The PSB Photo Library provides the MIT community with cost-effective photographs for use in MIT print and web publications. Our new library—powered by Thalia, an IS&T image repository—offers improved functionality, such as the ability to search by keyword. We have also added new photos that capture the spirit and energy of MIT.

You can purchase the rights to use a photo and download a high-resolution file for a fee of $20 per photo. To purchase, simply drag desired images to the shopping cart, click Checkout, and fill out the form. Detailed instructions for purchasing are below.

In the future, we plan to add a collection of community-submitted photos that will be available for free for MIT use.

To browse photos
Our collection of over 800 photographs is divided into four libraries, listed in the directory on the left side of the PSB Photo Library home page. You can search for images in several ways:

1. Visually browse each library by selecting one library at a time and scrolling through the images.
2. Search by keyword(s) using the search box. This searches across all four libraries. You can search on two or three keywords by entering each word with a space (no comma) between. Search does not recognize "AND" or "OR."
3. Browse albums to view images of frequently requested searches. Select an image and click on the enlarge icon at the bottom of the screen for an enlarged view. Click the arrow on the top right to jump to the next image.

To purchase photos
Once you have found images you would like to purchase:

1. Click on the image(s) and drag it to the Shopping Cart (1) on the top left of the page.
2. At any time, you can see the images you've selected by clicking either the Shopping Cart (1) on the left, or the View Cart button (2) at the upper right.
3. When you are finished making your selections, click Checkout (3).
4. A new window will open with a list of your selected images and a form to complete. After reviewing the list to confirm your selections, fill out the form, click the terms of agreement box, and press Submit at the bottom of the page.
5. You will receive a confirmation email immediately and a follow-up email within 24 hours.
6. The follow-up email provides a link to the compressed (zip) file of your requested images. Click on the link and your images will download to your desktop.

For more advanced use
When you create an account, you become a member of the PSB Photo Library. You will be able to save searches and create your own album of photos from our library. To create an album, click the + button in the upper left and select Album from the pull-down menu. Give the album a title and a description. You may drag images from a library into your album. The images will be saved in the album and viewable to you the next time you visit.

To create an account for advanced use, email photolibrary@mit.edu.

To create your own library
Thalia is a solution developed by IS&T that enables MIT community members to create and manage their own photo library. For a complete description of features and functionality, visit Thalia help or view the Quickstart.

To create your own instance of Thalia, contact the Thalia help desk.

Learn about photo permissions and usage rights. >>
Learn about additional photo resources at MIT and beyond >>