Students and teachers are looking for quality graphics to enhance lessons and projects using word processing and presentation software. However, some filtering or blocking programs prohibit searching for images. INFOhio's Core Collection of Electronic Resources provides a wealth of graphics and photos which can easily be copied into projects. Presently, each product must be searched individually, so they are listed below by topic.

Three resources include images on a variety of topics:

Britannica Online School Edition – The Britannica encyclopedias include more than 26,000 images and video clips. The quickest way to see the pictures and other visual resources is to use the Britannica Online School Edition screen (the gray-colored button). The results list usually displays several pictures in the frame to the right. Click on More Images for all the images retrieved by your search. These results may also contain Video/Animations, if available. You will also find excellent diagrams to enhance educational units such as labeled parts of plants, anatomy, and how things work.

EBSCOhost – EBSCO's resources have in excess of 107,000 pictures or images. Searching any of the databases will provide the same results. From Searchasaurus, click on the Pictures island and search by image type or by keyword. From any of the resources using the EBSCOhost interface, click on Images on the green menu bar. Again, search by image type or keyword. This is a good resource for country maps and flags.

To make using EBSCOhost images even easier, a new button links directly to the images database. The button is located on INFOhio's main EBSCOhost page.

SIRS Discoverer – This resource contains over 10,000 images from SIRS magazine and newspaper articles. Some graphics are included within articles. However, for quickest use click the Pictures link in the right frame. You can browse alphabetically or perform a keyword search. SIRS Discoverer also has Photo Essays on a variety of subjects. These include several photos on a topic accompanied by brief text.

The following resources contain excellent – but more specific – image types:

AMICO Library – Images from art museums
The I in AMICO stands for Image, so this resource contains over 93,000 images from almost 40 leading museums. In addition to paintings and photographs, AMICO Library contains sculpture, ceramics, architecture, jewelry and other types of art.

AccessScience – Science-related Images
More than 13,000 pictures (called figures) are scattered through many of the articles in this resource. To find them quickly, click on Go to Advanced Search in the upper left corner of the AccessScience home page. Enter your search term. Select Figure Captions, and click Search. All of the entries in the Search Results have at least one figure, some with direct links. In addition to the figures, there is an Image Gallery of collections of graphics on a particular topic.

American National Biography – Famous Americans
If you’re looking for a picture or painting of a famous American, American National Biography has about 2,500 illustrations within the 18,000 articles. From a Search Results List, those articles with pictures are marked with a camera icon.

Annals of American History – Historical Images & Photographs
While this resource's focus is on primary text documents, the publishers have  included several hundred multimedia entries, and many are photos that relate  to U.S. History and culture. A quick way to the pictures is to use the timeline. After selecting a time period, select Multimedia from one of the  three dropdown menus. Click Go to see images, audio and video. Many of the results from a keyword search display pictures, too.

Enciclopedia Universal en Espaņol – Maps, flags & pictures…in Spanish
If you prefer to search a Spanish encyclopedia for pictures, this resource has hundreds, especially maps, flags and pictures of Spanish-speaking countries. They are included with the articles, not in a separate section. First, search for a topic. Look for the Illustraciones button on search results lists.

Oxford Reference Online
Most of the articles in this resource are brief, dictionary-like entries. So, there aren't a lot of pictures. However, the Maps & Illustrations link on the main search page leads to maps, flags and illustrations from the Visual English Dictionary. Eventually, the publisher promises 6,000 or so. For now, there are hundreds of labeled diagrams on hundreds of topics. Well worth a look! Each image includes specific citation information.

Adding Images to Your Project

Linked from INFOhio's Help Resources page for AMICO Library, How to AMICO: A Guide for Users of the AMICO Library, Winter 2002 is an excellent manual that explains how to add images to Microsoft Word and PowerPoint presentations. The document also provides information about citing graphical resources. These directions work well with most INFOhio and other resources.

Citing Graphics and Media

Just as we teach students to cite all print and online resources used, it is just as critical to model and teach citation of all graphic resources. Many of INFOhio's Core Collection of Electronic Resources will provide specific or general methods of citing their resources. If you are unsure, ask your librarian for help in creating a proper citation.

SIRS Discoverer has an excellent Help screen for citing resources. From the main search screen near the bottom of the page, click on How to Cite for an overview of citing all types of results, including graphics & media. Here are two examples:

"Title of graphic." Graphic Type. Copyright Holder. Name of site providing graphic. Date of access <URL of service's homepage>.

"Afghanistan." Map. Magellan Geographix. SIRS Discoverer. 25 Feb. 2004 http://www.sirs.com.

Sheila Benedum
Librarian, Bay High School
Electronic Resources Spotlight Coordinator

Suggestions
INFOhio participants and visitors to this site are encouraged to submit suggestions to INFOhio about our Electronic Resources and ER Spotlights.