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If you are looking for information about alternative content sources (royalty-free or available with permission under the Creative Commons license), you may find resources from the list below. Always use correct citations and credits for images, audio, or other content when using any of these sources.

Although this content may be accessed (downloaded) online for free, it is owned by the individual creators unless stated otherwise. Be sure to carefully read the directions for using content, always give credit to the people who created the content, and use proper citations if the content is used in a research paper. 

NSC Library or SMC is not responsible for the contents of any external sites; nor are we responsible for how that content is used. Please read the rules and directions for use and legal notices on each site.

List of Content Resources

Creative Commons

"Creative Commons helps you share your knowledge and creativity with the world.  Creative Commons develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation. Looking for music, video, writing, code, or other creative works? Creative Commons has got you covered."

Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons is a database containing millions of freely accessible media files. To fulfill the free license requirements, please read the Reuse guide. You can also request a picture.

Pixabay

"Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright-free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes."

Flickr

Flickr is a great online photo-sharing site. Creative Commons licensed images are available through flickr photo archive.

Pexels

Free Creative Commons stock photos.

Vecteezy

Free license vector graphics to use with attribution. 

Library of Congress (Prints and Photographs Online Catalog)

The Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) contains catalog records and digital images representing a rich cross-section of still pictures held by the Prints & Photographs Division and, in some cases, other units of the Library of Congress. The Library of Congress offers broad public access to these materials to contribute to education and scholarship.

The collections of the Prints & Photographs Division include photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. 

Incompetech

Free Creative Commons music.

bensound

Free music to use with attribution for your videos.

Freesound

The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs. The Freesound Project aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under the Creative Commons licenses.

More Content Resources

• Visual Resources on the NSC Library page
• How to find free-to-use images on Google search

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