Sources
Where does the content on Openverse come from?
There is openly licensed content hosted on millions of domains across the breadth of the internet. Our team systematically identifies providers hosting CC-licensed content. If it’s a good fit, we index that content and make it discoverable through Openverse.
Some providers have multiple different groupings of content within them. Flickr has sources ranging from NASA to personal photography. The Smithsonian Institute comprises a dozen diverse collections. Wikimedia Commons runs the gamut in terms of content, and is used by several Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums highlighting some or all of their digitized collections.
Openverse is especially grateful for the work of Europeana, an organization that works to digitize and make discoverable cultural heritage works across Europe. Openverse is able to index hundreds of valuable sources through a single integration with the Europeana API.
How do we decide what sources to add next?
We have a never ending list of possible sources to research prior to integration. We ask ourselves questions like:
- What is the impact or importance of this source to our users? If it exists within a provider like Wikimedia Commons, is it valuable for our users to be able to filter by this source directly?
- Is licensing and attribution information clearly displayed to enable confident reuse?
- How many new total items or new types of items can we bring to our users through this integration? Some sources are direct integrations, while others may be a source within a source.
We appreciate suggestions for new sources from our community of users.
Clicking on a Source allows you to browse and filter items within that source.
Image Sources
|
Source
|
Domain
|
Total items
|
|---|---|---|
| Animal Diversity Web | animaldiversity.org | 15 554 |
| Biodiversity Heritage Library | biodiversitylibrary.org | 247 665 |
| Brooklyn Museum | brooklynmuseum.org | 69 327 |
| Cleveland Museum of Art | clevelandart.org | 38 760 |
| Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon | capl.washjeff.edu | 15 143 |
| Digitalt Museum | digitaltmuseum.no | 289 769 |
| Europeana | europeana.eu | 8 298 357 |
| Flickr | flickr.com | 502 982 577 |
| Flora-On | flora-on.pt | 55 010 |
| Geograph Britain and Ireland | geograph.org.uk | 1 090 119 |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art | metmuseum.org | 387 715 |
| Museums Victoria | museumsvictoria.com.au | 166 470 |
| NASA | nasa.gov | 124 218 |
| Nappy | nappy.co | 2 210 |
| National Gallery of Denmark (SMK) | open.smk.dk | 39 788 |
| New York Public Library | nypl.org | 1 277 |
| PhyloPic | phylopic.org | 8 050 |
| Rawpixel | rawpixel.com | 168 484 |
| Rijksmuseum | rijksmuseum.nl | 29 999 |
| SVG Silh | svgsilh.com | 358 942 |
| Science Museum – UK | sciencemuseum.org.uk | 102 952 |
| Sketchfab | sketchfab.com | 37 872 |
| Smithsonian Institution Archives | siarchives.si.edu | 8 313 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Anacostia Community Museum | anacostia.si.edu | 601 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum | cooperhewitt.org | 75 037 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Freer Gallery of Art | asia.si.edu | 7 086 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | hirshhorn.si.edu | 878 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Air and Space Museum | airandspace.si.edu | 6 513 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of African American History and Culture | nmaahc.si.edu | 10 895 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of African Art | africa.si.edu | 365 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of American History | americanhistory.si.edu | 13 718 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of Natural History | naturalhistory.si.edu | 3 687 662 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Museum of the American Indian | americanindian.si.edu | 246 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Portrait Gallery | npg.si.edu | 16 212 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Postal Museum | postalmuseum.si.edu | 7 155 |
| Smithsonian Institution: National Zoo | nationalzoo.si.edu | 462 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian American Art Museum | americanart.si.edu | 12 498 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian Gardens | gardens.si.edu | 8 387 |
| Smithsonian Institution: Smithsonian Libraries | library.si.edu | 55 |
| SpaceX | spacex.com | 1 360 |
| StockSnap.io | stocksnap.io | 38 092 |
| Thingiverse | thingiverse.com | 32 395 |
| WOCinTech Chat | wocintechchat.com | 268 |
| WP Photo Directory | wordpress.org | 7 930 |
| Wikimedia Commons | commons.wikimedia.org | 58 265 344 |
| World Register of Marine Species | marinespecies.org | 19 783 |
| iNaturalist | inaturalist.org | 158 267 579 |
Audio Sources
|
Source
|
Domain
|
Total items
|
|---|---|---|
| Freesound | freesound.org | 416 830 |
| Jamendo | jamendo.com | 594 085 |
| Wikimedia Commons | commons.wikimedia.org | 1 305 565 |