Finding Openly Licensed Content

If you are adapting an existing open textbook or creating a new one, you may want to find additional resources to use. Ideally, content licensed with a CC-BY license provides the most flexibility for re-use, so we recommend trying to find content for re-use with that specific CC-BY license. If you are planning to make adaptations to the resource, you will want to avoid any CC material that has the -ND (No Derivative) attribution as this content can be re-used, but not adapted.

If you are looking for Creative Commons licensed content, you can try the following services and search engines;

• Creative Commons’ Content Directories: a list of organizations and projects powered with Creative Commons (CC) licenses
• Search Google using the Advanced search and limit the search to only return CC licensed material. Watch the video Searching for OER Images on Google for more information
• Search in The Commons on Flickr launched January 16, 2008, in partnership with The Library of Congress. Participants are cultural heritage institutions who share publicly held photography collections. There are “no copyright restrictions” on the photographs in this collection. See their Rights Statement for more information
• Use the Flickr Advanced Search to more easily find images with a Creative Commons license
• Flickr: Internet Archive Book Images
• Use the Creative Commons search engine to search for images & photos on the following websites;
  • Flickr (photos and short videos)
  • Google Images
  • Jamendo (music)
  • Open Clip Art Library (clip art)
  • Wikimedia Commons (photos, images, charts, graphs)
  • YouTube (video), YouTube Audio Library
  • Pixabay (photos and clip art)
  • Soundcloud and CCMixter (audio)
  • To use the Creative Commons search engine;
    1. Select the website you want to search. It will highlight in blue when selected. Only one site can be chosen at a time
    2. Enter key term in Search field
    3. Click “Enter”.

• Search open academic journals for CC licensed material such as;
  • PLOS (Public Library of Science)
  • BioMedCentral
  • Other science journals
• Art and History resources;
  • British Library
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Museum of New Zealand (images available for reuse under a CC BY-NC-ND licence)
  • New Old Stock (vintage images)
  • Smithsonian – Free Sackler Gallery (images)
• Science resources;
  • BioMed Central (open access biology and medical journals; figures and graphs in articles are CC licensed and available for re-use)
  • Morphbank (biology images)
  • NASA Images
  • Science Image
• Other websites;
  • Bing (photos, videos)
  • Wikipedia (photos within articles)
  • Foodies Feed (free food photos). Photos are licensed under CC License Zero
  • Gratisography (photos). Photos are licensed under CC License Zero
  • IM Free (photos, vector images, videos)
  • ISO Republic (photos, vector images, videos)
  • Noun Project, The (icons and symbols)
  • Open Culture (cultural and educational media)
  • Open Street Map (maps)
  • Picjumbo (photos)
  • Picography (photos)
  • Pixabay (photos and clip art)
  • Startup Stock Photos (photos)
  • Stokpic (photos)
  • Superfamous Studios (images)
  • Travel Coffee Book (travel photos)
  • Unsplash (photos)
  • Wellcome Images (images of human culture: current and historic)
  • Wikimedia Commons (photos, images, charts, graphs)
• Search open educational repositories like;
  • SOL*R (B.C. higher education and government material released under CC licenses)
  • Connexions
  • Merlot
  • OERCommons
  • Internet Archive
  • National Science Digital Library

There are many more places to find open resources. A comprehensive list of openly licensed repositories is located in the OER Handbook for Educators, including some subject area specifics.