Credit Lines for Images
You are required to place a credit line below any of the images you use in your documents. As well, your teacher may require you to cite images in your bibliography. The content of your credit line will depend on what sort of restrictions are attached to use of the image. Please ensure that the images you use are copyright friendly.
1. Your Own Material
If you use a photograph you have taken, provide your name as the author of the photograph. Include a caption describing the image and the credit line giving your name as the author of the image (Figure 1).
(Figure 1). (Figure 2).
“Earth in Full
Library Display. Photo by Arlene Anderson "Earth in Full View". Photo NASA
2. Material Available (With Permission) from the WWW
Many organizations grant permission for you to use their images freely so long as you provide a credit line identifyingthe source of the image. For example, NASA makes almost all of its images freely available.
Figure 2 provides an example of a credit line for a NASA image. NASA's caption for the picture is provided in quotation marks and NASA is credited. Credit is given to NASA in this case, rather than an individual author, because the name of the author is not available.
3. Material Available Under Creative Commons License
An increasing number of private individuals and institutions are allowing members of the public to use their work under a Creative Commons license.
Figure 3 shows a photograph from the McCord Museum that can be reproduced for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons license. In addition to providing the artist's name, the museum requires users to provide the name of the museum and a catalogue number for the item. Note that a link to the Creative Commons Page that describes the terms of the license is provided.
(Figure 3) (Figure 4)
“North East View, Nortre Dame Street, Montreal.” “GE Bulb.” Photo by Miguel Navrot CC BY / NC
| Print by John Murray. McCord Museum. M970.67.22 CC BY / NC / ND |
Figure 4 shows a photograph obtained from the photo sharing website Flickr. This photograph is also licensed for reproduction under a Creative Commons license. When you write a credit line for images found on Flickr that are licensed under the Creative Commons, provide the name of the author and a link to his/her profile, and information about the terms of licensing as well as a to the Creative Commons page that describes the license.