Free Online Databases & Encyclopaedias

Refseek - a directory of free online encyclopaedias

Inter-community School links to free databases

Academic Research Sharing Sites

Academia has moved into the social arena--these are the sites where today's researchers share their work outside paid journals.

• ResearchGate

  Free to join. Evidence of your researcher status is required--like a published paper.

• Academia

  Free to join.

• https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NO3bS2FNoUkI74xcAdDdTdvkORyctm_J1FoxmACkUKA/htmlview 

• General:
  JSTOR Database
  JSTOR is a subscription database that is now offering its early journal content (material published before 1923 in the US and before 1870 outside the US) free of charge to non-subscribers. Students can also now open free individual accounts to access a portion of the database articles, saving up to three at a time for online reading.
  
  Directory of Open Access Journals Journals found in this directory do not require a subscription to access.
  
  Google Newspaper Archive
  Scanned copies of many newspapers
  Google Books
  Google Scholar
  
  Digital Public Library of America
  Smithsonian
  Library of Congress
  National Archives
  USA.Gov Historical Documents
  Columbia University U.S. Government Documents
  
  Media/Images:
  Library of Congress Prints & Photographs
  NYPL Digital Gallery
  Smithsonian Institution Collections
  Library of Congress Prints & Photographs
  AP Film Archive on YouTube
  British Movietone Film Archive on YouTube
  
  Biography:
  Bio.com
  InfoPlease Biographies

• Science:
  Sciencemag.org
  PubMed
  HighWire
  ScienceDirect
  
  Literature:
  Gale’s Literary Index
  Poets.org
  
  Current news:
  Newsela
  10 x 10
  Newseum
  Worldnewspapers.com
  ProQuest Central New York Times
  
  Issues:
  ProCon.org, Public Agenda Online, AllSides.com: Debatabase, DebateGraph
  
  Contemporaneous:
  Google News
  Historic Newspapers Online
  
  Maps:
  USGS National Geologic Database
  David Rumsey Map Collection
  The Map Database (HIstorical maps),
  LOC American Memory Map Collections
  Google Maps Gallery
  
  Careers:
  BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook

Other free sources:

• https://www.nasa.gov/  
• https://core.ac.uk/
• https://www.semanticscholar.org/
• ]https://www.base-search.net/ 
• https://www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en/ 
• https://www.who.int/ 
• https://data.un.org/
• https://www.oecd.org/
• https://icsz.libguides.com/OpenAccessZakir/databases?fbclid=IwAR3ssNylE40VNVdnp0SJeMA4O03bkCQqrPNDgGBMbHckWVTT0tiNxamQXVw 

More Encyclopaedias

• Q-Files The Great Illustrated Encyclopedia
• Wikipedia
• Infoplease: Encyclopedia
• Britannica An abbreviated (short) version of the full Encyclopedia Britannica which, if you have Orkney Library & Archive membership, can view via their website.
• Encyclo Online Encyclopedia An encyclopedia that links to other online sources.
• Reference.com
• How Stuff Works
• Encyclopedia of of Western Signs & Ideograms
• CIA World Factbook
• The Churchill Archive (Subscription – free until 2020) Access should be automatic when using school computers.