Online Tools and Resources

"You already have permission..." is ccMixter's motto. A musicians' community, it's the best source for your background music.

A collection of old-time, often scratchy, recordings from the Library of Congress.

The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focuses only on sound, not songs.

This music is free to download. To reuse it in a video, use the "Allows for use in a remix or video" filter in your search.

SJSU students, staff, and faculty using the campus's Adobe Creative Cloud apps have access to Adobe Stock: photos, vectors, illustrations, and 3D assets.

Free-for-all-uses high quality photos. A great site.

On Pixabay, you can obtain quality images free of copyrights. This is the best place to begin your photo search. It also includes vector and other types of graphics.

Another very good source for photos, especially for scientific images and natural scenes.

Many people posting photos to Flickr opt for a Creative Commons license. "Attribution" has the fewest restrictions.

This photo site also includes symbols and icons.

High quality stock photographs available for free. You must create an account before you can download images.

High-quality photos of artwork and artifacts at the Met.

The NYPL's collection of public domain photos. All are freely available for reuse.

"Free stock photos, royalty free images & videos shared by creators." Includes an excellent collection of videos of libraries.

"An icon for everything." These icons are usually public domain or available with a Creative Commons license. In vector format (no background).

A large library of attractive vector (no background) icons. Requires you to create a free account.

Provides codes and SVG downloads for 40+ free icons.

Canva requires an account but is an easy-to-use resource that has a big library of images and graphic elements that you can combine.

Not photos, but clipart. Mostly 19th-century looking but can be a fun change.

This site allows free downloads of entire sets of icons. Includes color and b&w icons.