The Internet provides a rich source of images for art educationalists, although locating specific images can be difficult. Search engines make it possible (though sometimes difficult) to find textual information, these links should simplify locating images on the Internet.

For a detailed description on how search engines work go to http://www.searchenginewatch.com/

An in depth article written by Tara Calishain, co-author of the Official Netscape Guide to Internet Research, can be found via the Tidbits Archive and her book on the subject is available from Amazon

Some hints on using these links

AltaVista allows you to search with a special search command called "image:". For example, "image:giraffe" returns Web pages containing a graphic file containing the word "giraffe" in the title, or with words that begin with "giraffe," like "giraffe1" or "giraffe9."

If you use that search query to search for giraffe pictures, you'll receive over 1,400 results and possibly give up in despair (or spend way too much time online previewing images); however, if you use additional searching commands to build a context for the giraffe image, you'll get better results. For example, say you wanted pages that were giraffe intensive. (Nothing but neck, you might say.) You could use the command "title:" to search for pages containing "giraffe" in the title. The search query "title:giraffe image:giraffe" results in a more manageable number of results.

Keep in mind that even with special syntax, AltaVista can be case-sensitive; it does not treat the search queries "image:giraffe" and "image:GIRAFFE" in the same way. If you use only lowercase letters in a word, AltaVista finds all instances of the word regardless of capitalization, but if you capitalize even a single letter, AltaVista searches only for words with exactly the same capitalization.

On the other hand, you might want giraffe images in a more scholarly context. The search command "domain:" limits your search to certain domain types, so the search query "image:giraffe domain:edu" produces about 100 results of giraffe images located on computers in the educational domain.

You can also use AltaVista's inclusion and exclusion operators ("+" and "-") to force AltaVista to include or omit search terms. For instance, you may want only pictures of Rothschild giraffes. Searching for "+rothschild image:giraffe" gives you a glorious picture of a Rothschild giraffe from Kenya. Since these giraffes are often referred to as the "Rothschild's giraffe," if you use AltaVista's wildcard character, the asterisk to deal with variations on the name, "+rothschild* image:giraffe" provides a few more pages with giraffe pictures, including a wonderful page from the Perth Zoo.

 HotBot is a bit more complex, but it also works when searching for images. Instead of the special commands that AltaVista uses, HotBot takes advantage of checkboxes and pop-up menus.

HotBot's basic search form has just been changed to enable image searching. Use the Look For pop-up menu to specify the basic criteria for your search (all the words, none of the words, the exact phrase) or more narrow search queries (there's an option for "Boolean phrase," letting you build your own Boolean search query.) You can also restrict your search to page titles by selecting "the page title" in the Look For pop-up menu.

To continue our example from the AltaVista discussion, to search for giraffe images on academic Web pages, try filling out the form as follows: Type "giraffe" in the Search the Web field; leave "all the words" chosen in the Look For pop-up menu; from the pop-up menu labeled "North America (.com)" select "North America (.edu)" and select the adjacent checkbox; and in the Pages Must Include section, select the image checkbox.

This is a lot of pointing and clicking to suffer through, but it works well: HotBot displays a number of results ranging from giraffes at the Washington DC zoo to a giraffe birth video. The More Search Options form makes it easy to add (or exclude) additional words and phrases such as Rothschild or Kenya.

HotBot has such a large database that you want to narrow your results further. I suggest using the date options on HotBot's More Search Options form to specify pages added to HotBot's database before or after a certain date, or within a recent time period.

 Lycos has created a search engine just for media, called Lycos Pictures & Sounds. You enter your search terms, select the Pictures radio button, and click the Go Get It button. This doesn't seem like a lot of control, does it?

Fortunately, Lycos also has an advanced search interface, which looks a lot like HotBot's: you can narrow your search by domain, file type, and title. In addition, Lycos uses a unique method of sorting results, allowing you to specify the importance of certain aspects of the results. You can indicate how important the frequency of the search word is, whether your search terms appear in exact order, and so on.

Unfortunately, Lycos's Pictures & Sounds search engine is a little more awkward to use than the HotBot engine, offering no easy way to build complex Boolean expressions, and the database appears to be far smaller.

One starting point is the Excalibur Image Surfer (a Yahoo! version of this service is also available), which includes a subject listing of available images and a search engine. If you generally know what you're looking for, consider using the subject listing first. It allows you to begin with a general topic (such as Sports or Transportation) and peruse images grouped under more specific subjects (like Volleyball or Spacecraft). If you don't see your intended subject listed, try the search form. For example, the subject listing does not include North Carolina, but a keyword search for "North Carolina" brought back 59 results. Excalibur provides images in small thumbnail versions, six to a page. They load quickly, making a short task of previewing many images without surfing through several sites.

 Another subject-and-search image catalog is WebSEEk, a catalogue of more than 600,000 images and videos that lets you browse by subject or perform text searches (which can be restricted to video, color photos, gray images, or graphics - though I can't determine what exactly "graphics" are). WebSEEK presents images in thumbnail format, fifteen to a page. Some categories could stand to be subcategorized - the owls category includes 288 pictures, and animals/zoos lists over 900 - but this is still a huge number of resources available in one place. WebSEEk also features a postcard sender, which dispatches an email message containing the URL of an image and a message.

 To find images with more of an academic angle, try the Amazing Picture Machine. It supports basic keyword searching using two fields, linked by a trio of operators: "only" narrows the search to the contents of the first field; "and" searches for both fields; and "or" specifies a search for the contents of either field. Results appear as text-only listings with links to actual image files. Included for each picture is its type, file size, pixel dimensions, and format - such as "Color photograph (54K, 600x440 pixels, jpeg)" - followed by a description of the picture's subject. (A picture of Henry Clay, for example, describes him as "the influential 19th century American politician from Kentucky.")

 If you can't locate the images you want, try SunSite's Image Finder, which searches several different image collections, including the SunSite Image Database, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the Library of Congress.

 If you're interested in art in particular, try the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco ImageBase. The ImageBase contains over 60,000 images of paintings, photographs, sculpture, and other artwork. You can browse particular exhibitions or search for artwork by artist's last name or keyword.

 One potential pitfall when searching for images is the variety of the results, depending on the keywords you supply. Entering "hawk" as a search term in the Excalibur database brought up many basketball players and teams, while "falcon" yielded several images of birds. Similarly, after diving down several layers of menus to Animals: Cats: Panthers at WebSEEk, you'll find several Pink Panthers, a few guys apparently nicknamed "Panther," the logo of the Green Panthers, and even a panther tattoo - but nowhere in the 30 images cataloged in this category will you find a photograph of an actual panther. On the other hand, viewing the Hawk category brought up page after page of hawk photographs.

 Image searching can still be a hit and miss endeavor, but the quantity and quality of image archives is growing. It's important to keep in mind, however, that just because an image is available for viewing doesn't mean it's also available for reuse. Before you do anything with an image besides view it, make sure it's either in the public domain, or that you have secured the rights (which may involve a fee) for your use.