Open Access Resources
What is Open Access?
Open access is a scholarly communication model that promises to significantly improve the accessibility of research results. Generally speaking, scholarly research published in open access is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions (though authors must be properly credited) (CARL-ABRC, n.d.).
Thus, it is possible to democratize access to knowledge (everywhere in the world) and foster the acceleration of scientific development (Polytechnique Montréal, n.d.).
The Open Access Spectrum
The following conditions represent the spectrum of open access:
- Free of charge: There is no cost to access the content.
- Open access: No technological mechanisms (paywalls) limit access to the content.
- No distribution delay: Content is released in open access immediately upon publication.
- Fewer usage restrictions: Content is distributed under an open license, such as Creative Commons licenses (Université Laval, 2026).
Critical Thinking and Evaluation
It is also an opportunity for the development of critical thinking within the scientific community and among readers more generally, by engaging in the evaluation of information (HEC, 2025).
(traduction par Gemini de Google)
E-books
Oxford Academic University Open Access Books
Oxford University Press’s academic research platform for online books.
The Canadian Online Art Book Project
The Canadian Online Art Book Project is a growing digital library of books–all original works commissioned by the Art Canada Institute–by the country’s leading art experts on artists who have made a critical contribution to the evolution of the nation’s art history.
The OAPEN Library
The OAPEN Library contains freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of humanities and social sciences.
LACMA
LACMA produces a range of exhibition and collection catalogues in both print and online formats. Please note that those available on Archive.org are free of charge in standard PDF format for viewing online or printing out.
Bibliothèque des Amériques
Centre de la francophonie des Amériques
French content
Borrow one of the thousands of French books for free with a connection via the Cantook app.
VousNousIls
l’e-mag de l’éducation
French content
Download classic literature for free! VousNousIls, in partnership with CASDEN, offers teachers a collection of 170 copyright-free works to discover or rediscover the great classics of French and international literature. All these ebooks, suitable for classroom use, are available for free download.
Litteratureaudio.com
French content
Litteratureaudio.com and its free audiobooks are offered to you by the association Des Livres à Lire et à Entendre, an association under the 1901 law whose purpose is to facilitate access for all, and in particular for the blind and visually impaired, to the joys of literature.
Bibliothèque numérique TV5Monde
French content
642 classics of French-language literature, available for free.
Les classiques des sciences sociales
UQàM
French content
A French-language digital library providing free access to works in the social sciences and humanities in French.
Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
Hispanic Content
Relevant works of culture in the various Hispanic languages freely and openly available to users worldwide, as well as the most relevant research and studies on them.
Electronic journals
Oxford Academic University Open Access Journals
Oxford University Press’s academic research platform for free online journals.
Journals that converted from TA to OA
Part of the Open Access Directory, this is a list of toll access (TA) journals that converted to Open Access.
Specialized Periodicals
Persee.fr
French content
A portal for disseminating scientific publications, primarily in the fields of humanities and social sciences, but also Earth and environmental sciences.
Possibles
French content
A multidisciplinary journal with themes that are sometimes socio-political, sometimes literary.
Internet Archive
Free Movies
Internet Archive is a vast, non-profit digital library that provides free access to millions of resources: books, films, music, software, websites, and more. Powered by a global community, it aims to preserve collective memory and make knowledge accessible to everyone.
CNRS Images
Videos published by the National Centre for Scientific Research (France) divided into different thematic files (environment, theatre, First World War, etc.).
Canal-U TV
French content
The French higher education digital video library is a key resource for audiovisual materials, where teachers and students can find videos enriched with educational documents validated by the scientific advisory boards of the Thematic Digital Universities.
La fabrique culturelle
Télé-Québec
French content
A platform whose mandate is to promote Quebec arts and culture.
Cinémathèque française
French content
Video on Demand (VOD) platform Henri giving free access to more than a hundred rare films from its collection.
TV5Unis
French content
A free video-on-demand service: over 3,000 hours of viewing. Our documentaries, films, and fiction series offer rich and varied perspectives on the Canadian and international Francophonie.
Ciné TFO
The only public French-language media outlet entirely dedicated to Ontario’s Francophone community.
French content
Rooted in Ontario’s diverse Francophone community and committed to its needs and interests, TFO offers cutting-edge educational and cultural content to learners, parents, and educators. Through its activities, TFO cultivates a love of learning and celebrates French culture in Ontario and beyond.
BnF Gallica
Video Collection
Gallica is the digital library of the BnF and its partners. It offers free and open access to several million digitized documents from all periods and in all formats.
Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA)
French content
Archives, preserves, digitizes and disseminates to all audiences one of the most important and prestigious audiovisual and digital collections.
Savoir média
French content
Whether it takes the form of dossiers, magazines, debates, documentaries or exclusive capsules, Savoir média’s programming offers a catalogue of nearly 2500 pieces of content.
