21 Resources: Search and Find
There are literally millions of educational resources — photos, illustrations, videos and film, audio clips, courses, articles, research — that have been released with an open-copyright licence or are in the public domain and available to open textbook authors and publishers. Below are online libraries, projects, directories, repositories, and websites where you will find both individual objects and full resources. If you have difficulty finding what you need, be creative and look for the desired item — photo, graphic, video — in an article from one of the many open academic journals or an open textbook. Another trick is to use several synonyms when searching for a hard-to-find resource.
Many sources contain items that range in user permissions from no copyright (e.g., in the public domain) to CC licences to all rights reserved. Make it your practice to check every resource’s licence or permissions before adding it to your open textbook. User rights have been noted beside some of the below sources.
Chapter table of contents
Mixed collections (open and restricted materials)
Libraries, museums, and book collections
- Audio
- Courses, lectures, and lessons
- Games and interactive simulations
- Images: charts, clip art, graphs, icons, photos, symbols, vectors
- Maps
- Open academic journals
- Videos and film
Canadian collections
- Canadian Museum of Nature [New Tab]: Collection data are available under a CC BY licence. Images are available under a CC BY-NC licence.
- cIRcle [New Tab]: This OER repository is from the University of British Columbia. Each item is individually marked with copyright permissions.
- Images Canada [New Tab]: See Terms and Conditions [New Tab] for information about usage
- Library and Archives Canada [New Tab]: See Terms and Conditions [New Tab] for information about usage
- Open Collections [New Tab]: Check each item used in this collection, from the University of British Columbia, as permissions vary
- Project Gutenberg – Canada [New Tab]: Books that are in the public domain in Canada
- SOL*R (Shareable Online Learning Resources) [New Tab]: Higher education and government material from British Columbia and released under CC licences
Mixed collections (open and restricted materials)
Creative Commons (CC)
- Content Directories [New Tab]: A list of organizations and projects released with CC licences
- CC search (in beta) [New Tab]: Images from several open archives
- CC Search [New Tab]: Find audio, images, and videos from many websites. Check individual items and websites for terms of use.
Flickr
- Flickr – advanced search [New Tab]: Limit search to CC licensed materials only
- Flickr: Internet Archive Book Images [New Tab]: Check each item for permissions
- The Commons [New Tab]: Found on Flickr in partnership with The Library of Congress [New Tab]. Participants are cultural heritage institutions who share publicly held photography collections. There are “no known copyright restrictions” on the photographs in this collection. See Rights Statement [New Tab] for more information.
- Google – advanced search [New Tab]: Limit search to CC licensed materials only
Government
Canadian government websites
Most government of Canada websites and publications [New Tab] are covered by the open government licence. Here is an example of the Statistics Canada data licence
Source: Statistics Canada, name of product, reference date. Reproduced and distributed on an “as is” basis with the permission of Statistics Canada
However, when using a resource from a Canadian government website or publication, always check the Terms of Use, Copyright, or similar page for details.
Often, images and other resources from a Canadian government website stipulates that the reused image or resource not be used for commercial purposes. If this is the case, then add this line to your attribution statement: “This image cannot be used for commercial purposes.”
U.S. government websites
Generally, the information and images found on U.S. government websites [New Tab] are in the public domain. However, when using a resource from a U.S. government website, always check the Terms of Use, Copyright, or similar page for details.
Libraries, museums, and book collections
Also see open academic journals and repositories.
- British Library [New Tab]: Check each item for permissions
- eBooks and Texts Archive [New Tab]: This website lists dozens of collections that contain free academic books, fiction and popular books, children’s books, and historical texts. Check each book for permissions before using.
- Europeana Collections [New Tab]: Digital resources of Europe’s museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. Rights vary by item. For an overview of this collection, see Terms and Policies [New Tab].
- Hathi Trust Digital Library [New Tab]: Many items are in the public domain, but some copyrighted items have restricted rights. Check each item before using. The advanced full-text search [New Tab] allows searching by year of publication.
