Images and sound

Moving and still image collections

There are many searchable collections of moving and still images. The Open University subscribes to the following image collections:

• Bridgeman Education - Bridgeman Art Library digital image database, with access to the visual culture of every civilization from Mesopotamia to Mesoamerica and every period from prehistoric times to the present.  Helpsheet available.
• British Pathé News archive  - the entire 3500 hour British Pathé Film Archive which covers news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970. Access and low resolution "preview" downloads are free. Microsoft Windows Media Player is required to view the clips.
• CAMIO - over 50,000 works of art from all continents. Included are paintings, sculpture, photographs, decorative and utilitarian objects, installations, architecture, jewellery and textiles dating from 3000 BC to the 21st Century.
• Education Image Gallery - 50,000 images of key events and subject areas including history, entertainment, sport, science, fashion, politics, conflict, film, art, leisure and women's studies. The gallery draws on the Hulton Archive, Photodisc and the Getty Images News Service.
• Fifty lessons     - a searchable and browseable video collection of over 300 case studies from more than 120 world-class business leaders, on all aspects of management. 
• Film and Sound Online - a set of collections of film and video, fully downloadable, either in full or as segments.
• Find DVDs   - a catalogue of over 30,000 audio-visual programmes selected for their usefulness in higher and further education.  It covers films, videotapes, DVDs, sound recordings and online media.
• Independent local radio archives, 1973-1996   - over 5,000 searchable recordings including the first hour of UK commercial radio in 1973, coverage of five UK general elections and the end of apartheid.
• ITN Source   - mainly news footage, but includes other material too from ITN, Granada, Fox News and Fox Movietone, UTV, Nine News and Reuters among other providers. Some material is available for free preview online and/or has a low resolution version that is freely downloadable, otherwise there is a text description of the content.
• National Gallery Collection   - a searchable database from Credo Reference of 2300 images of works of art housed at The National Gallery, London, representing all major traditions of Western European painting, from the artists of late medieval and Renaissance Italy to the French Impressionists. The database provides high definition images and key facts related to each painting.
• News on Screen  - formerly the British Universities Newsreel Database, this has information about British newsreels and cinemagazines (1910-1983).
• NewsFilm Online  - a selection of news stories (totalling 3,000 hours of footage) and programme scripts from the ITN and Reuters archive spanning almost 100 years from 1910.  Click on the direct access Login button.
• Oxford Art Online - includes the Internet version of the multi-volume encyclopaedia, the Grove Dictionary of Art. Searchable database and web links to images from museums, galleries and art collections from around the world.
• Policy Review TV  - streamed videos of speeches, discussions, question and answer sessions and interviews with senior figures from government, politics and business captured at policy-related conferences and events across the UK.  You may download podcasts and all the documents from an event, including PowerPoint presentations and speaker notes.  A wide range of policy areas are covered and you can register to be emailed details of new content or subscribe to RSS feeds.
• SCRAN -  worldwide access to multimedia educational resources on international culture and world heritage through easy access to images, movies, sounds and virtual reality. There are one million records from museums, galleries, archives, the media and contemporary and performing arts. Partners include museums, galleries, archives and universities who are digitising selected parts of their collections.
• ScreenOnline - a guide to the history of British film and television, with a glossary of film and TV terms, statistics, biographies, transcripts, audio and video clips.
• VADS  - access to over 100,000 images by searching across multiple online digital collections of visual art works.

The images in these collections can be used for research, teaching or private study purposes only.

You are reminded that use of ALL online library resources, including those on trial, is subject to Copyright restrictions which apply to both printing and downloading. You MUST abide by the regulations on the use of copyright databases .

JISC Digital Media  -  a service for all digital imaging issues. It provides advice on Finding and Using Digital Images Online and includes a review of image search engines.  Not all the collections included are available free of charge.

Internet for Image Searching  - a free online tutorial to help you find copyright cleared digital images for learning and teaching.

Music Collections

The Library subscribes to the following searchable collections of music recordings:

• British Library archival sound recordings  - see Sound Collections below.
• Classical Music Library  - a fully searchable classical music database of distinguished classical recordings, that includes thousands of licensed recordings that users can listen to on the Internet. The audio selections are cross-referenced to a database of supplementary reference information. The Library contains music from Medieval to contemporary, choral works to symphonies, operas, and the avant-garde.
• Film and Sound Online - includes the Culverhouse Classical Music Collection containing over fifty hours of copyright-free classical music by some of the most famous composers from 17th to the 20th centuries.
• Oxford Music Online  - sound examples are included in this music reference work that contains the The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz.
• Naxos Music Library - a searchable audio collection of classical, jazz, world, New Age and folk music. Media Player required. NB There is a limit to the number of users allowed in at one time so please 'logout' at the end of your session.
• Naxos Video Library   - a searchable and playable collection of more than 250 (planned 500) full-length videos of concerts, operas, ballets, and documentaries from labels such as Arthaus Musik, Dacapo, Dynamic, EuroArts, Ondine, Opus Arte, Medici Arts, Naxos, and TDK. Featuring performances from artists including Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Martha Argerich, Gerald Finley, videos are available to stream at 700 kbps (standard quality) and 2 mbps (high quality) and the service is compatible with both PC and Mac computers. Trial access Database feedback form Password required

Sound Collections

• British Library archival sound recordings  - Searchable collection of 12,000 selected recordings of music, spoken word, and human and natural environments from the British Library's sound archive. To access this collection please use the red 'log in' link near the top of the ASL homepage and then select 'The Open University (Athens)' from the menu given.

OU audio visual collections

The Library holds a large collection of non-course programmes co-produced by the Open University and the BBC on video, DVD and audio formats. Please contact the Library Helpdesk on 01908 659001 or send an email for information about these collections.