Places to Start Your Research
Not sure which database to use? Try these. To learn more about starting your online research, read this guide. To see where a database can be used, note the image to its left:
Available while onsite at an NYPL library location
Available remotely with an NYPL library card
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
A multi-disciplinary database of more than 4,600 magazines and journals, including full-text for nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. More info»
Ancestry Library Edition
Access to billions of names in more than 4,000 genealogical databases including Census Records and Passenger Lists. Library version of Ancestry.com. Click here for more info and a link to access this database at the Library»
Biography in Context
Provides biographical information on more than 380,000 people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines. More info»
Business Source Premier
Full text for over 2,470 scholarly business journals covering management, economics, finance, accounting, international business and more. More info»
Credo Reference
Provides full-text online versions of hundreds of top quality reference books in all subjects from art to medicine, psychology to history, and technology to literature, includes bilingual and biographical dictionaries. More info»
EBSCOHost
Provides access to over 30 EBSCO databases including Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete and other subject-specific resources. Click here for more info and a link to access this database at the Library»
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. More info»
Google Books
Search the full-text of scanned books via the Web, and to read selections of the full-text of these digitized texts. More info»
JSTOR
An interdisciplinary digital archive of over 1,000 leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and the sciences. Click here for more info and a link to access this database at the Library»
New York Times (1851-2015)
Searchable full-text and page images from The New York Times archive. Click here for more info and a link to access this database at the Library»
New York Times (1980-present)
Searchable full-text of the New York Times. More info»
NYPL Digital Collections
Provides free access to over 800,000 images digitized from the New York Public Library's vast collections, including historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more. More info»
Oxford English Dictionary (OED), 2nd Edition
A guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words — past and present — from across the English-speaking world. More info»
Oxford Reference Online
Language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers in a single cross-searchable resource. More info»
PowerSearch
Searches across all of the Gale databases to which NYPL subscribes, including Academic One File, General One File, and Infotrac Newsstand. More info»
Project Muse
Provides full-text access to over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly journals and top quality book-length scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. More info»
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Searchable full-text and page images of ProQuest's historical newspaper databases, including titles from New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and the United Kingdom. Click here for more info and a link to access this database at the Library»
ProQuest Research Library
Provides articles from periodicals covering arts, business, children, education, health, humanities, law, multicultural studies, sciences, social sciences, and general interest. More info»
World Book Online Reference Center
Access to encyclopedia articles, web links, periodical articles, videos, and maps from World Book Kids, World Book Student, World Book Advance (high school and college) and Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos. More info»
WorldCat (OCLC)
Search for materials held in libraries around the world. More info»