Open Access Resources: Audio, Video, and Images

Live Music Archive, Netlabels, Presidential Recordings, and more.

audio collections and an audio archiving standardization project.

Includes Image, Sound, Moving Image and Physical Object (photos of objects), as well as Interactive, Text, and Data.

Not technically an audio collection, this collection of public domain sheet music and music scores does host some recordings of the public domain music as well. Also see the Tufvesson collection of online sheet music.

Audio recordings of classic literature and poetry, such as Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and Whitman's "Song of Myself".

Creative Commons licensed music, audio, and video available for use and reuse

Audio files of poetry readings, downloadable and reusable.

A collection of links to audio book sites.

Annual lecture since 1961, "the CBC will invite a noted scholar to undertake study or original research in his field and present the results in a series of half-hour radio broadcasts."

Free spoken word content from the British Broadcasting Corporation and similar open sources of spoken word broadcasting.

Audiobook versions of literature specifically arranged and categorized for teachers of literature. Some reading strategy/lesson plan materials available as well.

Streaming audio of recordings from Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room audio collection.

A history of Western philosophy through a series of podcast lectures by Peter Adamson, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King's College, London.

Short reports from leading researchers on the latest research (daily podcast)

The podcasts of this weekly show are available on the website and in iTunes. Also available are videos, blog posts, and teacher resources.

The Digital Library also includes images, video, and documents. Most materials are public domain--all are open access.

Portland State's recently rediscovered lost-in-storage recordings of speakers on campus. 1952-1979. Allen Ginsberg, JFK, Margaret Mead, Loren Eisley, Alex Haley, Eugene McCarthy. Science, history, education, writing, politics.

advertising, animation, conference presentations, lectures, digital shows, etc.

Includes Image, Sound, Moving Image and Physical Object (photos of objects), as well as Interactive, Text, and Data.

Open access music and sheet music. They are also planning a music theory textbook.

Full length video from the full range of Public Broadcasting shows. Some shows have limited online availability; be sure to check the expiration date under Details.

structional video series on a variety of subjects; many originally broadcast on public television. Videos with VoD (Video on Demand) icon can be viewed free on the web.

Over 800 (as of 11/2010) videos from TED conferences, events, and partner events. CC licensing, and subtitles (in English, with additional languages added through the TED Open Translation Project).

Talks about technology from some of the best people (not necessarily tech people) on the planet. Social impacts, implications, art, music, science, medicine...

Math and science video modules at a high school level from MIT.

An astonishing collection of video and images, mostly from government sources.

Video interviews and lab demonstrations from one of the primary publishers in chemistry. Labs are connected to articles in the publisher's open access journals.

Science videos related to the weekly show and more. Subject categories are along the left side. Also available are podcasts of the weekly show, blog posts, and teacher resources.

The Digital Library also includes audio, images, and documents. Most materials are public domain--all are open access.

Videos about the Archives, of events, and archival footage from the collections.

Free stock video footage, either CC licensed (BY-3.0) or licensed by the company for easy use in non-commercial and commercial projects. Be sure to check which license is used, so that you know if you have to include the individual clip in your credits! Ad-supported, registration required, no fees.

a collection of over 7,000 advertisements from U.S. and Canadian magazines from 1911-1955.

Maps. Also environmental and map related educational materials.

700,000 images (and growing) from NYPL's historical collections. Free for "individual private study, scholarship and research only."

Includes Image, Sound, Moving Image and Physical Object (photos of objects), as well as Interactive, Text, and Data.

Beautiful illustrations from natural history books, field guides, travelogues, etc: plants, animals, landscapes, and more. Most images are licensed CC-BY for easy reuse.

An astonishing collection of video and images, mostly from government sources.

Election data displayed in a variety of ways by Prof. Mark Newman of the University of Michigan. Older data maps are available from the FAQ page. CC licensed. Additional maps.

An archive of federal websites and the changes that happen when the administration changes. Searchable and browsable.

The Digital Library also includes audio, video, and documents. Most materials are public domain--all are open access.

American Memory, Prints & Photographs, Maps, Film, National Jukebox, and many more digital collections. Plus loads of subject guides and blogs, like Picture This, highlighting great resources

While all the images on the Met's website are copyrighted and licensed for educational and personal use only, they mark images where the source artwork is in the public domain (searchable). These images include licensing for scholarly publication. (See FAQ.)

The New York Public Library has put a huge collection of high resolution images of historical maps online for free download. The Map Warper digitally aligns those images to modern maps. You can also browse and search the map collection.

A curated collection of open access image collections

Creative Commons licensed image search engine. "Age appropriate" filters and citation info provided.

Over 125,000 high resolution images from this Amsterdam museum, free for use and reuse. Creating an account also lets you create collections, highlight details, and share sets.

3000+ Creative Commons licensed (CC-By 3.0) images on medical and health topics.

"Visual poetry" by painter and comics-maker Martin Vaughn-James.

Tens of thousands of images from the London Wellcome Library, including the Wellcome Library biomedical collections, Tibetan Buddhist paintings, ancient Sanskrit manuscripts written on palm leaves, beautifully illuminated Persian books and much more.