- Library and Archives Canada [New Tab]: See Terms and Conditions [New Tab] for information about usage
- MusOpen [New Tab]: Resources for teachers and students such as royalty free music and sheet music
- National Science Digital Library [New Tab]
- Petrucci Music Library [New Tab]y: Public domain music recordings and scores
- Project Gutenberg [New Tab]: Books that are in the public domain in the U.S. or U.S. copyrighted titles, for which the copyright holder has given permission for unlimited non-commercial worldwide use
- Project Gutenberg – Canada [New Tab]: Books that are in the public domain in Canada
Subject-specific collections
Art, culture, and history
- British Library [New Tab]: Check each item for permissions
- Library and Archives Canada [New Tab]: See Terms and Conditions [New Tab] for information about usage
- Metropolitan Museum of Art [New Tab]: Read the Met’s Open Access Policy [New Tab].
- Museum of New Zealand [New Tab]: Images available for reuse under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence [New Tab].
- New Old Stock [New Tab]: Vintage images
- Old Book Illustrations [New Tab]
- Public Domain Review [New Tab]: An online journal of works from the history of art, literature, and ideas
- Smithsonian [New Tab]: Free Sackler Gallery (images)
- Viintage [New Tab]: Vintage graphics in the public domain
- Wellcome Images [New Tab]: Images of current and historic human culture
Broadcasting
- Al Jazeera English [New Tab]: Quality footage of comprehensive news reports and debate; openly licensed as stated under their Terms and Conditions [New Tab]
Music and audio
- Audio Archive [New Tab]
- ccMixter [New Tab]
- Creative Commons suggestions [New Tab]
- Free Music Archive [New Tab]
- Free Sound [New Tab]
- Jamendo [New Tab]
- Juke Deck [New Tab]
- MusOpen [New Tab]: Royalty free music including sheet music, and resources for teachers and students
- Open Music Library [New Tab]
- Opsound [New Tab]
- Petrucci Music Library [New Tab]: Public domain music recordings and scores
- SoundCloud [New Tab]
Science and health
- BioMed Central [New Tab]: Open access biology and medical journals. Figures and graphs in articles are CC licensed and available for reuse.
- Bioscience Image Library [New Tab]: From Berkshire Community College
- Canadian Museum of Nature [New Tab]:Collection data are available under a CC BY licence. Images are available under a CC BY-NC Licence.
- Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) [New Tab]
- Morphbank [New Tab]: Biology images
- NASA Images [New Tab]
- National Science Digital Library [New Tab]
- PhET interactive simulations [New Tab]: Math and science simulations from the University of Colorado
- PLOS [New Tab] (Public Library of Science)
- PubMed Central (PMC) Open-Access Subset [New Tab]: Search within journals marked with the OA symbol in the “Free Access” column for freely available articles
- Science Image [New Tab]
- Wisc Online [New Tab]: Images from Wisconsin’s Technical Colleges
Type of resource
Audio
See Music and Audio
Courses, lectures, and lessons
- Open Learning Initiative [New Tab]: From Carnegie Mellon University
- Khan Academy [New Tab]
- MIT YouTube channel [New Tab]
- MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) [New Tab]
- Open Course Library [New Tab]
- Open Education Consortium – Courses [New Tab]
- Open Yale Courses [New Tab]
- Saylor Academy [New Tab]
- webcast.berkeley [New Tab]: From the University of California, Berkeley
- Wisc Online: Basic Computer Skills course [New Tab]: From Wisconsin’s Technical Colleges
Games and interactive simulations
- PhET interactive simulations [New Tab]: Math and science simulations from the University of Colorado
- Play games [New Tab] and build games [New Tab]: Wisc Online from Wisconsin’s Technical Colleges
Images: charts, clip art, graphs, icons, photos, symbols, vector images
- Bing [New Tab]: Photos and videos
- Foodies Feed [New Tab]: Food photos in the public domain
- Gratisography [New Tab]: Photos in the public domain
- IM Free [New Tab]: Photos, vector images, and videos
- Images Canada [New Tab]: See copyright page [New Tab] for info about licences
- Inkscape [New Tab]: Professional vectors graphic editor, open source
