Architecture Visual Resources Library

Room: 494 Wurster Hall
Phone: 510.642.3439
Fax: 510.642.8655
Mail: 232 Wurster Hall - MC#1800
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1800

Copyright & Use of Images
If you find it, you can use it for educational purposes, as a fair use.

  • Use in education includes:
    • teaching
    • criticism
    • scholarship
    • research
  • Use in web publications requires thorough image documentation. If you are using an image you found on the Internet, link to its original host.  
  • Use in print publications is generally not a fair use unless in the public domain.
  • Use in print publications generally requires permission of the copyright owner. There are exceptions, for example, when due diligence to determine copyright owner fails, or in the public domain or has a copyright creative common share license.

More information on image intellectual property rights and copyright is available at:
Richard Hamilton, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing? collage, 1956.

Image Documentation: Captions, Attributions & sources
When teaching with images, the instructor usually describes and elucidates the images. Attribution and source are generally not necessary during class, but are critical records to keep.

  • Captions describe and/or elucidate images
    Captions work best in print publications
    Sample captions:
    1. Interior of ruined Chellah, in Rabat, Morocco, in 1985
    2. Steel frame construction of Sather Tower in 1914
    3. The interior of Maybeck's Roos House in Berkeley in the 1950s
    4. A map of New Orleans in 1885
    5. A typical pleasure ground, Jackson Park, Chicago
  • Attributions assign credit for the creation of an image
    Attributions are important in research and seminars
    Sample Attributions:
    1. Stronach photograph, 1985. Lifchez Collection.
    2. Photographer unknown
    3. Roy Flamm photograph
    4. World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition Plan No. 2
    5. Photo by John Wilson Taylor, 1885

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Maryly Snow
Jason Miller
Architecture Visual Resources Library
University of California, Berkeley