This document discusses online image resources for religious art at the University of Edinburgh. It introduces several major image databases for researching religious art, including the Princeton Index of Christian Art, the University of Edinburgh Image Collections, Oxford Art Online, and ArtStor. Each database contains thousands of images and permits educational use of the images within copyright restrictions. The document provides tips on searching the databases and understanding their individual copyright policies.

1. Picturing heaven : online image
resources for religious art
CHRISTINE LOVE-RODGERS
NEW COLLEGE LIBRARIAN
&
ACADEMIC LIAISON LIBRARIAN, DIVINITY
UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Innovative Learning Week

2. Picturing heaven : online image resources for
religious art at the University of Edinburgh
 Library Essentials
 How do I find
online image
collections?
 How can I use the
images I find?
Song School St Mary, 1897, f.13r. Phoebe Anna
Traquair, (b.1852, d.1936) . Edinburgh University Library

4. A-Z of Library Databases

6. Databases by subject
• Images
• History of
Art

7. What is an image database?
University of Edinburgh Image
Collections
Chronology of Ancient Nations, Or.Ms 161
 a self-contained, searchable
collection of images made
available online for either a
limited group of users (e.g.
University of Edinburgh
students) or the general
public.
 museum and gallery
collections
 commercial image libraries,
 subscription-only services
 Many invisible to Google
because of password-
protection or technical issues.

8. Why use an image database?
University of Edinburgh Image
Collections
Biblia (German) Inc.45.2
 Made by human
beings!
 Added value research
information
 Findability
 Quality
 Copyright

9. Image database copyright
University of Edinburgh Image
Collections
Charles de Croy. Book of Hours, c. 1500.
 Permitted use varies from collection
to collection.
 Usually allows one copy of an image
to be downloaded or printed for
personal use or private study
 Some collections will allow further
educational use such as reproduction
in essays or teaching materials.
 Some are public domain and can be
freely used for any purpose
 Watch out for restrictions on
electronic use e.g. publication on
blog
 Check help pages or contents – look
for a link to “copyright information”
or “terms and conditions”.

10. Image databases to try :
Princeton Index of Christian Art
 Thematic / iconographic
index of Early Christian and
medieval art objects, from
early apostolic times up to
A.D. 1550.
 120,000 images in the
database.
 Copyright permits use for
private study, scholarship, or
research only
 For copyright reasons
approximately 35,000 of
these are restricted access

11. Image databases to try :
University of Edinburgh Image Collections
 All use Luna Insight
browser software
 Password access to
subscription collections
 Permits downloading
 Register for additional
functions

12. Image databases to try :
Oxford Art Online
 6000+ images and
links to 4000+ image
links
 Choose Advanced
Search - Images
 Copyright for
educational use

13. Image databases to try: ArtStor
 One million plus digital
images
 Rich search options to
explore by
period, media or
geographical location
 Copyright for
educational use but
check restrictions

14. Christine Love-Rodgers
New College Librarian
Academic Liaison Librarian -Divinity
Christine.Love-Rodgers@ed.ac.uk
Twitter :
NewCollegeLibrarian@cloverodgers
http://www.ed.ac.uk/is/new-college-library
http://newcollegelibrarian.wordpress.com/