Recently we have seen the development of large on-line image databases that are being linked to important on-line sites such as the Encyclopedia of Life, the Atlas of Living Australia, Wikipedia in its various forms, the Biodiversity Heritage Library and many others. One such database is the EOL Flickr Site (http://www.flickr.com/groups/806927@N20/) where many photographs (currently approaching 100,000 in less than three years) have been placed by amateurs and professionals alike. But what happens to these images in the long run – if a submitter dies or doesn’t renew their Flickr account for example?  We could end up losing some very valuable biological resources over time if this happens.  I believe we need a biological image archiving site somewhat akin to the Biodiversity Heritage Library – and indeed, that may be the appropriate site – where photographers submitting to the EOL Flickr site (and other similar sites) can request/submit their images – along with the appropriate licensing for long-term archiving. Such a system could then make these images available for our science long into the future and even long after the photographer (or the Flickr site) has gone.

This paper explores the issues and makes a few suggestions as to how this may be done.