You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
Christopher Robin
January 1st not only marked the beginning of a new year, it also marked the moment that thousands of creative works entered the public domain. Anyone can now reuse these works of literature, music, and imagery, adapting them into new creations of their own. Teachers can use creative works in the public domain in their classes, and students can use them as part of their assignments, all without worry about getting permission first.
The University Libraries celebrated public domain with a series of activities and workshops in 2022. Scroll down for more information about our weeklong celebration, Wolf Pack performances of public domain works, and links to public domain materials.
Art can take our breathe away with its’ flawless brushstrokes and colorful aesthetic, but now it’s your turn to recreate these masterpieces into your own imaginative remix. Many acclaimed art works are within the public domain, so that means they are free to be reimagined into a new context. Using the mod podge technique, participants in the event at DeLaMare Library transferred images onto wood and layer on new elements to make them their very own.
The Libraries hosted a free Wiki Edit-a-Thon event on Wednesday, March 23, 2022. Participants learned how to add public domain and other images to Wikimedia Commons before getting a chance to try it themselves with images from the Special Collections and University Archives.
The @Reality Virtual Reality Studio hosted a unique exhibit of historical stereoscopic photos from the late 19th and early 20th century. @One Multimedia Production Specialist, Shawn Sariti, digitized and converted these images into 180-degree VR videos.
The team at the Jon Bilbao Basque Library curated a selection of Basque-themed images from our library and archival collections. Visitors could use these images to spark your imagination to create new derivative works. Participants were encouraged to post it to the social media channel of your choice with the hashtag #basquepublicdomain.
The works featured here have all been protected by copyright at one time but are now in the public domain. That means anyone can use them. Students can perform songs published in 1926 or earlier and publish a video of their performance on social media or use an image as part of marketing for an event. All creative works in the public domain can be reused and remixed without having to obtain prior permission. The University Libraries invited university faculty and students to perform or read from famous 1926 works, including Soldiers' Pay by William Faulkner and Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne.
Fortunately for us, more museums and other groups are sharing public domain works online, making it easy for anyone to find them.
Allows you to search a number of sites, including various museums, for items in the public domain or with a Creative Commons license.
Collections that it believes are in the public domain.
An online journal dedicated to discussion of items in the public domain.
Great for finding music scores in the public domain.
Great for finding music scores in the public domain.
Learn more about copyright or contact your subject librarian with copyright-related questions.