Sharing photos for the university photo library

From: Communications and Marketing

As the university navigates upcoming changes to Google Drive and Google Photos and future changes to Microsoft storage, Communications and Marketing encourages faculty and staff to work with their communications teams in the colleges and units to identify and share curated photo selections to our central university photo library.

Please take this opportunity to work with your communications teams to share your best images for upload to our central photo database. This will allow your students and faculty to be represented among images from across the university.

If you have older photos that are significant to the university’s history, such as old photos showing dignitaries visiting campus, dedications and ribbon-cuttings, and more, please work with your communications directors to share those photos with Special Collections and University Archives.

Current and present-day photos should be considered for the university photo library. Photos of historical significance should be shared with Special Collections.

What should I share for upload to photo library?

• Curated highlights of:
  • Students and faculty doing hands-on work, research, labs, fieldwork, and more
  • Student life and student experiences
  • Official portraits of leadership, such as deans and faculty
• Considerations:
  • Only submit photos that Virginia Tech has the rights to use. 
  • Include a photo credit and caption information for each photo. Example: "November 7, 2022 - Members of the electric motorcycle design team, BOLT, work in the Ware Lab on their bike. (Photo by Clark Kent/Virginia Tech)"
  • If two to three photos are shared in an article for Virginia Tech News, those two to three photos should be considered for upload to the library.
  • Please also consider university and college and unit priorities and storytelling.

What to avoid

• Photos older than six months
• Full takes. If you have 50 images from a single event or story, please share your best five to 10 photos via your communicator.
• Step-by-step research documentation, unless it’s part of a storytelling or communications effort, such as a microscope’s view of microplastics used to illustrate a news article, for example
• Equipment photos or documentation, unless it’s part of a storytelling or communications effort

For questions about whether your photos should be shared in the photo library, please contact the communications director for your college, department, or unit.