If you copy or upload content from the internet, make sure you address any copyright issues. This page provides guidance to sharing responsibly online. It also links to free resources that allow you to use other people's works legally and responsibly.
Free open resources
Lots of sites provide free access to images and other content you might find useful. Here's a list of resources that are free of charge and have permissive free reuse rights.
- Digital Bodleian: over a million images of rare books, manuscripts, and other treasures from the Bodleian Libraries and Oxford college libraries.
- Creative Commons Search: search for Creative Commons licensed content across a number of sites
- Flickr: a photo community site that allows you to search for images according to Creative Commons licence. If you find a photo you want to use make sure you have permission and always provide a credit
- Wikimedia Commons: a collection of Creative Commons licensed and Public Domain (out of copyright) images and media
- VADS: the online resource for visual arts: digital images available for use in learning, teaching and research in the UK
- Artstor: image resource for education and scholarly use
- Unsplash: high resolution images available under a free reuse licence
- The Noun Project: free community created icons
- OER Commons: public digital library of open educational resources
- Europeana: search for digitised content from Europe’s cultural heritage institutions.
- Pixabay: royalty-free images & royalty-free stock
Stock image libraries
Some stock image libraries allow use of their content free of charge for personal use. However, most commercial stock image libraries don't allow you to use their content professionally unless you have a licence or are prepared to pay a fee.
Use of images for web content
If you're creating web content, follow our guidance on using images online. Generally, you should make sure any content you use in web content is Creative Commons licensed or is copyright University of Oxford.
Social media
If you're sharing other people’s work on social media, make sure you either have permission or that your use is covered by a copyright exception.
Help
We provide advice, training and specific guidance on copyright law to support you in your work and study. If you have any questions about copyright, email copyright@bodleian.ox.ac.uk
More on copyright
This guidance is adapted from University of Kent Copyright Guidance by Chris Morrison and Angela Groth-Seary (2020) https://doi.org/10.22024/UniKent%2F01.02.92664, and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY 4.0)
