Explore

JISC MediaHub contains a wealth of content from a range of different collections, so much so that at times it may be hard to know what to look for. The simplest way to explore content is to search for something of interest using the box at the top right of the page, but there are many more ways that you can discover quality resources.

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Warning! JISC MediaHub includes content from many different collections, which have been gathered over time and by different people. The information they chose to collect was different for each collection. This means that some collections include more information in some areas than others, and so they are more likely to be returned in a search for those areas. For example, only some collections have a specific date field filled in (and the search index is built on this field) so, when you search by date, only those collections can be searched; otherwise the field is blank.

Explore by
Collection

Here you can investigate each collection, and discover what each one offers. Some are films or photographs from significant film makers or photographers, or programmes from a particular broadcaster; others are resources collected because of their relevance to an academic subject; and some are representations of artefacts in museums, or works in galleries.

For example, the Gaumont Graphic Newsreel collection has fascinating silent cinema newsreels from its launch in 1910 to the late 1920s, when sound was added, to 1934, when it gave way to the production company's sound newsreel, Gaumont British News.

Explore by
Time

This is a quick way to zoom in on periods of interest, and select resources by date. The content in JISC MediaHub is from the early days of photography, film and sound recording, to the present day. Some years have more material than others, and you can explore all of these through the timeline functionality.

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Warning! Many of the collection-owners noted the date of the content when they were developing their catalogue, but sometimes included this in the description field rather than in a separate date field, while some did not record the date at all. This means that when you search by timeline, it is not possible to see all of the content, just those records that have the date field filled in.

Explore by
Subject

If you're interested in a particular subject, you can explore all of the resources that have been categorised in that way. For example, global warming, customs and tradition or computer graphics are all subject areas to explore.

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Warning! Each collection has categorised their content in their own chosen way - you could imagine a news provider using more general terms for a rock than a geologist, for example. Two different systems of subject classification have been used: IPTC for most collections and UNESCO for the others.

As JISC MediaHub contains so many interesting resources sometimes there can be too many results from a search! An advanced search can help narrow this down, for example to a period in time or a particular geographic area. This is a good way to combine all the various search features available in JISC MediaHub, to create a single very precise search.

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Warning! Sometimes the advanced search gives surprising results, simply due to the different data that are available from the different collections. Entering a date, for example, which exclude all records (and some entire collections) where dates are not provided. Also, the advanced search relies on information like place names or dates being properly catalogued as geographic or temporal data; where they simply occur like any other words within some descriptive text, they will not be recognised by the advanced search.

Explore by
Learning Materials

Inspire your own work! See how others have used some of the content available in JISC MediaHub to support their learning, teaching and research and see how easily it could be used for your own lectures, tutorials, essays, coursework and more.

Explore by
Place

A great way to find out what's available in your area of interest, Explore by Map allows you to see where content is on a map, and zoom in to see more detail. You can also simply type the name of a place into the field, and the auto-complete will show you all the places that we can search on in a list that you can then search from.

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Warning! Many of the collection owners noted the location where the content was created when they were developing their catalogue, but sometimes included this in the description field rather than in a separate location field, and many did not record the location at all. This means that when you search by location, it is not possible to see all of the content, just those records that have the location field filled in.