How To Get Encyclopedias and E-Reference Books from Home
Where have encyclopedias and reference books gone? To our library databases! The days of door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen and having a set of encyclopedias at one’s home are long gone.
Search through our encyclopedias, e-reference books for information you need for your project or paper, day or night from the comfort of your own home, whether or not there is a blizzard out there.
Easy on your book bag and your back. No more lugging heavy books around. You will just need your NYPL library and pin number to access them.
About our Encyclopedias and e-Reference Books
The New York Public Llibrary subscribes to various services which provide access to encyclopedias, e-reference books and other e-books. Existing print versions of these encyclopedias and e-books are available digitally to you for free with your NYPL card!
Do Digital Encyclopedias and e-Reference Versions Count As “Real Books”?
It may take some convincing for some to understand that encyclopedias and e-Reference books have the same content as print sources.
Online, they may look a little different from the traditional print formats. Pages can't always be flipped or scrolled through in a consecutive manner. You may have to type in search terms to pull up the information you are looking for.
Sometimes, information on how to cite the material is located under the entry or on another part of the database itself. Encyclopedia and e-book entries provide information on how to cite their materials.
Do you need to see it to believe it? Drop by any one of our libraries and a staff member can show you! Take advantage of our many free computer classes and open labs on how to use our e-resources and learn other skills.
How to Find Them
To find our e-Reference books from our homepage, click on “Research.” Then, click on “Articles and Databases.”
Databases that you can get from home have a house next to it like this one:
To access one, click on the name of the database and then type in your library card number and pin number.
For a more detailed explanation about what the icons mean, click here to see Meredith Mann’s blogpost “Online Research: Where to Start” and other posts on the Paperless Research blog channel.
How to Get Encyclopedias Online
Here is a link to encyclopedias that you can get from home. Here is one of them:
World Book Online Reference Center
World Book Online, from the publishers of the World Book Encyclopedia, provides access to over 31,000 encyclopedia articles, 6,000 web links, 25,000 periodical articles, 800 animations and sounds, 400 interactive maps, 100 3-D bubble views, and much more.
The World Book Encyclopedia is for all ages: kids, teens and adults. There is a Spanish language version also available. You can even get historical timelines for world events and read e-books and read . Check out Discover to see an online world atlas, learn research skills and even learn life skills!
How To Get Reference Books Online
Here are a few online databases you can use to explore our e-reference books.
This is an online reference library which provides access to dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, quotations and atlases in a variety of subjects.
There are a few different ways of finding information on this database. You can type a topic into the search box and click on the magnifying glass on the right side.
You may see a list of results. If you click on different links on the page, you may see information and results grouped in a variety of ways.
If you want to go directly to the books that we have available, just click on the three white lines at the top left corner of the screen. Click on “All Titles.”
Click on the title of each book to peruse its contents.
You can save and email the book content to yourself. You can even listen to the books being read to you!
Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)
An online library of reference titles for multi-disciplinary research, including texts related to American and world history, biography, health, arts, business, travel, religion, and multicultural studies. Contains a browsable list of e-reference books.
Have fun and browse through all of our databases and e-resources you can get at home! Or browse through what is available in total system-wide.
Our Research Libraries
If you need sources of information beyond the NYPL library databases you can access at home, you can check out the small reference book collections available in some branch libraries and our circulating collection of non-fiction books and non-fiction e-books.
If you are feeling adventurous, come visit our four research libraries! Besides their classes and events, they have vast amounts of print and online resources available onsite. Click on this visitor guide to learn how to get the most out of your visits!
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 Fifth Avenue (42nd St and Fifth Ave)
New York, NY, 10018
Phone: (917) 275-6975
10 AM–5:45 PM
They have a vast array of rooms and divisions specializing in different research topics. Click here to see their visitors guide and floor plan. There are many classes and exhibitions available there too! Including classes on doing research.
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza (65th St and Columbus Ave)
New York, NY, 10023
Phone: (917) 275-6975
10:30 AM–6 PM
Explore their collections of music, musical scores, dance, drama, film and more! They also have concerts, dance performances, lectures, film screenings.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm X Boulevard (135th St and Malcolm X Blvd)
New York, NY, 10037
Phone: (917) 275-6975
10 AM–6 PM
They have a wide range of print and digital research materials devoted to African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. Click here to read about their collections and divisions. They also have many events.
Science, Industry and Business Library (SIBL)
188 Madison Avenue (34th St and Madison Ave)
New York, NY, 10016
Phone: (917) 275-6975
10 AM–6 PM
Click here to find out what you can do at SIBL! They have many classes on personal finance, careers, job seeking and business planning.
Read E-Books with SimplyE
With your library card, it's easier than ever to choose from more than 300,000 e-books on SimplyE, The New York Public Library's free e-reader app. Gain access to digital resources for all ages, including e-books, audiobooks, databases, and more.
If you don’t have an NYPL library card, New York State residents can apply for a digital card online or through SimplyE (available on the App Store or Google Play).
Need more help? Read our guide to using SimplyE.