Subject Guides: Copyright: NIC Library: Public Domain and Creative Commons Resources

Public Domain and Creative Commons Resources

The following links will connect you with collections where the majority of works are Public Domain, or have a creative commons license. Please note that it is your responsibility to clarify each collection’s terms of use.

The following resources will assist you in using images in your reports, presentations and learning tools while complying with Canadian Copyright Law. Please note that it is the individual’s responsibility to clarify each collection’s terms of use.

While the Copyright Act requires only the creator and source of the image to be cited, enough information should be available so that that it is easy for the reader to locate the source of the image as well as the image itself. There are also specific citation styles that you may be asked to follow (APA, MLA, and Chicago).

The following are examples of common citation styles that meet basic Copyright Act requirements.

Creative Commons-Licensed Images

All CC attributions should have the same basic information:

title of image
creator name
source of the image (usually in the form of a URL to image source page)
any copyright information included with image (such as a watermark)
CC license information (including link back to CC documentation page if possible)

Print and Electronic Publications

Must include:

name of the creator
title of the work (if possible)
source of the image

For more in-depth information and examples of image citation, see the APA Style Guide as well as the MLA Style Guide at the NIC Library & Learning Commons website. Additional information is available at the University of British Columbia's Image Citation Guide, on which the above information is based.