Most people think that any image that is visible on the World Wide Web is fair game for use by anybody for any reason, legit or not. Of course, this is not true; when in doubt, assume any image, graphic or photo on the WWW is copyrighted.

On the other hand, there are still LOTS of free sources of imagery available on the Web. Sometimes you may have to acknowledge the source of the images, that is, note where you got it with, usually with a link. Sometimes, you don't have to. Be sure you read the conditions of use, if any, under which you can use the graphics the web site is letting you use. It's only fair...

Below are some links to useful educational collections of photos, videos and graphics which you may use for free - if you use them for educational purposes. Please be sure to check for the following items at any site like this you come across:

• Does the site request a link or credit for the free use of the material?
• Are you planning to use this image in a collection of your own? If so, this is usually prohibited. In other words, don't take from one collection to add to another, even if you won't profit from it.
• Does the artist want you to include a logo or graphic on your site linked back to their site in exchange for a graphic's use?
• Are you prohibited from altering the image in any way - even it's size or by cropping it?

Read all terms of usage carefully. Some collections of clip art may require that you email your page address to the artist so he or she may see how their created images have been used.

American Memory - from the Library of Congress provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music.

Please note: Although the Library of Congress provides some copyright information about the items in this collection, "...it is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections."

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT) is a personal, non-profit project of its author, art historian and visual resources curator Allan T. Kohl. AICT is intended primarily to disseminate images of art and architectural works in the public domain on a free-access, free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large. The images displayed on this site have been photographed on location by the author, who consents to their use in any application that is both educational and non-commercial in nature.

Calisphere is the University of California's free public gateway to more than 150,000 digitized items — including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts — in the history and culture of California and its role in national and world history.

The Earth Science World Image Bank is a service provided by the American Geological Institute (AGI). This Image Bank is designed to provide quality geoscience images to the public, educators, and the geoscience community.

FreeFoto.com is a collection of free photographs for private non-commercial use on the Internet. The comprehensive, yet easy to navigate site is free to private non-commercial users and for sale to other users.

Images & Sound - List of links from ACC's Library Services Visual Communication Resources; Compiled by ACC Librarians.

The Internet Archive's Moving Images Collection of movies, films, and videos. This collection contains thousands of videos which range from classic full-length movies, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to user-uploaded videos of every genre.

Microsoft Office Clip Art and Media - Microsoft provides some of the most widely used royalty-free stock images in the industry. In addition to the well known Clip Art, you can also narrow your search by photos only, or even animations and sounds. Because Microsoft photos are used so frequently, many of them have become cliché, so be selective about the ones you choose.

PicFindr searches the Web (Well, OK, not "THE Web," as in ALL of it - just the parts that have really nice photos you can use for free) for stock photography that is completely free to use commercially. Several licensing arrangements have recently emerged as alternatives to copyright (sometimes called "copyleft") and PicFindr makes sense of them all by helping you find images based on what you have to do to use them. PicFindr can even find free images you can use commercially without requiring permission or credit of any kind!

PicFindr requires the Flash 9 browser plug-in. If you don't already have it, PicFindr will prompt you and install it for you.

Smithsonian Images - from the Smithsonian Institution - is administered and maintained by Smithsonian Photographic Services, the main photographic office for the National Museum of American History Bering Center, National Museum of Natural History, and National Air and Space Museum. As such, the Office maintains an archive of over 2.5 million contemporary and historic images from these museums.

The Smithsonian specifically encourages the use, without charge, of these images by students, teachers, and schools.

They are available for downloading and use in reports and class work, as well as on class-related student and school web sites. Credit must be given to the photographer and the Smithsonian Institution.

In addition, individual photographic prints in a variety of sizes are also available for purchase through this Photographic Services web site.

For more information on restrictions and use see the full Copyright Policy.

Stock Xchng (Stock Exchange) is a free stock-photography site with downloadable high-resolution images suitable for print. The hundreds of thousands of photos featured on the site are searchable by keyword. This is the favored site of many graphic and web designers in the industry. The site requires a one-time free registration in order to download photos, and some photographers list additional restrictions on using their work.