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The Library of Congress contains a host of collections that can be explored. One Diigo posting referenced the American Memory collection, there are quite a few more. Just a small sample of the prints and photograph collection include Architecture, Design & Engineering Drawings, Ansel Adams Photographs of Japanese-American Interment in Manzanar, and Civil War Glass Negatives. The site is a bit overwhelming and teachers may need to narrow the focus for the students. An elementary and some middle school students would require specific collections presented to them if they were found useful for these age brackets. For instance, a search for trains pulls up information on how the screwdriver was used to make small toy trains. It would require the younger student to know how to narrow the search of the 4000+ pages on trains. This website would be a best fit for history. There are uses for language arts teachers from a historical perspective as well such as propaganda

Contents of this site: This site contains images of influenza, natural disasters, environmental health, bioterrorism, electron micro-graphic imagery, everyday activities, health behaviors, public health in action. The websites recommend that the site is good for those studying in the primary, secondary, or graduate levels. However, there is a "WARNING: This library includes subject matter that may be unsuitable for children. Viewing discretion is advised." This site would be ideal for science, health, social studies, language arts (research and informational writing) with regard to any of the topics listed above. Copyright and Protection: The site states with regard to copyright that most of the pictures are copyright free, but you need to double check. Below is a question answered from the websites FAQ that will help clarify the copyright regulations of the images in this website. "What regulations govern the use of images in the PHIL? Answer: Images are either "Public Domain" (free use) or "Copyright Protected" (restricted, obtain permission before use) Most of the images in the collection are in the public domain and are thus free of any copyright restrictions. If you look directly beneath the image you will see a fair use statement that tells you if the image is public domain or copyright protected. Permission is not required for public domain images, but we do ask that you credit the original institution and contributor, when known, whenever the image is used in any publicly distributed media. If the image is copyright protected, you will have to contact the content provider to obtain usage permission. PHIL does not have the authority to grant usage for any copyrighted images in the library. If you have difficulty contacting a content provider, we may be able to help, but we cannot act on their behalf."

Discover Yale Digital Content's site contains images from Yale's museum collections. The site describes itself as "a way to search across Yale's collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video documenting people, places, and events that form part of Yale's institutional identity and contribution to scholarship." Often literature is intimately connected to history and historical events, art work, geography, etc. Using these images can help students form connections with the time in which a particular work of literature was written, helping to deepen their knowledge.  Discover Yale's copyright policy: "The mission of Yale University is to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge. Increasingly, this knowledge is in digital form. The Discover Yale Digital Content site is intended to promote discovery of digital content from across the University. Yale's policy on open access to digital representations of works in the public domain from museum, library, and archive collections is a commitment to provide unrestricted access to such content as it becomes available through normal work practices. Yale University will not restrict use of items digitized from its museums, libraries and archives collections which have been made openly available through the University's electronic interfaces, and which are no longer under copyright, except where other rights or restrictions apply."

Project Gutenburg is one of the oldest communities for the spread of the written word on the internet. For its inception, PG has been in the process of digitizing literature in the public domain and continues to update its library of over 45,000 free ebooks daily. This is an amazing resource for the majority of ELA courses, distance learning, and online classroom management systems. It has been truly invaluable in British Literature because almost the entire curriculum has been converted to digital form. It is also amazing for distance learning like Plato and Odysseyware that do not always provide the text with the learning software. If you would like these books in audio form, check out Librivox.

Project Gutenburg is one of the oldest communities for the spread of the written word on the internet. For its inception, PG has been in the process of digitizing literature in the public domain and continues to update its library of over 45,000 free ebooks daily. This is an amazing resource for the majority of ELA courses, distance learning, and online classroom management systems. It has been truly invaluable in British Literature because almost the entire curriculum has been converted to digital form. It is also amazing for distance learning like Plato and Odysseyware that do not always provide the text with the learning software. If you would like these books in audio form, check out Librivox.

The Library of Congress: American Memory is an excellent source for a variety of resources, including images, video, and audio recordings. The resources are free, but be sure to check out its copyright notice at http://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html. This website would be useful in an 11th grade U.S. History class. While the site is a little hard to navigate at first because of the many resources available, it is an excellent way to incorporate Common Core standards with the many high quality primary resources.

The Digital Public Library of America contains photos, film clips and other items from digital libraries around the country (including Georgia). Many of these items are in the public domain, and some are under rights restrictions. There's a link in the "rights" field for each items record that contains that information including where to secure permission to use if needed. This site could be tremendously useful for projects related to American culture or heritage. There's a wealth of historical artifacts (think primary sources) here!

Freeplay Music is a wonderful site for downloading copyright-free music. It allows people to search by CD title, style of music, or feel/mood. Users can preview either a short snippet of the song (usually 30 seconds) or the song in its entire length. If the user doesn't like that particular song, s/he can continue scrolling through the suggested titles or click on other search options offered under the songs themselves. Once the person finds the song s/he wants to use, s/he has numerous options for download. All songs are downloaded as an MP3, but it is up to the individual to determine how much of the song s/he might want. The benefit of this site is its vast library. There are thousands of songs to choose from. The site states that all songs, with the exception of the Indie Artist section and the Sound Effects library, are available for educational use. The downside for the students is that it is mainly instrumental music. Students will try to search for contemporary "radio hits" and will come up short. I usually explain that those songs, while popular, often can be distracting to the video, slideshow, or website the student is creating. Freeplay Music offers a great selection of "background" music for educational projects. This site is perfect for middle school or high school. It could used by all subject areas as a supplemental component to almost any technology- based or Web 2.0 project. I can see Freeplay Music providing songs for Glogster, Prezi, Weebly, PhotoStory 3 for Windows, MovieMaker, or several other possible programs/sites.