- ISO Republic [New Tab]: Photos, vector images, and videos
- New Old Stock [New Tab]: Vintage images
- Noun Project, The [New Tab]: Icons and symbols
- Old Book Illustrations [New Tab]
- Open Clip Art Library [New Tab]
- Picjumbo [New Tab]: Photos
- Picography [New Tab]: Photos
- Pixabay [New Tab]: Photos and clip art
- Public Domain Vectors [New Tab]
- Startup Stock Photos [New Tab]
- Stokpic [New Tab]: Photos
- Superfamous Studios [New Tab]: Images
- Travel Coffee Book [New Tab]: Travel photos
- Unsplash [New Tab]: Photos
- Viintage [New Tab]: Vintage graphics in the public domain
- Wellcome Images [New Tab]: Images of current and historic human culture
- Wikimedia Commons [New Tab]: Photos, images, charts, and graphs
- Wikipedia [New Tab]: Look for photos within articles
Maps
Open academic journals
- Bio Med Central (BMC) journals [New Tab]: High quality peer-reviewed journals including broad interest titles such as BMC Biology and BMC Medicine, specialist journals such as Malaria Journal and Microbiome. Check each publication to ensure it’s open access.
- DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) [New Tab]: Community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals
- IRRODL (The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning) [New Tab]: A refereed, open access e-journal that disseminates original research, theory, and best practice in open and distributed learning worldwide, and based at Athabasca University in Alberta
- Open Praxis [New Tab]: A peer-reviewed open access scholarly journal focusing on research and innovation in open, distance and flexible education. It is published by the International Council for Open and Distance Education – ICDE [New Tab].
- PLOS (Public Library of Science) [New Tab]: A nonprofit organization with the goal of accelerating progress in science and medicine
- Public Domain Review [New Tab]: An online journal of works from the history of art, literature, and ideas
Videos and film
- Al Jazeera English [New Tab]: Quality footage of comprehensive news reports and debate that are openly licensed as stated under their Terms and Conditions [New Tab]
- Bing [New Tab]: Photos and videos
- IM Free [New Tab]: Photos, vector images, and videos
- ISO Republic [New Tab]: Photos, vector images, and videos
- Moving Image Archive [New Tab]: Movies, films, and videos
- TED talks (Technology, Entertainment, Design) [New Tab]: These presentations are released with the CC BY-NC-ND Licence
- Vimeo [New Tab]
- YouTube [New Tab]: Include CC BY when searching for videos. Items with a”Standard YouTube Licence” (covered in their Terms of Service [New Tab]) are not open. See YouTube’s article on how to add a CC licence to a video [New Tab].
Repositories
- Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) [New Tab]: Thousands of academic OER in a variety of languages
- cIRcle [New Tab]: This OER repository is from the University of British Columbia. Each item is individually marked with copyright permissions.
- Connexions [New Tab]: A repository of open educational resources started by OpenStax where faculty, students, and others can view and share these items
- Internet Archive [New Tab]: Wayback Machine: A digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet. Do not assume that items are in the public domain or openly licensed.
- MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) [New Tab]: A curated collection of free and open online teaching, learning, and faculty development services contributed and used by an international education community.
- OAlster database [New Tab]: Catalog of millions of OER
- OER Commons [New Tab]: A public digital library of open educational resources launched by ISKME — the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education — in 2007
- Open DOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories) [New Tab]: Quality-controlled list of academic open access repositories
- Open Education Europa [New Tab]: OER offered in a variety of languages for the European teaching community
- SOL*R (Shareable Online Learning Resources) [New Tab]: Higher education and government material from British Columbia and released under CC licences
- Wikiversity [New Tab]: Learning resources, learning projects, and research