Copyright & Fair Use

Visual Resources Library Images & Policies

We are in the process of updating the VRL copyright and fair use pages. (11.10.2021) The VRL provides images from ARTstor and the Macalester Art History Digital Collection for use inside the college. You can use these images for any academic presentations, papers, projects, etc. In order to use images for non-educational and/or commercial reasons, you will need to seek permission from the copyright owner. Contact the VRL at [email protected] or Librarian Ginny Moran at [email protected].

Images in the Visual Resources Library collections are copyrighted. Reproduction of digital images in any format is regulated by law and subject to prior agreement with the owner, publisher or vendor of the item. When using these images, it is the user’s responsibility to observe the rights of the copyright holders.

Contents of the collection are drawn from a variety of sources and therefore have different rights issues. Individuals and vendors have contributed images to the Visual Resources Library collections. These contributors maintain copyright and also dictate usage of their images. Images licensed from vendors may have restrictions on use, but may be used for educational purposes.  Images for educational purposes  fall under “Fair Use”, and are made available to faculty for teaching. Images falling under “Fair Use” may be made accessible to the students in a class and students may use them for academic research papers and scholarly projects.

Fair Use Factors

Gregory Johnson, CC Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0

Copyright Tools & Resources

The links below can help you navigate and research the complexities and nuances of copyright to ensure you adhere to the rules and guidelines set by U.S. copyright law.  Feel free to contact the VRL or Librarian Ginny Moran with any questions.

• University of Minnesota Copyright Guidelines on Teaching
  This page gives solid and helpful advice to staff and faculty who are preparing readings for courses.  It will help faculty better understand fair-use situations and alternative methods of  making materials available to students.
• The Association of Research Libraries has published a number of helpful guidelines and fact sheets on copyright and fair use, including:
  Know Your Copy Rights
  Fair Use Fundamentals
  Fair Use Promotes the Creation of New Knowledge
  Fair Use Myths and Facts

• Creative Commons Licenses
  A guide to the licensing levels provided by Creative Commons, from most accommodating to most restrictive.
• Digital Image Rights Computator
  The Digital Image Rights Computator (DIRC) program is intended to assist the user in assessing the intellectual property status of a specific image documenting a work of art, a designed object, or a portion of the built environment.

• CAA List of Image Banks
  This site lists sources that provide images for a wide range of uses, including academic and scholarly use, with a focus on images suitable for publication.
• Visual Resources Association: Copyright Resources
  Articles and information about how to use images within the boundaries of the university.

• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts
  This Code of Best Practices provides visual arts professionals with a set of principles addressing best practices in the fair use of copyrighted materials. It describes how fair use can be invoked and implemented when using copyrighted materials in scholarship, teaching, museums, archives, and in the creation of art.

• Stanford University Libraries: Fair Use Information
  Want to learn about fair use? This site is a great place to keep up with latest developments. Subscribe by RSS for more frequent updates.

• ALA Copyright Advisory Network
  Features tools for determining copyright, fair use, Section 108, public domain, and exceptions for instructors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Written by, or adapted from, Vanderbilt University Libraries (current as of April 2018).