Citing Sources for Web Pages

Publishing and Copyright

Copyright means that an individual who creates a work has ownership rights, which include being able to profit from sale of the work or its reproduction.  If you decide to publish your web site on the Internet, you will own the copyright to your site and should place a copyright notice at the bottom of your page.  Here's a sample:

©2005 Suzy Q. Student

Material from this site may be copied for personal use only. Any other use requires written permission from the author.

Contact the Author

Copyright law (http://www.templetons.com/brad/copyright.html) grants students the right to use someone else’s work—or a portion of it—for educational purposes, as long as the originator of the work is properly acknowledged, or cited. When you publish, especially to a medium with world-wide distribution, you are responsible for your site's contents, including all text and graphics.

If you use a portion of someone else's text on your web site, you must properly cite the author, just as you would for a research report. If you use graphics you've found on the Internet, you must either follow the instructions at a particular site or request permission for use. The bottom of your page must include the source and may need to include a link to the web site.  It is your responsibility to read and understand the copyright restrictions for the graphics you use and correctly credit them on your page. Read: District Copyright and Web Publishing

Image Source Information

Document your sources and keep the documentation where you can find it.  When you save an image in a folder, give it a unique name so you can identify and locate the image later.  Keep a Word document in which you include information about the image. Example:

Mt. Baker glacier.jpg, URL, site name, location or page on site, date found

Perhaps you won't use all of the images you save, but if you have documentation, you won't need to track down the source of a graphic you saved on a previous Internet search.

Image Credit Examples

A graphic from the Internet

• Ask the creator for permission to use it.  Most web sites have “contact information,” and frequently it’s a matter of hours or a day before you receive a reply.
• Requesting permission is easy with this form: http://www.bham.wednet.edu/COPYPERM.HTM

Image Credit: Permission to use dogbone.gif granted by Rex Dauggert

Graphics from a “free graphics” web site

• Look for “Terms and Conditions of Use,” and carefully follow the guidelines. 
• You may be asked to include a link to the site on the page where you use the graphic

Image credit:  Background-http://www.discoveryschool.com

Graphics from Microsoft Clip Art Gallery

• You need to acknowledge your source, even though the school district is a licensed Microsoft Office user. 
• Note that most clip art cannot be modified other than to resize the image for your space.

Image credit:  Microsoft Clip Art Gallery

Copyright Notice: No materials on any of the Bellingham Schools’ web pages may be copied without express written permission unless permission is clearly stated on the page.
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Bellingham Public Schools. 1306 Dupont St. Bellingham WA 98225-3198