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Databases
Need information now? Try one of our databases for up-to-date and reliable information on a variety of topics. With your library card number and PIN, most of this information is available to you from home or office 24/7. Our databases are grouped by topic area and listed alphabetically.
To Begin: Click a blue tab for an alphabetical list of databases
OR choose from one of the categories below.
Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage
The purpose of the Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage Project is two-fold. First, the MDCH Project is a collaborative effort to digitize Maryland-related historical documents, images, audio, and video for Maryland's public libraries and cultural heritage institutions. Second, the MDCH Project website provides centralized, one-stop access to these culturally significant items that will benefit the patrons and staff of the libraries and cultural heritage institutions, as well as future generations, by promoting research, education, and tourism.
Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970
Navigation Guide Map Legend
Digital Sanborn Maps, 1867-1970 provides access to more than 660,000 large-scale maps for more than 12,000 American towns and cities. Sanborn fire insurance maps are the most frequently consulted maps in libraries, and are valuable historical tools. In electronic form, Sanborn maps allow users to easily manipulate the maps, magnify and zoom in on specific sections, and layer maps from different years.
Allegany, Garrett, and Washington Counties in Western Maryland have a rich and diverse history. View images from the collections of the libraries, historical societies, and individuals in the three counties. There are photographs, newspaper articles, and indexes, rare books and more.
Maryland AskUsNow! is a 24/7 live online interactive service for the residents and students of the state of Maryland. It uses the expertise of trained librarians to provide answers to questions, research guidance, and help navigating the Internet. The librarian should be able to take you to various websites and will communicate with you using Internet chat. A normal session lasts no longer than 15-20 minutes. The librarian may offer to follow-up by e-mail if your question cannot be answered online in this timeframe.
EBSCO Masterfile Premiere
Tutorial
MasterFILE Premier provides full text for more than 1,900 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural magazines.
Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear Through the Ages
Fashion, Costume and Culture provides a broad overview of costume traditions of diverse cultures from prehistoric times to the present day. It also explores how and why items were created, the people who made them, and their uses, and shows how clothing, headwear, body decorations and footwear reflect the different cultural, religious, and societal beliefs.
p4A Antiques Reference
The p4A Antiques Reference database is used by most leading personal property appraisers throughout the United States, antiques dealers, museums, and agencies like the Internal Revenue Service to evaluate almost every kind of antique in today's collections.
Maryland AskUsNow! is a 24/7 live online interactive service for the residents and students of the state of Maryland. It uses the expertise of trained librarians to provide answers to questions, research guidance, and help navigating the Internet. The librarian should be able to take you to various websites and will communicate with you using Internet chat. A normal session lasts no longer than 15-20 minutes. The librarian may offer to follow-up by e-mail if your question cannot be answered online in this timeframe.
Search for people based on one or more personal fact such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender, or combine criteria to create a highly-targeted custom search
Credo Reference: Start Your Research Here
Credo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from 240 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research. Offering access to over 1.7 million individual entries, Credo Reference contains all the types of reference books that you'd want to see in any quality library: dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and books of quotations, not to mention a host of subject-specific titles covering everything from the arts to accountancy and law to literature. And because all our books are provided by the best reference publishers, you know you can believe what you read.
MasterFILE Premier provides full text for more than 1,900 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural magazines.
This reference set lists and describes more than 1,500 global cultures. Based on research of social scientists, it is the source for historical, social, political, economic, linguistic, religious, and other information on virtually every existing culture.
Access biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 authors from every age and literary discipline.
Poem Finder is the largest, most comprehensive and most current poetry database available. Story Finder provides thousands of full-text short stories plus explanations, biographies, pictures and more. Essay Finder is a unique database of full-text essays and discursive writing based on books published in the 20th century which have been analyzed in standard library indexes.
Middle Search Plus provides full text from over 140 general reference, health and science magazines.
Novelist
In addition to locating books to read, users can learn more about books and authors through Feature Articles, Book Discussion Guides, and BookTalks.
NoveList K-8 allows you to discover the fiction titles that are popular with young readers as well as titles to use in your classroom.
p4A Antiques Reference
The p4A Antiques Reference database is used by most leading personal property appraisers throughout the United States, antiques dealers, museums, and agencies like the Internal Revenue Service to evaluate almost every kind of antique in today's collections.
Primary Search provides full text from 50 children’s magazines appropriate for elementary schools and children’s reading rooms.
Reference materials within Searchasaurus include magazines, encyclopedias, newspapers, books and more.
U*X*L American Decades
Covers 20th-century events and social history beginning in 1900 and ending in 1999. Each decade is covered, with a chronology of world events and a general overview of the decade. Within each topic, alphabetically arranged entries discuss historically important events, issues, definitions of difficult concepts or terms, and other interesting trivia and sideline stories.
