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Digital Media Toolbox: Finding Media

This guide contains information for creating born-digital media projects, resources for finding and using media, and copyright.

Audio Resources

The list below provides sites from which you can find sources for or create your own audio for the project you are creating.

Image Resources

The list of resources below will allow you to find images that you may re-use with proper attribution.

  • Unsplash.com
    Unsplash.com offers creative commons licensed high-resolution images that you may download for free. You can search by keyword to find what you need. After downloading an image you will be provided citation information that you can copy to integrate into your project. Unsplash even has a plugin for Google Slides so that you can use them to easily find background images for presentations.
  • Pixabay.com
    This site offers free to use images. From the site, "All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required."
  • Google Image Search
    You can search for images that can be re-used from within a Google image search by doing an advanced image search.
    • To perform an Advanced Image Search
      1. Navigate to images.google.com. Enter a search term, press enter.
      2. On the first results page, click the gear icon located on the right-hand side of the page; select "Advanced search".
      3. Click the drop-down menu beside "Usage rights"
      4. Select "free to use or share". 
      5. Click the Advanced Search button.
  • Flickr Image Search
    You can search for images that can be re-used from within a Flickr image search by doing an advanced image search.
    • Flickr Advanced Search
      1. Click "Advanced Search" beside the Flickr search bar.
      2. Scroll down the page and then select the "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content".
      3. Any results from your image search will be labeled for re-use.
    • Flickr Commons
      https://www.flickr.com/commons - This is a good place to find re-usable images. Many libraries release content to this subsection, including the Library of Congress and National Archives.
  • Other Resources

Video Resources

The list of sites below provide open licensed video that may be used in media projects.

Distill

This site offers free HD video clips "for creatives".

Mazwai

This is a collection of creative commons licensed videos.

Pixabay.com

As well as offering free to use images, Pixabay also offers free-to-use-video clips. From the site, "All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required."

Videezy

Videezy.com offers HD stock footage.

 

This tab lists resources that do not nicely fall into a specific category.

  • Dafont.comhttps://www.dafont.com/ -This website features free to use fonts. If you need a particular 'look' for your project, typography can help!
  • The Noun Project - https://thenounproject.com/ - This site has open licensed icons for you to use.
  • WHSR Free Icon Set - https://www.webhostingsecretrevealed.net/free-icons/

What is creative commons and why is it important?

Creative Commons (cc) licenses enable the owner of a work to allow another party to re-use, adapt, and re-create with their work.  Different types of CC licenses allow for different levels of re-use.  Regardless of the type of CC license you should always cite and/or attribute the work you use to the original creator.

Some licenses stipulate that a work may only be used in non-commercial settings.  You can look at the license to find out how the work may be used. This article from the MakeUseOf blog describes what creative commons is and how and why to use it. If you have other questions about copyright, please see the Copyright tab