Research

Research Databases

we’re here to help

Please note that databases may be available with a library card from your home – or from within a GCPL Branch.

Students, pre-K – 12, you have access to the databases purchased by INFOhio.

Databases

by category

Biography

Business

  • Business Source Premier: The industry’s most widely used business research database, this collection features full text and searchable cited references for top journals covering a variety of business disciplines.
  • Business Leader Profiles: Profiles of significant contributors to business and industry, past and present, written especially for high school students.
  • Gale Legal Forms: Gale Legal Forms helps patrons understand common legal procedures through access to authentic, professional legal documents for businesses—and it’s the only electronic reference to offer legal forms that are truly state-specific.
  • Morningstar Investments: Investment resource specialized in fund investing. Offers news, commentary, fund information, tutorial, tools and forums.
  • Reference Solutions: ReferenceUSA is now Reference Solutions, a premier resource from Data Axle for business and consumer research, including in-depth market research for small businesses, entrepreneurs, job seekers, students, and prospective home buyers alike.
  • Regional Business News: Content for Regional Business News is provided by leading publishers in business news including The Washington Post, PR Newswire US and more.
  • Small Business Reference Center: Small Business Reference Center offers exclusive full text for many top consumer small business reference books, as well as tools to address many small business topics.

Career

  • Career Preparation Center (Ebsco Learning Express): Are you preparing for a professional exam? Are you curious about a particular occupation or looking to improve your workplace skills? Choose the Career Preparation Center and begin your path to a bright future.
  • Ohio Means Jobs: Skill assessment and practice tests.
  • Vocational and Career Collection: Vocational & Career Collection offers vocational and technical libraries top-quality resources covering a variety of relevant subjects.

Consumer

  • Alldata In Library: Online source for automotive original equipment manufacturer information.
  • Chilton Library: Get the detailed information you need to tackle vehicle maintenance and repairs.
  • Consumer Reports: A nonprofit organization providing unbiased product ratings and reviews since 1936. We put over 4,000 products through rigorous testing each year.
  • Gale Legal Forms: Gale LegalForms helps patrons understand common legal procedures through access to authentic, professional legal documents for businesses—and it’s the only electronic reference to offer legal forms that are truly state-specific.
  • Morningstar Investments: Investment resource specialized in fund investing. Offers news, commentary, fund information, tutorial, tools and forums.

Cultural

  • Culture Grams In Library – Home: CultureGrams™ is a leading reference for concise and reliable cultural information on the countries of the world.
  • Estudiantil Hallazhgos en Linea: Spanish speakers and students of Spanish can benefit from the clear, concise information in Estudiantil Hallazgos, World Book’s intermediate Spanish-language encyclopedia.
  • Rosetta Stone: Create an account to Improve your English or learn another language. Choose from 30 languages.  This is an effective, easy-to-use program that allows you to learn a new language on your own time.
  • Transparent Language Online: Transparent Language helps millions learn over 100 foreign languages. Download free language-learning software and start learning a language now.

