could be used for a program at your branch and add it to your blog. Be sure to credit that piece.

Image Credit: www.blossomswap.com/picture/purple_lupines.html