Video, Image & Sound

Welcome to your guide on Video, Image & Sound resources.

The Library provides you a wide range access to books, journals, newspapers, audio-visual content, and other specialist materials for your studies.

This guide looks at audio-visual and image resources in more detail...

Do you want to:

Explore subject resources

Within this guide you will find:

Details of the digital collections held by the university, such as film and sound archives, image catalogues, and music collections.
Information about free resources for images, sound and video that you can use for projects, videos or presentations of your own

Please make sure that you keep an eye on the licensing terms when using any video, image or sound resources.

Use Video, Image & Sound sources for:

Research purposes including recordings of performances or technical instruction, video documentaries, podcast interviews. It can be easier to engage with and retain information presented in multimedia formats than text.
Inspiration for your practice and project work
Use of audio-visual content or images to support your own projects, presentations and assignments. Remember to always ensure you follow copyright guidelines when re-using someone else’s work.
See more on the use and reuse of audio, video or images in your own work.

Creative Commons (CC) Licenses

These are created by the non-profit organisation 'Creative Commons' to increase the range of creative works available for the public to access and share.

There are several licences released allowing creators to decide which rights they waive for users.

If you are unsure, ask your librarian for advice!

Video resources available from the Library include:

Box of Broadcasts Off-air recording and broadcast media archive service. Box of Broadcasts is only available within the UK and the EU. Note: Box of Broadcasts is only available within the UK.
Digital Theatre Plus Curated content includes classic, contemporary and international productions and resources.
Library Search Use the Video Search to discover off-air recordings and other video content held as part of the library's collections.
Theatre in Video More than 250 definitive performances of the world‘s leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries and streaming video -representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors.
Bloomsbury Video Library (previously Artfilms) Thousands of films with top artists and independent film makers. Masterclasses, documentaries and interviews on DVD and streaming.

Don’t forget –the Library has an extensive range of physical film and video recordings. Check out the Film subject guide for more details.

These free to use resources may also be useful for your research:

Arts on Film Archive Online access to a range of UK films on art incl. post-war art and documentary filmmaking.
BFI.org Includes access to the BFI National Archives and the BFI Player
British Pathé 3,500 hours of film from its digital archives covering news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970.
Documentary Heaven Documentary Heaven -a website with documentaries from around the web, all in one place.
UBUWEB: TV The first avantgarde-TV worldwide,
Videvo Free HD video stock footage and motion graphics.

Image resources available from the Library include:

JSTOR Images Search and browse millions of images on JSTOR, including Artstor's diverse collections
Bridgeman Education Art Library Bridgeman Education is an excellent source for images and has a European and British bias. All images are copyright cleared for educational reuse.

For more free image sources, check out the Fine Art, Illustration and Photography subject guides.

These free to use resources may also be useful for your research:

VADS: the Visual Arts Data Service Art and design images free for use in education, from university art collections, museums and private collections.
Victoria and Albert Museum Images from the V&A collections spanning 3000 years. Includes freely available images for personal and educational use
CC Search 500 million free to use images under creative commons licences

The Library has an extensive range of physical music and sound recordings. Check out the Music & Sound subject guide for more details.

These free to use resources may also be useful for your research:

British Library Archival Sound Recordings Explore 21,000 selected recordings of music, spoken word and human and natural environments from the Archival Sound Recording service. Includes Oral history from British painters, sculptors, photographers and architects.

Allows listening and downloading for educational use.