Audiovisual - Specialized Content
CCDMD – Conférences numériques
Content for all training areas
French content
Project to disseminate presentations and debates intended for the college network.
Cœur des sciences
French content
Cœur des sciences is a science and culture center whose mission is to contribute to the development of scientific literacy among the general public and to promote this literacy as an integral part of culture. Their YouTube channel includes all the recordings of their school and public lectures.
IRSST – Facteurs de risque
French content
This series explores workplace safety from every angle, using clear explanations and demonstrations from scientific researchers, moving testimonials from workers, practical tests, workplace visits, informative segments, and humorous commentary from a comedian. It also highlights the approaches and technologies developed by IRSST researchers to prevent accidents.
L’Université numérique
La philo par les mots
French content
This series of seventeen videos from the “essentials” collection revisits basic concepts in philosophy: passions, personal identity, irrationality, the social contract, experience, history of philosophy, lo stato, method, being within one’s rights, reason, raison d’état, the subject, project, morality, government, historicity and the union of soul and body.
Philo-aide du Cégep du Vieux-Montréal
French content
Videos to accompany the writing of philosophical argumentative texts.
Collection Descartes
École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
French content
Two sets of concepts. The first corresponds to a systematic approach and considers both canonical themes of Cartesianism (the passions, animals, the subject and childhood) and others less expected (politics and morality) or more technical (medicine).
Collège d’Alma – Techniques policières
Immersive 360° or interactive videos illustrating different intervention and analysis situations in a police context.
Collège d’Alma – Soins infirmiers
Immersive 360° videos depicting various clinical situations in the healthcare field.
CCDMD. Développement de l’enfant
French content
Videos, texts and exercises for studying and teaching psychology.
Dictionaries and grammars
Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (DCHP-3)
Historical usage dictionary of words, expressions, or meanings which are native to Canada or which are distinctively characteristic of Canadian English.
Language Navigator
Translation Bureau (Government of Canada)
Search by keyword or by theme to quickly find answers to questions about language or writing in English and French.
Le Rouleau des prépositions
Translation Bureau (Government of Canada)
Use this tool (in French only) to find the right prepositions (à, de, en, etc.) to use with specific French verbs, adverbs and adjectives.
Other Resources
The Canadian Encyclopedia
This is our bilingual online national encyclopedia created by our people, for our people about Canadian people, to learn more about Canadian events, our culture, our history, and our landscapes.
Canadiana
Extensive collection of full-text primary sources on Canadian history, including books, periodicals, and official documents. This documentation includes printed materials dating from the time of the first European settlers to the mid-20th century.
Autochtonia
French content
This database was created by DIALOG, the research and knowledge network for Indigenous peoples. The database contains over 16,000 documents relating to Indigenous peoples in Quebec.
Merck Manual
Professional Version
First published in 1899 as a small reference book for physicians and pharmacists, The Manual grew in size and scope to become one of the most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers.
Pubmed
National Library of Medecine
Citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
Drug Product Database (DPD)
Search the Drug Product Database to find drugs authorized for sale by Health Canada.
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
Comprehensive, easy-to-use, searchable, Internet-based bibliographic and full-text database of education research and information. It is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences within the U.S. Department of Education.
National Gallery of Canada
Atlas of Canada
Explore Canada through maps, data and stories. From historic cartography to modern interactive mapping tools, the Atlas of Canada showcases the nation’s land, people and places.
Cartothèque
SciencesPo Digital Library
More than 860,000 documents from the library’s collections, Sciences Po’s archives, research centers and the DataViz Library of Sciences Po.
Perspective Monde
Université de Sherbrooke
French content
Educational tool for understanding major global trends since 1945.
Odesi
Odesi is a Canadian social science data repository and online exploration and analysis tool. It contains 5,700+ datasets curated by academic libraries in Canada.
Gapminder
Gapminder identifies systematic misconceptions about important global trends and proportions and uses reliable data to develop easy to understand teaching materials to rid people of their misconceptions.
Codes Canada publications
The National Model Codes and related user’s guides are developed by the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes and published by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).
Worldometer
Reference website that provides counters and real-time statistics for diverse topics, such as government, world population, economics, society, media, environment, food and water, energy, and health.
Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
Featuring select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
Images and/or videos in open access
Openverse
An extensive library of free stock photos, images, and audio, available for free use.
CC search portal
The Creative Commons (CC) Search Portal helps you search CC licensed works across multiple platforms.
CCDMD – World of Images
World of Images is a free repository of high-resolution photos and videos designed to support the creation of quality teaching materials from royalty-free media. It allows teachers and students to share, manage, and preserve visual productions, while fostering exchange and showcasing works created within the context of group activities.
CCCA Canadian Art Database
Documenting the careers of some of Canada’s leading professional artists, designers, art writers and curators, as well as some important Canadian art institutions and organizations that have helped shape the Canadian art scene since the 1960s.
