When you use a text-based primary source — such as a newspaper, a magazine, a city directory, information you found in the Census, etc — you must always cite it.

IMPORTANT: Please note that if you are including an image of the source, when you upload it to the Media Library you must ALWAYS include a full citation in the “captions” box.

Here are some examples that will come in handy:

Newspaper and Magazine articles/advertisements:

This article does not have a byline — in other words, the author of the article is not listed in the original source, and is therefore not known to us. If that’s the case, just start the citation with the article title.

 

 

City Directories:

You do not have to include page numbers when citing city directories. It is helpful for your reader, however, if you briefly describe the image in the caption. You can do that in the caption box in the Media Library, or you can edit the caption once you’ve added the media to your post.

Census Manuscripts (from Ancestry.com):

This image has been downloaded from Ancestry.com, a genealogical research website available to you through the GSU Library. The roll/page/enumeration district information can be cut-and-pasted from the Ancestry website. You can make the whole census manuscript page available to readers (if you click on it a hi-res image comes up) …

… or you can take a snapshot of a piece of the image, like this:

 

Here are some examples/models for citation formats for images. In each case, you should put the citation in the “caption” window, which you can find when you upload or edit on “Media.” As you upload more images, make sure to put your citations in there.

You’ll also need to consider whether you need permission to use images you get online. If an image (or a text) was created before 1925, it is automatically in the public domain, which means you don’t need permission to use it. If it was created after that, your need to acquire permission (or to make a “good faith effort” to do so) will depend upon where you found it.

All images must have citations/captions, including those that you’ve taken yourself. (“Photo by [your name]”) You want to do this not only because scholars must cite their sources, but also for the sake of clarity: you want your reader to know what they’re looking at, and where the image came from. Presenting an image without explaining its meaning and purpose can be confusing and misleading.

Please let me know ASAP if there are any other types of image-based primary sources you’re confused about how to cite. I will add to this post as they come up.

Sanborn Maps:

Make sure you include the correct sheet #. No permission needed.

 

Snapshots from Birdseye Maps:

You can find three different birds eye maps of the Atlanta if you go to the Library of Congress website (www.loc.gov) and search for birds eye map Atlanta. You do not need permission to use any of them — they’re all in the public domain. But make sure you cite them, using the correct date and contributor.

Photographs from the GSU Library’s Digital Collections:

You can find the accession/catalog # if you scroll down the page on the Digital Collections website. You do not need permission to use them, but you must give a full citation.

Photographs from the Atlanta History Center:

Here, too, you can find the catalog # by scrolling down the page on the AHC Album website. You don’t need permission as long as you’re using the version of the image with the AHC watermark.

Images from Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons:

If an image appears on Wikipedia, it is possible that the owner of that image has released it to the public domain. If that’s the case, you can use it without permission … but you still need to cite it.

Images from Archival Collections:

This image comes from the Breman Jewish Heritage Museum in Atlanta. It was sent to me by their archivist, and he gave me permission to use it.

Photographs that you took:

Of course, you don’t need permission to use a picture you took, since you took it. If there are people in the picture besides yourself, though, you should get permission from them. In the caption, state what it is a photograph of, if it’s not obvious to the reader. You can give it the caption “Photograph by author,” or you can attach your name to it. Either way, give the date that the photo was taken.