Find images and videos - SPURS - guide for instructors - LibGuides at University of Texas at Austin

Images and Videos

Searching for images is difficult because they don't typically have a robust textual component. Encourage students to be deliberate about their keywords and not too specific. It may matter more where they search. To choose a place to search, they need to know what type of image they are looking for (nature, historical, photojournalism, political cartoon)

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Mostly art - like paintings and stuff
Updated regularly. Comprised of over 2.5 million digital images of visual material encompassing artistic and historical traditions across many time periods and cultures. Focuses on, but is not limited to, the arts. Includes architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture. Designed to be used by researchers in fields that do not traditionally use images as well as by art historians.
In order to take advantage of all the features of the site, you must register or log in with the service. The registration and login links are visible once you enter the database.
Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Updated daily. A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database, with more than 5,300 full text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc.
Features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for 1,000 journals.

Surprisingly, and unfortunately, our subscriptions to newspapers and magazines do not always include images. This is because of stricter copyright around images and the expense in reproducing and providing access to image files. This is why teaching students to find images on the web, as well as teaching them the various copyright issues surrounded their use, is important. Consider directing your students to:

Wikimedia Commons - free to use images
Creative Commons - allows you to search across platforms for sources with the Creative Commons license

Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Streaming videos and film!
This streaming service has a catalog of over 30,000 titles covering various educational topics and feature films for some 800 producers including Criterion, Documentary Educational Resources, New Day Films, Media Education, California Newsreel, PBS and others.
Titles streamed by Kanopy are available either directly from the library catalog or from the UT Kanopy interface linked above. Some titles on the UT Kanopy interface are not immediately available to UT community for streaming. Those titles for which we do not hold streaming rights could be requested by filling in a request form. This form would appear on your screen and forwarded to a staff member for consideration. Given our limited funds, we emphasize study and research needs when making purchase decisions.
American History In Video This link opens in a new window
Newsreels, documentaries, commercials of historical events
Updated regularly. This collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through documentaries, commercial and governmental newsreels and archival and public affairs footage. The full runs of newsreels from United Newsreel and Universal Newsreel from 1929 through 1967 are included. On 14th September 2012, American History in Video was updated. As of this update there are 6,002 videos (including 3,211 documentaries) equaling 1,616 hours in American History in Video.
Users may also make isolated clips from the videos and save them in a free account available for registration set up within the database.

PCL Map Collection: Maps digitized by us. Highlights maps according to current events.