Downloads -Books and Fun
Genealogy
Newspapers
General Research
Subject-Specific Research
For Readers
For Life-Long Learners
For Kids
Overdrive Digital Catalog - Download thousands of ebooks, audio books or video right to your computer. In many cases, transfer to your mobile device and enjoy on the go! Library card required for login.
Universal Class - Why not learn something new today? Universal Class offers hundreds of affordable online CE classes facilitated by dedicated instructors sharing their knowledge on almost any imaginable topic.
A to Z Travel - Find travel essentials, city profiles, maps, and information about culture, trip-planning and shopping. Start here for your next adventure.
Genealogy
Massachusetts History Online - Contains full-text articles gathered from almost 50 sources that directly relate to Massachusetts history, both past and present, including people, places, historical events and more.Ancestry Library Edition. Library access only.
Ancestry Library Edition – With more than four billion names in over 4,000 databases, Ancestry Library Edition is a comprehensive online source of information for conducting genealogical research. Census records; birth, marriage, and death records; immigration records; vital and church records; military records; and court, land, and probate records are included. Popular databases include the U.S. Federal Census from 1790 to 1930, Social Security Death Index, Civil War records, U.S. Public Records Index, American Genealogical-Biographical Index, and Federal Slave Narratives. Library access only.
HeritageQuest Online – Heritage Quest Online is designed to help amateur and professional genealogists, local historians, and public library patrons search and use data from the U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 to 1930, more than 22,000 full-text family and local histories, and PERSI, a subject index of 6,300 local history and genealogy periodicals. The database also includes Revolutionary War pension and bounty-land-warrant application files, as well as the Freedman’s Bank Records, an important resource for African-American genealogical research. Additionally, there are more than 250 primary-source documents such as tax lists, city directories, and probate records.Remote access is available but will require the use of a STORRS LIBRARY CARD NUMBER.
Newspapers
Springfield Republican - (1988 – current) Available to library cardholders from Western Mass. only.
Boston Globe - Full-text coverage from 1980.
New York Times Backfile - Search the full text of The New York Times (starting in 1995).
Boston Herald - Full-text coverage from from 1991.
BusinessWest -Full-text bi-weekly business journal for western MA from 1992.
Berkshire Eagle -Full-text coverage for Berkshire County, and 4 nearby New York communities from 2005.
Worcester Telegram & Gazette - Full-text coverage of Worcester and Central Massachusetts news from1989.
Subject-Specific Research
Business
General BusinessFile ASAP Analyze company performance and activity, industry events and trends as well as the latest in management, economics and politics. Articles on business and management; directory of 150,000+ companies; investment analysts’ reports on major companies and industries. Use advanced search for Company profiles, SIC descriptions, and Investext Select (investment reports & forecasts). Full-text and citations from 1980 to the present.D & B Million Dollar Database Available only with use of a Boston Public Library e-card. All Massachusetts residents are eligible. Click here to register for a BPL e-card and use the number provided to access this and other electronic resources on the Boston Public Library’s website.
Health
Health Reference Center Academic (Gale InfoTrac) - Articles on fitness, pregnancy, medicine, nutrition, diseases, public health, occupational health & safety, substance abuse, HMOs, etc. Plus medical directories, pamphlets, and a dictionary. Materials in this database are intended for informational purposes only. Full-text, abstracts, citations from 1980 to the present, updated daily.
Magill Health Reference - Magill’s Medical Guide covers diseases, disorders, treatments, procedures, specialties, anatomy, biology, and issues in an A-Z format, with sidebars addressing recent developments in medicine and concise information boxes for all diseases and disorders. It provides general readers with an authoritative reference source that helps bridge the gap between medical encyclopedias for professionals and popular self-help guides.Access will require the use of a STORRS LIBRARY CARD NUMBER.
Salem Health-Cancer - Salem Health-Cancer includes information on diseases, conditions, medications, procedures, specialists, social issues, personal coping tips, print and online academic resources, and support resources. Written by physicians, nurses, and professional medical writers whose credentials and degrees are clearly listed in the byline to every essay, this comprehensive reference publication will be of interest not only to public library patrons but also to premedical students and those building collections for the patient populationAccess will require the use of a STORRS LIBRARY CARD NUMBER.
Salem Health - Psychology & Mental HealthThis reference database, companion to the 5-volume print encyclopedia, covers diagnoses, disorders, treatments, tests, notable people, and issues, including many popular concepts. Search here for reliable information on organizations and support groups, pharmaceutical lists, important court cases involving mental health issues, web sites and much more.Access will require the use of a STORRS LIBRARY CARD NUMBER. Access ScienceAvailable only with use of a Boston Public Library e-card.All Massachusetts residents are eligible. Click here to register for a BPL e-card and use the number provided to access this and other electronic resources on the Boston Public Library’s website.
History
American History Online - A database of curriculum-based content culled from many acclaimed Facts On File print titles. Includes biographies, events and topics, primary sources, maps and charts.
American Women’s History Online - An online reference database on the history of women in America containing biographies, historical and topical subject entries, primary source documents, images, maps and charts.
African-American History Online - An acclaimed online reference resource, exploring African American history through time. It includes timelines, primary sources, biographical information images and video.
Salem History-The Decades - Use this fully illustrated online companion to the print reference The Fifties in America,The Sixties in America, The Seventies in America, The Eighties in America and The Nineties in America. The database covers events, movements, people, and trends in popular culture, literature, art, sports, science, technology, economics, and politics in both the United States and Canada.Access will require the use of a STORRS LIBRARY CARD NUMBER.
