Technology Review: Pixabay

PIXABAY provides access to over a million free images and videos available online.

Providing access to images and videos labeled with the Creative Commons CC0 license, this resource makes it easy to locate and use a wide range of resources.

Users can locate photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and videos. An advanced search option provides more detailed searching. Although the search results display sponsored images in addition to free materials, the sponsored images don’t distract from the free materials. Images can also be accessed by category such as animals or sports.

Students can access the visual resources through the website or download the app through the App Store or Google Play.

Librarians will find this to be an effective tool for students working on class projects. Although Google offers a similar search for free images, this resource provides different and additional results.

To explore the website, go to https://pixabay.com/.

Special Event Website: American Folklife Center

The AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER at the Library of Congress is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2016 by collecting photos of folklife tradition.

To participate in the project, the public is encouraged to share photos of their own folklife traditions. Photos can be shared at Flickr with the tag “MyTradition” and a Creative Commons license. The photos will be harvested and added to the AFC’s collections.

Librarians could use this project as an opportunity to talk with classes about American folklife as part of a school-wide social studies program.

For a definition and examples of American folklife, go to http://www.loc.gov/folklife/cwc/?loclr=blogflt.

To learn more about this special project and the 40th anniversary, go to the AFC’s blog at http://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/category/afc-40th-anniversary/.