Free Use Media

Why use the Images, Audio and Video found on this page?

  • These portals collect images, music and videos which are copyright friendly. Either the original creators have labeled their creations as free to use, with a Creative Commons License or the creations are in the public domain, meaning that their copyright has expired.
  • ​For more Information about Copyright, Public Domain and Creative Commons, see Copyright and Fair Use

Citations

  • All resources used must be cited, including Free Use Media.
            Best Practices for Attribution from Creative Commons
  • ​In general, Citations should include:
            Author, Title and Where you downloaded it from.
            For example:  Smith, John. "Frog in Water". Flickr.
  • Citing URL's alone is NOT an acceptable citation practice, because web pages and the content on those pages change. 

Multimedia
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Search Creative Commons resources fro one place.
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Search Public Domain resources by type and historical period.

Images

  • Always download original image...NOT Thumbnail.
  • Use My image Seek to identify possible image search terms for difficult to find and/or visually represent concepts  (<Broken Links> is the tool creator's example; replace with your image need)

Flickr Search

​Flickr is a popular photo sharing site. The following search tools can be used to search Flickr for photos that are Creative Commons licensed or from Public Domain Collections added to Flickr.
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Download citation along with image.
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After entering search terms, click on Creative Commons (under any lisence tab).
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Favorite Flickr search tool. Download inage and it includes citation attached at bottom.
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After entering search terms, change "any liscense" to All Creative Commons.
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Extension for creating citations for images shared on Flickr.
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Search Flicr Creative Commons Images by color. Also includes Reverse image search.

General Free use Image sources

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CC0
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CC0
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Travel Photos CC0
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CC0
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Polarfox

Academic Image Collections

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Search Flickr for images uploaded from the world's public photography archives. IMPORTANT: make sure to enter keywords in SEARCH COIMMONS
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Art, History and Science Images.
Getty Search Gateway, Open Content Images
Google LIFE Photo Archive
Library of Congress Flickr Photostream
​LIFE Photo Archive
The National Archives UK Flickr Photostream
New Old Stock
NYPL Digital Gallery
NASA Images
The New York Public Library Digital Collections
​Smithsonian Open Access
Government Photos
Wikimedia Commons (Cite image original source)

Specialty Image Collections

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Icons for everything
Collections for Designers from the NY Public Library
Creativity103 Backgrounds
Dafont for fonts
Freepik Graphics
Google Fonts
​Hip Fonts
Open Clip Art
Public Domain Clip Art

Video

Beachfront B-Roll
Flickr Add search terms->Advanced ->videos only->Change "Any Licensee" to "All Creative Commons" 
Mazwai
Mixkit
Pexels
Videvo
Vimeo Creative Commons Search
Vimeo Free HD Stock
Wikimedia Commons
Youtube Creative Commons  Place Search Terms & click Youtube.

360 Images, Objects and Video

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Check licence. Most only require credit (citation)

Audio/Music

Animal Sound Clips from the US Fish and Wildlife Service
BBC Sound Effects Library
Bandcamp
Bensound
ccMixter 
Free-Loops.com Sound effects, vocal and drum loops
Free Music Archive
Hook Sounds
Jamendo  Favorite music finding site
Looperman
Mixkit
Moby byGratis
Pixabay Audio
Pond5
​Pond5 Sound Effects
Purple Planet Music
Soundclick Choose License Type: Creative Commons
Soundzabound 
Tribe of Noise
YouTube Audio Library Background music and artist offerings