Salem History-Great Events from History - Salem Press’ monumental Great Events from History series spans human history from ancient times to the present, worldwide. Essays range in length from approximately 3-5 pages and adhere to a uniform format.Search the entire set from ancient times to the late 20th century or use the Advanced Search option to select a historical period of interest from the list of titles.Access will require the use of a STORRS LIBRARY CARD NUMBER.
Issues and Controversies in American History - A curriculum-based reference database that provides balanced articles exploring the background, outcomes and contemporary points of view of major topics in American history.
Travel
A to Z Travel - Find travel essentials, city profiles, maps, and information about culture, trip-planning and shopping. Start here for your next adventure.
Art
GroveArt Online - Grove Art Online provides web access to the entire text of The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner (1996, 34 vols.) and The Oxford Companion to Western Art, ed. Hugh Brigstocke (2001). It offers ongoing additions of new and updated articles, over 2,500 thumbnail art images and line drawings displayed in the text of articles, extensive image links, and sophisticated search and navigation tools.
Literature
NoveList – Home Access – An electronic readers’ advisory resource which assists fiction readers in finding new authors and titles.
Contemporary Literary Criticism Select – An extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each CLC–Select entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, a list of principal works, critical essays, and sources for further study. Allows users to search by author name, title of work, nationality, subject/genre, ethnicity, critic name, and more.
Science
Science Online - experiments, essays, definitions and arranged by topic and containing hyperlinks that create paths through the content. Science Online follows the National Science Education Standards for grades 6-12.
General Research
Virtual Reference Library - Digital editions of the following print reference sources. Click SHOW ALL to view the individual titles listed below, select any title to search individually or search the entire library from the opening page.
Biography Resource Center + Marquis Who’s Who® – Thousands of online full-text biographies from Gale reference books. Includes Encyclopedia of World Biography, Who’s Who Among African-Americans, Maclean’s, Contemporary Authors, and many more important biographical reference sources. Search by name, occupation, ethnicity, and more. Includes portraitswhere available, and links to thumbnail bios and online periodical articles from other InfoTrac databases where appropriate.
General Reference Center Gold - Articles from magazines, journals, and reference books of general interest, including current events, business, consumer help, and popular culture. Full-text, abstracts, and citations from 1980 – present, updated daily.
Issues and Controversies - An online reference database that analyzes and explains hundreds of controversial topics.
a. Frequent updating
b. Interviews with experts
c. Statistical overviews
d. Newspaper editorials
e. Primary documents
Educator’s Reference Complete – Use this mainly full-text collection of over 1100 periodicals and 200 reports for educational research from preschool to college. Every educational specialty can be found here including technology, health and bilingual education, testing, and issues in administration, funding and policy.
InfoTrac OneFile – Use this comprehensive periodical resource for any subject. Coverage goes back to 1980- with over 9,200 titles (5,156 full-text).
Gale PowerSearch – A database for multidisciplinary research which accesses several or all of the Gale periodical databases plus electronic encyclopedias and specialized reference sources in a single search.
Academic OneFile - Use this comprehensive periodical resource of full-text peer-reviewed content for over 10,000 manually indexed journals and reference works covering all subjects, including the full-text of The New York Times back to 1995 and NPR, CNN & CBC transcripts and podcasts.
Expanded Academic ASAP – Articles from scholarly, trade and general-interest publications. Topics include arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, technologies, and other academic disciplines. Full-text, abstracts, and citations to articles from 1980 – present.
For Readers
NoveList – Home Access An electronic readers’ advisory resource which assists fiction readers in finding new authors and titles.
Contemporary Literary Criticism Select – An extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each CLC–Select entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, a list of principal works, critical essays, and sources for further study. Allows users to search by author name, title of work, nationality, subject/genre, ethnicity, critic name, and more.
For Life-Long Learners
Universal Class - Why not learn something new today? Universal Class offers hundreds of affordable online CE classes facilitated by dedicated instructors sharing their knowledge on almost any imaginable topic.
A to Z Travel - Find travel essentials, city profiles, maps, and information about culture, trip-planning and shopping. Start here for your next adventure.
Encyclopedia Britannica Online Available only with use of a Boston Public Library e-card. All Massachusetts residents are eligible. Click here to register for a BPL e-card and use the number provided to access this and other electronic resources on the Boston Public Library’s website
GroveArt Online - Grove Art Online provides web access to the entire text of The Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner (1996, 34 vols.) and The Oxford Companion to Western Art, ed. Hugh Brigstocke (2001). It offers ongoing additions of new and updated articles, over 2,500 thumbnail art images and line drawings displayed in the text of articles, extensive image links, and sophisticated search and navigation tools.
Kids InfoBits - Kids InfoBits meets the research needs of students in Kindergartenthrough Grade 5. It features a developmentally appropriate, visually graphic interface, a subject-based topic tree search and full-text, age-appropriate, curriculum-related magazine, newspaper and reference content for information on current events, the arts, science, health, people, government, history, sports and more.
InfoTrac K-12 Junior Edition - This periodical database is designed for students in junior high and middle school with access to a variety of indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.
InfoTrac K-12 Student Edition - This periodical database is designed for high-school students with access to a variety of indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.
