Research Guides: Visual Literacy Research Guide: Databases for Visual Media

ProQuest Central (opens in new window)
General reference database for over 175 subjects from magazines, journals and newspapers including peer-reviewed and scholarly works. Use Advanced Search to access all visual formats.
eLibrary (opens in new window)
This easy-to-use resource delivers one of the largest general reference collections of periodical and digital media content designed specifically for schools and libraries of all kinds. Use the advance search and choose under source type either images or multimedia.
Films on Demand Video Collection (opens in new window)
Thousands of high quality videos on business & economics, health & medicine, humanities & social sciences, and science & mathematics, as well as travel and fitness programming, how-to videos, indie films, and popular music performances.

Digital Public Library of America
Digital Public Library of America is an open digital database that searches and retrieves results from other open sources. Always check any results here by clicking the link provided to the original source material.

JSTOR (opens in new window)
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines. Offers scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. Click on Search Images above the search bar.

Library of Congress--Free to Use and Reuse
There is also a section of highlighted image collections that are Free to Use and Reuse.
National Archives
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.
Smithsonian Digital Collections
Our digital collections include over 35,000 digitized books and manuscripts (available in either our Digital Library or as part of the Biodiversity Heritage Library) as well as digitized photo collections, ephemera, and seed catalogs.
North Carolina Digital Collections from the State Archives and State Library of NC
The North Carolina Digital Collections contain over 90,000 historic and recent photographs, state government publications, manuscripts, and other resources on topics related to North Carolina. The Collections are free and full-text searchable, and bring together content from the State Archives of North Carolina and the State Library of North Carolina.
Creative Commons Search Portal
Creative Commons is an international nonprofit organization that empowers people to grow and sustain the thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture we need to address the world's most pressing challenges. The Creative Commons (CC) Search Portal helps you search CC licensed works across multiple platforms.