Open Access Resources: Mixed Media

Thousands of documents, recordings and videos dealing with current and historical information on American presidents from 1789 to present.

Associated Press (AP) Archive offers 1.7 million global news and entertainment video stories, which date back to 1895.

The Getty provides open access to the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) and to the Répertoire International de la Littérature de l'Art (RILA). These citation databases, searchable together, cover European and American visual arts material published between 1975 and 2007.

Listen to a selection from the British Library’s extensive collections of unique sound recordings, which come from all over the world and cover the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds.

Collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminates information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded.

ChoralWiki hosts public-domain scores of more than 22,200 choral and vocal works by 2,600-plus composers. Users may search by composer and title and can conduct broader searches using pull-down options to select specific score categories, including sacred and secular genres, voicing, and accompaniment.

From the Library of Congress, digitized newspapers from 1836-1922 can be browsed and searched by state, keyword or advanced search. Additional links are available to a newspaper title directory for publications from 1690 – present.

Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity and knowledge through free legal tools.

Collection of cultural, historical, legal, governmental, and research materials relating to the Caribbean. Includes newspapers, official documents, maps, artifacts and more.

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) gathers materials form libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country.

Europeana is funded by the European Union, which is building the open, trusted source for European cultural content and aims to aggregate and provide access to the digitized collections of museums, libraries, archives and galleries across Europe.

Folger Shakespeare Library, home of the world's largest and finest Shakespeare collection, offers high-quality digital texts of Shakespeare's plays, sonnets, and poems. Includes free downloading of the source code for noncommercial Shakespeare projects.

Folkstreams is a non-profit dedicated to finding, preserving, contextualizing, and showcasing documentary films on American traditional cultures.

The Free Music Archive is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet. It was launched in 2009.

Informational videos about current events created by Harvard Business Review.

Information related to films, television programs, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media.

Digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts.

Online archive of free, video-on-demand multimedia resources for the public and for educators.

Streaming audio of historical sound recordings from the Library of Congress.

Various historical digital collections held by the Library of Congress.

Informational videos of current events created by the London School of Economics.

Provides high-quality, cinematic-style stock footage for free.

Open Archive for Media, Film, and Communication Studies

A wide variety of unique online projects from the New York Public Library, including the Staten Island Historical Newspapers and Music Theater digital archive.

Video subject categories include biography, business/economy, diversity, health/science/technology, foreign affairs/defense, government/public policy, media literacy, and religion.

PBS LearningMedia provides PreK-12 educators with access to free digital content and professional development opportunities designed to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement.

A large, heterogeneous collection of materials, textual and visual, on the Archaic and Classical Greek world.

CC Search is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone.

From HeinOnline, covers slavery in the U.S. and the English-speaking world. Includes content from the Buffalo Erie County Public Library. Includes every state and federal statute, legal commentary, pamphlets and books from the 19th century, and other hard to find materials such as essays and articles in obscure journals. Provides word searchable access to all Congressional debates from the Continental Congress to 1880. Must Register for an Account.

TED-Ed videos makes short video lessons worth sharing, aimed at educators and students.

TED Talks include over 17,000 short (3-18 minute long) conference-style presentation videos about a variety of topics.

is a source for population, economic, housing, and geographic information and data about the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Island areas.

Academic videos from University YouTube channels, TED and TEDx talks, scientific and cultural institutions like NASA and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, hospitals, research institutions, and broadcast archives such as Nova, the Science Channel and the Discovery Channel.

Web Soil Survey (WSS) provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world.

Free access to the Vatican Library’s digitized collections: manuscripts, incunabula, archival materials and inventories as well as graphic materials, coins and medals, printed materials (special projects).

An extensive collection of free music, sound effects, stock video clips and motion graphics.

Visual culture explored in Spanish America from 1520 to 1830. Contains a library of primary documents and a gallery of over 300 high-resolution annotated images and videos.

Free online lecture videos from public media powerhouse WGBH.

Online access to unique and historically important content produced by the public television and radio station WGBH.

Collection of media files that open licensed.

A video sharing website that allows you to view and upload videos for free.