Please note: This page provides links to multimedia collections on the Internet. For information about multimedia available in the University of Delaware Library, consult the Instructional Media Collection page.
The following sites offer streaming media on particular subjects or from individual television channels and represent discreet collections:
Annenberg Media Video on Demand (http://learner.org/)
Annenberg has made most of its catalog of telecourses available for free as streaming video. Familiar series such as American Cinema, Voices & Visions, and The World of Abnormal Psychology are among the titles produced by Annenberg.
CBC Digital Archives (http://archives.cbc.ca/)
The site offers unprecedented access to over 70 years of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programming and aims to present 2,000 hours of digitized content by 2009. Supported and funded by the Canadian Culture Online program (Department of Canadian Heritage), it contains thousands of historic radio and television clips as well as full-length programming featuring notable personalities such as Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Malcolm X, Woody Allen, and Glenn Gould.
C-SPAN
(http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp)
C-SPAN content is easy to search from their video search site. There is a simple one-box search and an advanced search screen that allows for limiting by date, as well as by thematic category, topic, and series.
Folkstreams (http://www.folkstreams.net)
The mission of Folkstreams.net is to build a national preserve of documentary films about American folk or roots culture. Programs streamed from the website are presented with background materials highlighting the history and aesthetic importance of the traditions represented and the films.
History Channel (http://www.historychannel.com/)
The History Channel provides streaming video available via the Video link.
Internet Movie Archive (http://www.archive.org/details/movies)
The purpose of the IMA is to offer permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. The site includes texts, audio, moving images, software, as well as archived web pages. One of the main highlights of the IMA is access to the Prelinger Film archive, currently acquired by the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound division.
Library of Congress: American Memory Viewer (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/browse/)
The American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. The collection contains over 10 million items, and the archival footage dates back to the late 1800s.
The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Orinthology (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/MacaulayLibrary/#)
The Macaulay Library is a principal source of sound recordings for basic research, education, conservation, habitat assessment, media, and commercial projects. The Library archives and preserves an exhaustive sampling of the behaviors of each animal species using digital video (including a growing number of high definition assets) and audio recordings, and presents a portion of their holdings online.
The Mike Wallace Interview Digitization Project (http://solstice.ischool.utexas.edu/tmwi/index.php/The_Mike_Wallace_Interview)
Originally acquired by the University of Texas as a donation by Mike Wallace in the early 1960’s, this collection contained 16mm kinescope film recordings of over 60 interviews. Now keyword searchable, this rich-media database will be continually updated and enhanced.
Movietone Nostalgia (http://www.movietone-portraits.com/)
British Movietonews, a London based newsreel archive and television documentary production company, has launched this free website for the general public. The site features video portraits of famous people (show business personalities as well as many politicians, artists and scientists). Other clips pertain to fashion, history, popular culture, travel, etc.
National Archives and Records Administration / Google Partnership (http://video.google.com/nara.html)
This recently launched pilot program makes holdings of the National Archives available for free online. This non-exclusive agreement will enable researchers and the general public to access a diverse collection of historic movies, documentaries and other films from the National Archives via Google Video.
National Endowment for the Humanities Radio Project (http://www.neh.gov/projects/radioprojects.html)
This resource uses scholarship, interviews, archival recordings, music and narration to explore a range of humanities topics. It provides access to audio files and transcripts.
National Film Board of Canada Online Screening Room (http://www.nfb.ca/)
Oscar winners such as 1952's Neighbours, 1977's I'll Find a Way and 2004's Ryan are among the more than 700 films now available for screening online, which also include pioneering animation and documentaries.
National Geographic Video (http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/)
National Geographic provides streaming video related to environmental, zoological, anthropological, astronomical, and other science-related topics.
Online News Hour (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/index.html)
This site allows users to search the News Hour shows back to the year 2000.
PBS Frontline (http://www.pbs.org/frontline)
Along with the extensive webpages of additional information that exist for many of Frontline's award-winning news programs, many of the programs themselves are now freely available as streaming video via those webpages.
Steven Speilberg Film and Video Archive at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (http://resources.ushmm.org/film/search/index.php)
This catalog provides access to the USHMM's collection of historical films pertaining to the Holocaust and related aspects of World War II. Over 1000 hours of footage can be searched by subject, title, source, keyword, location, event date, and genre. Hundreds of video clips stream over the Internet, with more to be added on an ongoing basis.
The following sites are search portals that allow the user to find multimedia content by indexing a variety of video on the World Wide Web:
Blinkx.tv (http://www.blinkx.com)
This interesting project claims to search TV content not just by keyword, but also by analysis of the video content, thereby looking for conceptual matches. The content searched is relatively small compared to major search engines like Google, but it appears to have a good selection of news content.
Digital Librarian (http://www.digital-librarian.com/audio.html)
Audio, video, and multimedia are included in this resource, which provides an index to hundreds of free audio, sheet music, video and multimedia websites.
Freesite (http://www.thefreesite.com/Free_Sounds/Free_WAVs/)
This site serves as an index to multiple WAV sound files for commercials, cinema, TV, and sound effects. It includes a link to the very popular and in high-demand site, A1 Free Sound Effects, a fun resource with over 700 free WAV sound effects that include everything from breaking glass to creaking doors to sirens.
Google Video (http://video.google.com/)
Google Video (currently in Beta) enables users to search a growing archive of televised content – everything from sports to dinosaur documentaries to news shows. The site is currently in its testing phase, so only a limited number of channels have been indexed.
Independent Media Center (http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml)
Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage. The site can be translated into eight languages and includes both video and audio clips, as well as journalistic articles.
MSN Video Search (http://video.msn.com/video)
MSN video search offers content from MSNBC, The Today Show, Dateline NBC, and Meet the Press. The interface is a bit clunky, but worth a try to find news content.
Yahoo Video Search (http://video.search.yahoo.com/)
The Yahoo video search screen is very “Google-like,” clean, and simple. The advanced search option provides plenty of limits. It is the only video search engine listed here that provides a limit by domain (.com, .edu, .org, .gov, etc.). When a source is chosen from the results screen, a split screen is displayed (similar to Google’s image search) allowing the user to go directly to the webpage on which the video was found.
The following sites provide a portal for those who wish to publish their own media on the World Wide Web:
Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/video/)
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization built upon the “all rights reserved” concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary “some rights reserved” approach. The above link helps users publish their videos online while allowing them to specify exactly what can and can’t be done with their work. This site also has a search function, allowing users to find footage for use in their productions.
MetaCafe (http://www.metacafe.com/)
A video and media sharing community where users upload and share thousands of new videos every day. Metacafe hosts a community of reviewers to promote favorite clips.
YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/)
This video sharing service allows people to upload, watch, search, and comment on original videos.
Multimedia Resources on the Internet (Historical) (http://www2.lib.udel.edu/eresources/multimedia/)
Digital Image Collections (http://www2.lib.udel.edu/eresources/digitalimages/)
Theatre In Video (http://www2.lib.udel.edu/database/ativ.html)
Jump to top of page.