Maryland AskUsNow! is a 24/7 live online interactive service for the residents and students of the state of Maryland. It uses the expertise of trained librarians to provide answers to questions, research guidance, and help navigating the Internet. The librarian should be able to take you to various websites and will communicate with you using Internet chat. A normal session lasts no longer than 15-20 minutes. The librarian may offer to follow-up by e-mail if your question cannot be answered online in this timeframe.
Auto Repair Reference Center
Auto Repair Reference Center contains information on most major manufacturers of domestic and imported vehicles, with repair information for most vintage makes starting as far back as 1954.
African American Almanac
The African American Almanac provides historical and current information on African American history, society, and culture. It includes a chronology, primary documents, directories of organizations and businesses, a bibliography of recently-published works, annotated lists of crucial court cases, a filmography, and hundreds of brief biographies, photographs, maps, and statistical charts.
This respected resource is a biographical dictionary of the significant players in physical, biological, and related sciences. Each edition includes biographical entries on approximately 120,000 living scientists.
Ancestry.com Library Edition
(This database is only available at the library)The Ancestry Library Edition collection has approximately 4,000 databases including key collections such as U.S. Federal Census images and indexes from 1790 to 1930; the Map Center containing more than 1,000 historical maps, American Genealogical Biographical Index (over 200 volumes); Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage (over 150 volumes); The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1630; Social Security Death Index (updated monthly); WWI Draft Registration Cards; Federal Slave Narratives; and a strong Civil War Collection.
Maryland AskUsNow! is a 24/7 live online interactive service for the residents and students of the state of Maryland. It uses the expertise of trained librarians to provide answers to questions, research guidance, and help navigating the Internet. The librarian should be able to take you to various websites and will communicate with you using Internet chat. A normal session lasts no longer than 15-20 minutes. The librarian may offer to follow-up by e-mail if your question cannot be answered online in this timeframe.
Search for people based on one or more personal fact such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender, or combine criteria to create a highly-targeted custom search.
The Career Information Center provides information every job seeker should have. Updated with a full volume devoted to computer careers, the first 12 volumes each focus on a different career area, and contain over 700 job profiles. Each profile includes a job summary chart, a job description, and up-to-date salary information. The 13th volume contains the index, as well as essays on different aspects of employment.
The Colonial America Reference Library provides students with the comprehensive information on the Colonial American period they need to write reports and class assignments including biographical profiles and primary source documents.
Credo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from 240 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research. Offering access to over 1.7 million individual entries, Credo Reference contains all the types of reference books that you'd want to see in any quality library: dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and books of quotations, not to mention a host of subject-specific titles covering everything from the arts to accountancy and law to literature. And because all our books are provided by the best reference publishers, you know you can believe what you read.
MasterFILE Premier provides full text for more than 1,900 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural magazines.
The Encyclopedia of Drugs, Alcohol, and Addictive Behavior specifically addresses the new frontiers that have opened in the area of addictive studies, exploring not only the biological basis for addiction, but also recent enhancements in diagnosis and treatment.
This six-volume edition of the 1987 Dartmouth Medal-winner includes all of the material from the original four-volume set and 1992 Supplement, as well as updated original articles and new articles covering concepts and court cases since 1992. Appendices include a case index and primary documents.
Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear Through the Ages
Fashion, Costume and Culture provides a broad overview of costume traditions of diverse cultures from prehistoric times to the present day. It also explores how and why items were created, the people who made them, and their uses, and shows how clothing, headwear, body decorations and footwear reflect the different cultural, religious, and societal beliefs.
For students and adults alike, the Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia database indexes over 25,000 records.
Access biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of more than 120,000 authors from every age and literary discipline.
Poem Finder is the largest, most comprehensive and most current poetry database available. Story Finder provides thousands of full-text short stories plus explanations, biographies, pictures and more. Essay Finder is a unique database of full-text essays and discursive writing based on books published in the 20th century which have been analyzed in standard library indexes.
Middle Search Plus provides full text from over 140 general reference, health and science magazines.
Novelist
In addition to locating books to read, users can learn more about books and authors through Feature Articles, Book Discussion Guides, and BookTalks.
Novelist K-8
NoveList K-8 allows you to discover the fiction titles that are popular with young readers as well as titles to use in your classroom.
Primary Search provides full text from 50 children’s magazines appropriate for elementary schools and children’s reading rooms.
Reference materials within Searchasaurus include magazines, encyclopedias, newspapers, books and more.
U*X*L American Decades
Covers 20th-century events and social history beginning in 1900 and ending in 1999. Each decade is covered, with a chronology of world events and a general overview of the decade. Within each topic, alphabetically arranged entries discuss historically important events, issues, definitions of difficult concepts or terms, and other interesting trivia and sideline stories.
