Duplication & Permission Services at The Bancroft Library

The Library is home to many works within collections which you can use without requesting any permission or additional license. This can be for one of two reasons:

• The work is in the Public Domain: it is not protected by copyright, so therefore no license needed; or
• The work is already covered by a Creative Commons License: a license has already been applied, and you just have to comply with those terms. 

We have compiled a list of collections that house works which are either in the Public Domain or covered by a Creative Commons License. Please use the in-line links provided to access these lists. To see the rights status and usage terms of any collections not on these lists, you will need to consult our catalog records or finding aids. The rights status and usage terms for individual works that have already been digitized can be found on Calisphere and our Digital Collections site. If you have any questions about rights status for a particular collection or work, please send an email to schol-comm@berkeley.edu.

The collections listed below are in the public domain—that is, they were never or are no longer protected by copyright. Under our policy, we do not require anyone to get our, or anyone else's, permission to use works that are in the public domain. 

• Walter Robert and Gail Lynn Kransky collection of Edward H. Mitchell postcards, BANC PIC 2017.021
  • all of the works in this collection were first published in the U.S prior to 1916.
• War Relocation Authority photographs: Japanese-American evacuation and resettlement, BANC PIC 1967.014
  • all of the photographs in this collection were taken by employees of the U.S Federal government and are in the public domain.

There are many collections and individual works within our collections that have not been added to this list.  Please see the resources on the Copyright, Fair Use, and Your Project tab for more information about how to make your own public domain determination.

1. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY) License

For any collection with a CC-BY 4.0 license, you do not need to ask the Library or anyone else for permission to make any use of the work. This license is designed for maximum dissemination and use of the works it covers. You can review the terms of the license here. No additional permission or license from the UC Regents or anyone else is needed to use these works, even if you are using the work for commercial purposes. You do not need to pay any fees, and no paperwork is necessary.

Although you do not need further permission to use materials with a CC-BY license, you do still need to attribute the creator and/or copyright holder in your use or citation of the work. You can find the specific required attribution line of each collection in the list below.

• Thérèse Bonney Photograph Collection, BANC PIC 1982.111

  • As of July 2022, all of Thérèse Bonney's work, regardless of where the work is located, is covered by the CC BY license. Large collections of her work may also be found at the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris (BHVP).

  • Attribution: Thérèse Bonney, © The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
• Roy Flamm collection of California architectural photographs, BANC PIC 1978.040-.089
  • As of January 2023, all of Roy Flamm's work, within this collection at The Bancroft Library, is covered by the CC BY license. Photographs taken by Flamm, but not found in this collection, are not covered by the CC BY license, and you must either make a fair use determination or obtain permission from the copyright holder.
  • Attribution: Roy Flamm collection of California architectural photographs, © The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
• Johan Hagemeyer photograph collection, BANC PIC 1964.063-.064
  • As of January 2023, all of Johan Hagemeyer's work, within this collection at The Bancroft Library, is covered by the CC BY license. Photographs taken by Hagemeyer, but not found in this collection, and photographs taken by others and found within this collection, are not covered by the CC BY license, and you must either make a fair use determination or obtain permission from the copyright holder.
  • Attribution: Johan Hagemeyer photograph collection, © The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.
• San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper photograph archive, BANC PIC 1959.010, and the 1934 International Longshoremen's Association and General strikes of San Francisco photograph archive, BANC PIC 1959.003
  • As of January 2023, all of the photographs taken by staff photographers for the San Francisco News-Call Bulletin (and its predecessors), within the collection at The Bancroft Library, are covered by a CC BY license. Photographs in this collection taken by anyone other than these staff photographers, or works taken by these staff photographers but not found in this collection, are not covered by the CC BY license, and you must either make a fair use determination or obtain permission from the copyright holder.
  • Attribution: San Francisco News-Call Bulletin newspaper photograph archive, © The Regents of the University of California, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. This work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.