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Open Access Library

A selected list of open access resources arranged alphabetically.

Film, TV & Video - A to Z

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Digitized historic photographs, advertisements, texts & more from Duke's unique library collections. 

British Pathé

"90,000 Historic Clips." This massive collection covers the gamut from entertainment to sports, to news, to industry to war.

American Experience

"TV's most watched history series."  Click the tab: "All Films" to see the list.

American Memory Collection

Several hundred early motion pictures The collections are profiled on the website 

Annenberg Learner Video Series

Part of the Annenberg Foundation, Annenberg Learner uses media and telecommunications to advance excellent teaching in American schools. This mandate is carried out chiefly by the funding and broad distribution of educational video programs with coordinated Web and print materials for the professional development of K-12 teachers.

Archive of American Television

Archive of American Television has conducted over 800 oral history interviews (over 4000 hours) with the legends of television. These interviews chronicle the birth and growth of American TV History as it evolves, and make the interviews available worldwide. The Archive  continues to produce new interviews every year. The collection covers a variety of professionsgenres, and topics in electronic media history.

ARKive

A not-for-profit initiative of the charity Wildscreen intended to make a freely available record of the world's most endangered species.

AP British Movitone

British Movietone is arguably the world’s greatest newsreel archive, spanning the period 1895 – 1986. Shot on 35mm film, this global archive contains many of the world’s enduring images and is rich in coverage of news events, celebrities, sports, music, social history, science, lifestyle and quirky. It was the first newsreel to include sound, the first to use colour film, the first to break many exclusive stories, and is your first and last stop for newsreel footage. The collection is fully digitized and now available from AP Archive.

Associated Press Archive

Available on the Web through YouTube

C-Span

Since 1987, the C-Span collection has become and award winning of over 213000 hours of programming containing government and political Content.

Civil Rights Digital Library (CRDL)

The Civil rights movement was one of the most far-reaching social movements in the nation's history, and it represents a crucial step in the evolution of American democracy. The Civil Rights Digital Library promotes an enhanced understanding of the Movement by helping users discover primary sources and other educational materials from libraries, archives, museums, public broadcasters, and others on a national scale.(source: website)

Ethnographic Video for Instruction & Analysis (EVIA) Digital Archive

The EVIA Digital Archive Project is a collaborative effort to establish a repository of ethnographic video recordings and an infrastructure of tools and systems supporting scholars in the ethnographic disciplines

Folkstreams.net

A National Preserve of Documentary Films about American Roots Cultures streamed with essays about the traditions and filmmaking. The site includes transcriptions, study and teaching guides, suggested readings, and links to related websites.

FRONTLINE

One of the most informative programs on television now makes their broadcasts available on the web.  

Moving Image Archive

National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Over 3000 documentaries, animated films, innovative projects and Canadian films free to view.

NOVA

NOVA is the highest rated science series on television and the most watched documentary series on public television. It is also one of television's most acclaimed series, having won every major television award, most of them many times over.

PBS Video

PBS Video content is brought to you through on–demand streaming. All you need is a reliable Internet connection, and you’will be able to enjoy hundreds of hours of content. And best of all – it's free!

Science Cinema

Science Cinema highlights scientific videos featuring leading-edge research from the U.S.. Department of Energy. Using innovative, state-of-the-art audio indexing and speech recognition technology from Microsoft Research, Science Cinema allows users to search for specific words and phrases spoken within video files. (source: website)

Thanhouser Films Online

Click the Title for a Chronological list of 56 films from 1910 through 1917. Click here for an Alphabetical List.

Top Documentary Films

Search or Browse thousands of documentaries.

TV News Archive

Search closed captions from US TV news shows, View clips from over 730,000 programs since 2009.

Veoh

Described by its parent company as "one of the world's top video sites.

Vimeo

"Watch the world's best videos from Vimeo's passionate community." (What?) "Today, millions of people from all around the world enjoy Vimeo, and we’re growing bigger every day".

WGHB OpenVAULT

WGBH OpenVault provide online access to unique and historically important content produced by the public television and radio station WGBH. So have a look around and explore! (website)