Picture libraries supply images to publishers. They can be
prints, transparencies, or digital images on CD.

In children’s non-fiction books photographs help to explain the text. It’s said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ – but that’s only true if the correct picture is used. So where do the photographs in non-fiction books come from, and who finds them?

Once again, my synopsis is the starting point. A picture researcher reads it to see what photographs I want. She (or he) sends a list of my ‘wants’ to companies called picture libraries. These are libraries with millions of images in their collections.You have to pay to use them, and it can be expensive. Some picture libraries have general collections covering everything from aircraft to zebras; others specialize in particular topics, such as art, medicine, sport, and so on.

The picture libraries send photographs from their collections to the picture researcher, and she passes them to the designer. The designer chooses which ones to put into the page layouts.