The Media Center has collected links for you to use in multimedia projects. The following content has been tested and approved by librarians as robust and helpful. Although this content does not encompass everything that exists online, it provides a starting point!
Links updated: February 24th 2022
List of Public Domain Image Resources
Google Advanced Image Search (select free to use or share under usage rights)
Library of Congress Photo Stream on Flickr
National Archives Presidential Libraries and Museums
NYPL Digital Gallery (Some of the images in the Digital Gallery may be subject to third party rights such as copyright and/or rights of privacy/publicity)
Smithsonian Flickr PhotoStream
National Parks Service Imagebase
American Memory Timeline for Teachers
New York Public Library Image Archives
Copyright-friendly images and sound Pathfinder
Europeana - Artwork, video and sound.
Everystockphoto - Search engine for free images.
Image*After - Database of images and textures.
Open Clip Art - Lots of free clip art.
Pics 4 Learning - Free copyright friendly images for educational use.
Pixabay - Over 2.5 million images to use including photos and drawings.
Splashbase.co - Images and video to freely use.
Stockvault - Over 60,000 images to browse and download.
Yale Digital Commons - Digital assets curated by Yale University.
ccMixter - Thousands of free sounds and music to download and use.
Piano Society - Classical piano music uploaded by users that is free to use.
YouTube Audio Library - Download background music for your video, completely free.
Jamendo - An independent music community with unlimited free streaming and downloading.
Free Music Archive - Many genres available as well as curated sounds to help you find what you need.
SoundBible - Free sound clips, sound bites and sound effects.
Audionautix by Jason Shaw - Original, electronic songs that are free to use.
Netlabels - Part of the Internet Archive. The collection is completely free with catalogs of virtual record labels.
Partners in Rhyme - Some pay and some free content. Also has effects, Midi and loops to use.
Moby Gratis - Created by the artist, Moby, Online application system, which registers you to use the site.
Incompetech - Background music to download by Kevin MacLeod.
Sound Search Engine - Huge site for finding sound effects.
Splashbase.co - Images and video to freely use.
Classic Cat - Find classical music for video soundtracks.
Purple Planet - Lots of free full length songs to download and use.
Zap Splat - Free sound effects with a huge variety to choose from.
Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project - Mostly Public Domain songs that have been digitized before 1924.
Soungle - Royalty free sound effect search engine.
Freesound.org - Samples and search engine with a forum for discussions.
Here is a list of some of the freely available streaming content found online. These are not part of the database content provided by CNU.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting
40,000 hours of public radio and television broadcasts curated by the Library of Congress and GBH in Boston
American Memory Collection
Several hundred early motion pictures are viewable in the Library of Congress's American Memory collections. Most of these early films are documentaries.
British Pathe
With a unique combination of information and entertainment, all 85,000 documentaries, newsreels, serials and films searchable and viewable on YouTube.
CSPAN Video Library
Includes almost every program that has aired on C-SPAN, including more than 170,000 hours of content, going back to 1987, including author interviews, political rallies, interviews with news makers and journalists.
Documentary Heaven
Browse films by category options such as activist, celebrity, conspiracy, mystery, war, technology, and more.
Fandor
Over 2000 streaming indie movies. It also includes international movies and documentaries covering various categories such as comedy, drama, action and science fiction.
Fedflix
Movies from the United States Government, from training films to history and national parks.
Folkstreams
A national preserve of documentary films about American roots cultures.
Free Documentaries
Run by a non-profit organization that offers a wide variety of documentaries by independent film makers from around the world.
Japanese Animation Movie Classics
With works that go back as far as 1917, this is a deep dive into the world of Japanese animation curated by the Nobuo Ofuji Memorial Museum. There’s traditional cell animation, but also a surprising amount of cut-out animation.
Library of Congress Webcasts
Webcasts from the Library of Congress covering Biography, History, Culture, Performing Arts, Education, Government, Poetry, Literature, Religion, Science, and Technology.
Moving Image Internet Archive
Over 1.5 million digitized videos and clips, including cartoons, commercials and classic films, many public domain or available via Creative Commons license.
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada’s online Screening Room, offering documentaries, animated film and more from around the world. They also have channels for topics like history, biography and the arts.
Netflix Educational Documentaries
A selection of free Netflix films on YouTube.
Open Video Project
A repository of open access digitized videos for education and learning purposes.
Prelinger Archives
Holds approximately 11,000 digitized videos, primarily home movies and amateur films. There is free access to many (but not all) films from the collection on the Internet Archive site.
Public Domain Project
Thousands of audio, image, and video files in the public domain from the collection of the Pond5 stock footage company.
Rarefilmm - The Cave of Forgotten Films
Almost 3,000 free films that have lost their copyright.
RTVE.es A la Carta
The Spanish public broadcasting company, providing free online streaming for a wide variety of its films, documentaries and television programming.
SlideShare
Search thousands of videos through this content sharing program. Click on the "Education" tab for highlighted finds.
TED Talks
Search the TED Talks library of videos filmed at TED conferences, TEDx events, and other events. Try narrowing your search to TED-Ed and view animated video lessons targeted to educators to use for customizing lessons.
The Travel Film Archive
A collection of travelogues and educational and industrial films that show the world the way it was between 1900 and 1970. Its holdings include archives of the renowned travel filmmakers Burton Holmes, Andre de la Varre, and James A. FitzPatrick.
Vimeo Creative Commons
Browse videos with a Creative Commons license. The site has a clear explanation of the different licenses and how you can or cannot use the videos.