Resources on this site do have restrictions for use. Please read the details in the terms of use page: http://freeplaymusic.com/licensing/termsofuse.php.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library provides a collection of images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and videos. Unless marked for private use, most of the collection is in the public domain. Instead of providing artifacts entirely based on the variety of fish and wildlife in the U.S., the website mainly focuses on artifacts on the services provided by the department. The artifacts that are based on the fish and wildlife would make excellent items to include in science classes of all ages. The artifacts based on the services provided would be better suited for high school social studies classes or any type of community involvement subject. The collection is huge, with a lot of information that is too "specialized" (documents outlining conservation plans of specific complexes), users of the site should use the search function over the browse function.

pdsounds.org offers a free sound library with a variety of interesting sound effects from a German bar to writing with an ink pen. The sound volunteers utilize recording equipment to capture hundreds of sounds for copyright free, public use and tag them with a set of tags that help in the search process. You do not need a membership to access the free sound files, and you are able to submit sounds to be added to the catalog. These sound effects are perfect for incorporation into presentations and videos. In my high school business education classroom, these sound effects will enhance our projects. For instance, if a student created a marketing video with still images of tea products, the tea pouring sound effect would be helpful. In commercials, the effects can be used to make the situation more lifelike...birds in the background of a kitchen scene, or cars in the background of a busy sidewalk. Students will enjoy searching the clip options and finding just the right combination. I give this site a 4 on a 1-5 scale, because of the variety of clips, the ability to post clips, and the ease of searching via tags and simple downloading. To improve, I would like to see thousands of sounds available for download.

eRiding Media Library contains a collection of several thousand resources deemed copyright-free for educational use. It has 4 sections listed for available media: Images, Movies, Photographs, and Sounds - but some of the resources under images are duplicated under photographs. The organization of the images is a bit messy and hard to navigate but there are lots of pictures should you take the time to explore the site. I thought the Math section was interesting as it contained images of math related terms in a real world context, like angles or parallel lines to name a few. This section could be used for a variety of grades and I think it's a great resource for images students would likely use for presentations in Math class. The movies section currently contains Science related content regarding forces, which could be used for any grade level depending on the need. There are also sound files available; some in .wav format, and others in .mp3. Under sounds, there is a category for English Language - Phonemes which we thought would be useful for grades Pre-K through 1st.

Originally shared by Julia Hollins on 15 Jul 13. The original post was removed and this one shared instead, due to technical issue with the original post. This site provides free music, photos and videos. The second criterion is it had to be a repository. Repositories are large storage spaces for indexing, retrieving and managing visual information. The user may find a database using any of the text-based meta-search engines. These were extremely helpful in locating the three sources used for evaluation. The third criterion used to evaluate online video and photo repositories was whether or not the content progressed into developing a visual information retrieval system. Some of the methods for retrieving digital images and videos were easier than others. Some queries used features such as colors, textures, shapes, motions and spatiotemporal compositions (Chang, Smith, Beigi, & Benitez, 1997). Lastly, the fourth criterion used to evaluate the online photo repositories was whether it had multimedia features. The repository databases classify information according to the domains that use them. For example, online repositories used by museums, libraries, archives and photo stock differ by the following features: 1) automation, 2) abstraction, 3) content collection, and 4) generability and categorization.

Users of this site should be advised that resources are royalty free. Please check the legal details on the following page: http://www.pond5.com/legal/

Originally shared by Julia Hollins on 15 Jul 13. The original post was removed and this one shared instead, due to technical issue with the original post. Thumb creator is source for royal free clip art. The first criterion used in selecting this website is that it had open access. The term "open access" is a new technology used with digital repositories. Most universities and libraries use repositories for educational purposes in hopes of becoming more engaged in developing scholarly communication. Second, open access is defined as free availability of scholarly literature on the public Internet, permitting anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, or print in full the text without restrictions (other than to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited Scherlen & Robinson,2008, p. 58 (as cited in Shields, Rangarajan, & Stewart, 2012). The clip art is royalty free and is apart of the open access. I thought it was a good resource for this class assignment.

It's as simple as joining the team. The Copyright Alliance Foundation has complied a library of free curricula to be used in the classroom that actually teach copyright education and can be incorporated across many subjects and grade levels. This is a wonderful tool for instructors who not only have to be careful with adhering to copyright guideline themselves but should always ensure their students have the same understanding and knowledge to adhere to copyright guidelines in media and literacy. The library of curriculum breaks downs activities by grade levels and is catered for grades K-12. This is a robust tool that gives resources but also gives links where to find more resources from the free curriculum they provide like those suggested at www.isafe.org. . This tool is a must for anyone in the K-12 setting. While the site does request donations they are not mandatory and usage of the curricula do not carry any fees.

the web site of The New York Public Library Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection Online. This site is copyright free. It contains a multitude of historical pictures. These pictures are listed to be created before 1923. One will find pictures of animals, fashion, hair, people, textile, period pieces. The pictures on this website would be very useful in creating a project or paper about history. If you are going to use these pictures for other reason than personal or project usage, you will need to get special permission. Latina Hill

Here are images from the Smithsonian's amazing libraries! Low resolution images from this web site may be downloaded free for "personal, research or study purposes." If you need a higher resolution image, there is a small fee, but the policy states that the downloadable images may be used for classroom and student purposes. There are some great things here for science, social studies and ELA projects.