Research Assistance
Research assistance in the social sciences and humanities is available at the Charles E. Young Research Library. See Research Help for complete Library research support options.
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 and 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.
- 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.
- 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 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).
- UC Library Search This link opens in a new windowIndividual libraries with selected video and DVD holdings: Music, East Asian, Biomedical, Law (for Law students only), Arts, and SRLF. You can limit to “Visual Materials” in the catalog to search all of these. Access and loan options vary, however.
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.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new window
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Includes documents segment called "The Visible Empire," which includes color plates, maps, and more.
- 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.
- UC Shared Images: LUNA Imaging Collections This link opens in a new window
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Nineteen collections comprising over 30,000 images.
- VADS: The Online Resource for Visual ArtsThousands 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.