Research Assistance
Research assistance in the social sciences and humanities is available at the Charles E. Young Research Library. See Reference and Research Help for complete reference service options.
Anthropology-Oriented Image Collections
- Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural HistoryOver 170,000 of the 500,000 objects have been digitally imaged and can be accessed through this website.
- UCLA Fowler Museum: Collections OnlineThe Fowler's collections comprise more than 120,000 art and ethnographic and 600,000 archaeological objects representing ancient, traditional, and contemporary cultures of Africa, Native and Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific.
Selected Digital Image Resources
Use these sites to locate images of, and metadata for, art, artifacts and monuments. Some are freely available, others are subscription services, so remote access may be necessary when accessing from off-campus.
- AP Newsroom This link opens in a new window
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AP Newsroom (formerly AP Images) contains millions of photographs dating from 1826 to present day from the Associated Press. Includes thousands of graphics, audio files dating from the 1920s, and news stories and headlines from 1997 to the present. - ARTstor This link opens in a new window
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High-resolution Images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences. Includes a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and teaching purposes. Images are contributed by museums, photographers, libraries, scholars, photo archives, artists, and estates, from a variety of sources including the Hartill Archive of Architecture and Allied Arts. UC campuses contribute additional images including: the Archivision Library, Saskia Art & Architecture images, the Visual Resources Collections from UCB, UCSB, UCI, UCLA, UCR, and the UCSC Library Instructional Collection. Now hosted on the JSTOR platform. - Calisphere This link opens in a new windowOver one million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more from the collections digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.
- CalPhotosPhotos of plants, animals, fossils, people, and landscapes from around the world.
- Collections Database, Division of Anthropology, American Museum of Natural HistoryImages of over 200,000 objects from the division's collections.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new window
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Primary source manuscripts and secondary essays relevant to Empire Studies. The sections cover Cultural Contacts, 1492-1969; Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire; The Visible Empire; Religion & Empire; and Race, Class & Colonialism, 1783-1969.
- British LibraryOver one million public domain images from publications from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Largely unorganized.
- Flickr CommonsA free public collection of photographs from major photography archives. Contributors include the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, and more.
- Google ImagesSearches images available via Google, of mixed size and quality.
- LIFE Photo ArchiveGrowing historical photo archive for LIFE magazine, hosted by Google.
- NYPL Digital GalleryThousands of digital images from the New York Public Library's collections.
- UCLA Newsroom ImagesUCLA campus images collected by UCLA Newsroom.
- VADSThousands of visual arts images, including fashion, design, prints, and sculpture.
- Wikimedia CommonsPublic domain and freely-licensed images, sound, and video. Note the ability to browse by classification (topics, locations, media type, and more!) in addition to keyword searching.
- World Digital LibraryIncludes primary materials from world cultures, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and more.
- WorldImagesContains thousands of images on a range of global topics. This free site also includes some coverage of clothing and dress.
For additional information on finding images, see the following subject guide...
Selected Online Film Resources
Here are some online resources for finding reviews, articles, and other information about films. Some are freely available, others are subscription services, so remote access may be necessary when accessing from off-campus.
- Ethnographic Video Online: Foundational Films This link opens in a new window
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Volumes I and II of Ethnographic Video Online. Contains streaming video of documentary footage focused on the study of human culture and behavior. Includes ethnographic films, documentaries, select feature films, interviews, field notes, and study guides. See also volume III, Indigenous Voices; and, volume IV, Festivals and Archives.
- EVIA: Ethnographic Video for Instruction and AnalysisA Mellon-funded digital archive of ethnographic field video for use by scholars and instructors. The site includes tools for annotation, discovery, playback, peer review, and scholarly publication of video and accompanying descriptions.
- FIAF International Index to Film Periodicals This link opens in a new window
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Searches film and television articles in the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972-current) and Treasures from the Film Archives, which contains silent film-era listings from archives. - AFI Catalog This link opens in a new window
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The online AFI (American Film Institute) Catalog draws its content from printed volumes that document every American feature film from 1893 to 1974. Also includes some short films from the first era of filmmaking, 1893–1910. Provides detailed filmographic information, including music credits, release dates, plot descriptions, and bibliographies. See also the AFI web version of the catalog. - Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
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Articles and reviews from a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, circus, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television, and more. Former database title: International Index to Performing Arts (IIPA) Full Text.
- National Anthropological Archives & Human Studies Film ArchivesThe NAA and HSFA collect and preserve historical and contemporary anthropological materials that document the world's cultures and the history of anthropology.
UCLA Film and Video Collections
The repositories below house collections that are publicly cataloged or listed. Each has a different access policy and many are administered by separate campus entities, so it is important to check individual websites even though many holdings appear in the UCLA Library Catalog.
- Instructional Media Collections & ServicesVideo collection funded for instructional on-campus use. Though holdings are also listed in the UCLA Library Catalog, users can double-check the separate IMCS catalog available from the website.
- Film and Television ArchiveThe Film and Television Archive has research copies of many titles, with particular strength in Hollywood film. The catalog is also distinct, and can be accessed via the Archive's homepage. Or, in the UCLA Library Catalog, click on "Select Collections."
- UCLA Film & Television Archive Catalog This link opens in a new windowMotion pictures (silent era, classic Hollywood, independent cinema, LGBT collections, documentaries and newsreels, animated cartoons, foreign and contemporary American films), television (American telecasting from 1945 to date), and news and public affairs programs (1950 to date).
- UC Library Search This link opens in a new window
UC Library Search is the unified discovery and borrowing system for all 10 UC Campuses. Select the UCLA Library Catalog scope to search holdings of materials owned by the UCLA Library and other UCLA collections, whether online or in print. Does not contain full-text articles or article citations. Select the Articles, books and more scope to search for materials in all 10 UC campuses. More information in this guide.
- UCLA Ethnomusicology ArchiveThe Archive’s collection of more than 150,000 audio, video, print, and photographic items documents musical expressions throughout the world and includes unique field recordings as well as rare commercial recordings.
- UCLA Ralph J. Bunche Library and Media Center (Center for African American Studies)Video holdings are also listed in UCLA Library Catalog. More information about access and equipment are on the Center's website.
- Chicano Studies Research Center Library & Special CollectionsList of videos at the Library. Video holdings are also listed in UCLA Library Catalog.
- UCLA Film & Television Archive News and Public Affairs (NAPA) CollectionConsists of over 100,000 news programs and broadcasts taped off air from 1979 to 2003. Titles from the collection can be made available for research viewing on the UCLA campus in the Instructional Media Lab (IML), located in room 270 of the Powell Library. Viewing requests must be made in advance through the Archive Research and Study Center (ARSC).