Give credit where credit is due. When you use a public domain work please credit the author or creator. Please also credit the institution (such as the archive, museum or library) that provided the work, as the more you credit the institution the greater the encouragement to put more public domain works online.
Protect the reputation of creators and providers. When you use or modify a public domain work you should not attribute the changes to the creator or the provider of the work. The name or logo of the creator or provider should not be used to endorse the modified work or any use of it without their consent.
Show respect for the original work. Please do not use the work in any way that is unlawful and misleading. When you modify and redistribute a public domain work, any changes made to the original should be clearly indicated. You should label the work to show you have changed it, so that other users know who made the changes.
Show respect for the creator. If the creator, or provider on behalf of the creator, has asked that a public domain work should not be changed or that it should be used in certain contexts only, then please respect their wishes.
Share knowledge. If you use a public domain work to generate new work or if you have additional information about it (such where it came from, its author, content or other possible rights holders), please share your knowledge. That may include tagging, annotating or commenting on a public domain work that is published online and sending back this information to the institution that holds the original object.
Be culturally aware. If the work includes culturally sensitive elements you should not change or use these in ways that might be derogatory to other cultures or communities.
Support efforts to enrich the public domain. Users of public domain works are asked to support the efforts of cultural and scientific heritage organisations to care for, preserve, digitise and make public domain works available. This support should include monetary contributions or work in kind, particularly when the work is being used for commercial or other for-profit purposes and the provider is a public or non-profit institution.
Preserve public domain marks and notices. Users of a public domain work should not remove any public domain mark or notice that has been applied, or provide misleading information about its copyright status.
This usage guide is based on goodwill. It is not a legal contract. We ask that you respect it.