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General Reference

These general references sources are encyclopedic in scope and are a good place to start learning about almost any topic.

Free State Wide

Academic OneFile is a comprehensive periodical resource of full-text peer-reviewed content for over 10,000 manually indexed journals and reference works covering all subjects. It also includes the full-text of The New York Times back to 1995 and NPR, CNN & CBC transcripts and podcasts.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free With BPL ECard

AtoZdatabases is a reference and marketing database that includes 30 million business profiles, 220 million residents, 1.1 Million Healthcare Professionals, and much more. It is ideal for sales leads, mailing lists, market research, employment opportunities, and tracking down hard to find phone numbers and addresses.

Provided by the Boston Public Library and available for free with a BPL eCard. Individuals who live in, own property in, or commute to work in Massachusetts may register for an eCard. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free With BPL ECard

You can access many Boston Public Library online resources with a free eCard. eCards are available to anyone who lives, resides part-time to attend school, owns property, or works in Massachusetts.

Provided by the Boston Public Library and available for free with a BPL eCard. Individuals who live in, own property in, or commute to work in Massachusetts may register for an eCard. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free State Wide

Britannica Online School Edition lets you choose your level, with content geared to Elementary, Middle School, High School, and a PreSchool Learning Zone. Each level includes dictionary and thesaurus, atlases, timelines, and other features at the appropriate grade level.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free State Wide

This site offers resources in Spanish for all ages in two unique interfaces, each with its own comprehensive encyclopedia: Enciclopedia Moderna for high school and college students and Britannica Escolar for elementary and middle school students.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free With BPL ECard

Credo Reference covers every major subject, with easy access to trusted content from over 70 of the world’s leading academic publishers. This aggregate database includes 538 hundred highly-regarded reference titles, and seamless linking to other valuable and trusted information sources to speed your research.

Provided by the Boston Public Library and available for free with a BPL eCard. Individuals who live in, own property in, or commute to work in Massachusetts may register for an eCard. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free State Wide

(formerly Kids InfoBits)

Targeting the research needs of grades K-5 students. This resources incudes Blackbirch Press curriculum support references, 100 full-text age appropriate magazines and 2 newswires. Graphs, charts, maps and over 2,500 searchable images.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free State Wide

Use this general interest database for full-text and images from magazines, reference books, and newspapers for information on current events, popular culture, the arts and sciences, sports, etc.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free State Wide

Global Issues in Context offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events. Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues. Each of these includes an overview, unique “perspectives” articles, reference, periodical, primary source and statistical information.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free In Library

JSTOR (available in library)

This treasure trove for researchers contains back issues of over 800 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. The website also contains tutorials and help pages to orient new users.

Provided by Forbes Library and available for use in the library. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free With BPL ECard

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from Dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language.

Provided by the Boston Public Library and available for free with a BPL eCard. Individuals who live in, own property in, or commute to work in Massachusetts may register for an eCard. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free State Wide

Designed for middle school students. Includes mainly full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books covering current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more. This resource has a highly visual design and navigation  combined with the authoritative content and user-focused tool set needed to support middle school assignments and coursework.

Free for all Massachusetts residents. Provided by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System. Want help using this resource? Contact us.

Free With Forbes Card

Online access to a variety of reference works from Salem Press. These are essentially the website versions of the same Salem Press volumes we have in the library. Topics include history, science, health, and careers. A good starting point for elementary and high school research projects.

Provided by Forbes Library. Remote access requires a Forbes Library card. Want help using this resource? Contact us.