Smithsonian Open Access
Can download, share, and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images—right now, without asking. With new platforms and tools, you have easier access to more than 5.1 million 2D and 3D digital items from our collections—with many more to come. This includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 21 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.
The Met Collection
Over 492,000 images of public-domain artworks, is available for free and unrestricted use.
The British Library’s collections
On Flickr Commons offer access to millions of public domain images, which we encourage you to explore and re-use.
BnF – Gallica
Gallica is the digital library of the BnF and its partners. It offers free and open access to several million digitized documents from all periods and all media.
Web Gallery of Art
Virtual museum and searchable database of European fine arts, decorative arts and architecture (3rd-19th centuries), currently containing over 52,800 reproductions. Artist biographies, commentaries, guided tours, period music, catalogue, free postcard and mobile services are provided.
Flaticon
Download Free Icons and Stickers for your projects. Resources made by and for designers. PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and CSS formats.
Noun Project
LThe world’s largest and most diverse collection of high-quality vector icons and photos.
Les Balados du Devoir
French content
Le Devoir tells journalistic stories and tales that reflect the spirit of the times, presenting original voices and points of view along the way.
Benlala
French content
This podcast, with over 100 episodes, was created by an accounting and management teacher who wanted his students to learn while being entertained. The episodes cover academic concepts with current events as a backdrop.
Video channels and podcasts from Collège Bois-de-Boulogne
French content
Channels and podcasts to explore different fields of knowledge.
Multidisciplinary
Social sciences and psychology/strong>
History and civilization
Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Literature and language
Sounds / music
Warning: always check the terms of use for the sounds or music you use.
Freesound
Collaborative sound library, licensed under Creative Commons. However, creating a (free) account is required to download the audio files.
Au bout du fil
French content
Discover royalty-free music and download it legally and for free in MP3 format. As a music enthusiast, I showcase independent artists through music reviews.
cchound
A library of approximately 2,500 music files, accessible under a Creative Commons license. A search function allows you to sort the tracks by genre, mood, type, or instrument. The selected tracks are freely usable in all types of creative projects, provided they are properly credited.
BBC Sound Effect
The BBC Sound Effect offers a collection of over 30,000 sound clips. Use is royalty-free for non-commercial projects.
Free resources for teachers
Centre de documentation collégiale – ÉDUQ.info
The open archive of the Quebec college network. The archive collects, retains, and disseminates documents about teaching, learning, and institutional development in Quebec’s Cegeps and colleges.
Open Edition
The B.C. Open Textbook Collection is a growing selection of open textbooks across a variety of subjects and specialties. Discover open textbooks that have been reviewed by faculty, meet accessibility requirements, and/or include supplementary materials (quizzes, practice tests, slides, videos, etc.).
OER Commons
Open educational resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials such as collections of open textbooks that you can freely use and reuse.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosphy : organizes scholars from around the world in philosophy and related disciplines to create and maintain an up-to-date reference work.
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
A Peer-Reviewed Academic Resource
Open access to detailed, scholarly, peer-reviewed information on key topics and philosophers in all areas of philosophy written by philosophers from a wide variety of countries.
TV5 Unis – FrancoLab
French content
TV5Unis’ educational section is designed for French learners and teachers! Here you’ll find videos from TV5 and Unis TV, specially selected for you, along with downloadable activity sheets and interactive exercises. Thanks to a wide variety of social topics, speaking French in the classroom has never been easier!
Pavillon de ressources éducatives numériques
French content
Pavillon is a directory of digital educational resources for students and staff in higher education. The platform promotes the accessibility of disciplinary and pedagogical content as well as the use of open educational resources (OER).
Campus numérique Québec — Pavillon de ressources éducatives numériques
French content
Find digital educational resources.
La Fabrique REL
French content
According to UNESCO, open educational resources (OER) are “teaching, learning or research materials that are in the public domain or published with an intellectual property license permitting their use, adaptation and distribution free of charge.”
References:
- Association des bibliothèques de recherche du Canada. (s.d.). Faire avancer la recherche : Communication savante : Libre accès. CARL-ABRC. https://www.carl-abrc.ca/fr/a-propos-de-labrc/
- Bibliothèque. (2025). Introduction : Qu’est-ce que le libre accès ? HEC Montréal. https://libguides.hec.ca/libreacces
- Bibliothèque. (2026). Libre accès à l’Université Laval : Introduction au libre accès. Université Laval. https://www.bibl.ulaval.ca/services/soutien-a-ledition-savante-et-a-la-recherche/libre-acces-a-luniversite-laval/introduction-au-libre-acces
- Bibliothèque Louise-Lalonde-Lamarre. (s.d.). Libre accès : Qu’est-ce que le libre accès ? Polytechnique de Montréal. https://guides.biblio.polymtl.ca/libre_acces/accueil