This fascinating and informative source covers the history of witchcraft in the United States from the hysteria that facilitated the witch hunts during the Colonial Period to modern day followers of Wicca. Chapters include full text or excerpts from trial transcripts, diary entries, public notices, and many other primary sources. Biographical essays highlight prominent figures related to the Salem witch trials.
World Book Online Reference Center
Continually updated, World Book Online Reference Center is a student's best source for accurate and accessible information. This comprehensive site includes all of the articles from the 22-volume print set, plus thousands more. In addition, there are more than 9,500 pictures and maps, 115 videos and animations, 9,300 sounds, more than 100 simulated historic Web sites.
Maryland AskUsNow! is a 24/7 live online interactive service for the residents and students of the state of Maryland. It uses the expertise of trained librarians to provide answers to questions, research guidance, and help navigating the Internet. The librarian should be able to take you to various websites and will communicate with you using Internet chat. A normal session lasts no longer than 15-20 minutes. The librarian may offer to follow-up by e-mail if your question cannot be answered online in this timeframe.
Business Source Elite
Business Source Elite provides full text from over 1,090 journals covering business, management, economics, banking, finance, accounting and much more.
Career Information Center
The Career Information Center provides information every job seeker should have. Updated with a full volume devoted to computer careers, the first 12 volumes each focus on a different career area, and contain over 700 job profiles. Each profile includes a job summary chart, a job description, and up-to-date salary information. The 13th volume contains the index, as well as essays on different aspects of employment.
Credo Reference: Start Your Research Here
Credo Reference is a digital reference library that places a world of factual information at your fingertips. Containing a selection from 240 high-quality reference books from the world's leading publishers, Credo Reference is the ideal place to start any research. Offering access to over 1.7 million individual entries, Credo Reference contains all the types of reference books that you'd want to see in any quality library: dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and books of quotations, not to mention a host of subject-specific titles covering everything from the arts to accountancy and law to literature. And because all our books are provided by the best reference publishers, you know you can believe what you read.
EBSCO Masterfile Premiere
MasterFILE Premier provides full text for more than 1,900 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural magazines.
With over 300 articles, the Encyclopedia of Career Development is the premier reference tool for research on career-related topics. Covering a broad range of themes, the contributions represent original material written by internationally-renowned scholars that view career development from a number of different dimensions. This multidisciplinary resource examines career-related issues from psychological, sociological, educational, counseling, organizational behavior, and human resource management perspectives.
Designed to provide entrepreneurs with how-to information that they can apply to their own business. Contains 600 detailed articles and overviews of all the key information needs of small business owners, including financing, financial planning, business plan creation, market analysis, sales strategy, tax planning, and human resource issues.
History Reference Center
History Reference Center is the world's most comprehensive full text history reference database, featuring full text for more than 2,000 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers and more than 120 leading history periodicals. The database contains more than 59,600 historical documents; more than 49,600 biographies of historical figures; more than 110,200 historical photos and maps; and more than 80 hours of historical video.
Middle Search Plus provides full text from over 140 general reference, health and science magazines.
p4A Antiques Reference
The p4A Antiques Reference database is used by most leading personal property appraisers throughout the United States, antiques dealers, museums, and agencies like the Internal Revenue Service to evaluate almost every kind of antique in today's collections.
Primary Search provides full text from 50 children’s magazines appropriate for elementary schools and children’s reading rooms.
The ReferenceUSA database contains detailed information on U.S. businesses, U.S. residents and U.S. health care providers
Regional Business News incorporates 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires covering all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States.
Reference materials within Searchasaurus include magazines, encyclopedias, newspapers, books and more.
U*X*L American Decades
Covers 20th-century events and social history beginning in 1900 and ending in 1999. Each decade is covered, with a chronology of world events and a general overview of the decade. Within each topic, alphabetically arranged entries discuss historically important events, issues, definitions of difficult concepts or terms, and other interesting trivia and sideline stories.
The Value Line Investment Survey is a comprehensive source of information and advice on approximately 1,700 stocks in 97 industries, the stock market, and the economy. The Ratings & Reports section contains one-page reports about companies and industries. The Summary & Index contains and index of all stocks in the Investment Survey as well as many up-to-date statistics to keep investors informed about the latest company results. The Selection & Opinion section contains Value Line's latest economic and stock market forecasts, one-page write ups about interesting or attractive stocks, model portfolios, and financial and stock market statistics.
Career Information
American Men and Women of Science
This respected resource is a biographical dictionary of the significant players in physical, biological, and related sciences. Each edition includes biographical entries on approximately 120,000 living scientists.