Encyclopedias & Research

  • Academic Search Premier: A popular resource found in many scholarly settings worldwide, Academic Search Premier is a leading multidisciplinary research database. It provides acclaimed full-text journals, magazines and other valuable resources.
  • Ebscohost MasterFile Premier: Designed specifically for public libraries, MasterFILE Premier provides full text for magazines, reference books, and primary source documents.
  • ERIC: ERIC is an online library of education research and information, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education.
  • Estudiantil Hallazhgos en Linea: Spanish speakers and students of Spanish can benefit from the clear, concise information in Estudiantil Hallazgos, World Book’s intermediate Spanish-language encyclopedia.
  • Funk & Wagnalls: Provides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries. Searchable by subject or keywords within the entry.
  • Points of View Reference Center: Points of View Reference Center is designed to provide students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue.
  • Professional Development Collection: Professional Development Collection is the most beneficial and most significant collectionof full-text education journals in the world.
  • Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection: The leading online research database providing full text for psychology journals and behavioral sciences.
  • Religion and Philosophy Collection: The Religion & Philosophy Collection offers indexing, abstracts, and full text for nearly 300 journals on such topics as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, and many more.
  • Sociological Collection: This full-text database offers a trusted source of sociology literature, making it an essential tool for sociology and social work researchers, professionals and students.
  • TOPICsearch: Teachers, librarians and student researchers can use this database to explore current events, social, political and economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics frequently discussed in the classroom.
  • Very Short Introductions: Discover a new topic or subject with these intelligent and serious introductions written by authors who are experts in their field.
  • World Book Advanced: World Book Advanced is a powerful multimedia reference tool, perfect for high school students, that integrates reference articles and primary source database in a single search.
  • World Book Kids: World Book Kids is the premier general reference web site developed especially for younger users.
  • World Book Student: Optimized for iPads, this comprehensive sites includes engaging content, built-in features, and fun tools specifically designed to make knowledge accessible and easy-to-find for all kids in elementary through middle school.

Genealogy

  • African American Heritage: A groundbreaking digital resource exclusively devoted to African American family history research.
  • Ancestry Library Ed – In Library Only: In addition to a vast resource of collections, we offer a comprehensive research experience combining our advanced search technology and image viewing of original documents on Ancestry.com.
  • Cleveland Necrology Files: The Cleveland Necrology File was produced from a microfilmed copy of an alphabetical card file containing local cemetery records and newspaper death notices gathered by the staff of the Cleveland Public Library.
  • Family Search: Bring to life your family’s history by exploring the lives of those that came before you.
  • Fold3: Discover your family’s military past.
  • Heritage Hub: Discover the premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for genealogical research, 1704 – today.
  • Heritage Quest: HeritageQuest® Online is a comprehensive treasury of American genealogical sources—rich in unique primary sources, local and family histories.
  • My Heritage: The easy & exciting way to explore your family history.
  • Ohio Death Certificates: Please note: Only Ohio death certificates from December 20 1908 through 1953 are available through this page.
  • Ohio Memory: Established in 2000, Ohio Memory is the collaborative statewide digital library program of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio. On this free website, you can explore digital content from over 360 cultural heritage institutions representing all 88 of Ohio’s counties!
  • Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Health and Medicine

  • Alt Health Watch: Alt Healthwatch is a full-text alternative health research database focused on complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness.
  • Consumer Health Complete: Articles, videos, images, current events, fact sheets. Includes up-to-date medical and health information on many topics, from alternative medicine to daily health care.
  • Health and Medical Databases: If you’re looking for health or medical-related information or articles, check out this collection of databases from EBSCOhost.
  • MEDLINE: MEDLINE provides searchable citations and abstracts for the top health care journals.
  • NetWellness: NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty.

Literature

  • American & English Literature: The American & English Literature Collection contains many works of poetry, drama, and prose based on books and other sources originally published in print.
  • Books and Authors: Books & Authors offers new ways to explore the endless possibilities and combinations of books, authors, genres and topics.
  • Literary Reference Center: Literary Reference Center provides users with a broad spectrum of information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines.
  • Novelist K-8 Plus: NoveList K-8 Plus is especially for younger readers. It has reading recommendations for both fiction and nonfiction, for kids in grades K-8.
  • Novelist Plus: NoveList Plus is a comprehensive database of fiction and nonfiction titles for all ages and includes recommendations, articles, and lists for your fiction and nonfiction needs.

News

  • Akron Beacon Journal: searchable full-page image reproduction 2018-Current, full-text articles 1984-current
  • America’s News: over 3500 local, regional and national news sources including 70 newspapers from the state of Ohio.
  • Ashtabula Star Beacon: searchable full-text articles 2007-Current
  • Kent Ravenna Record-Courier: searchable full-page image reproduction 2017-Current, full-text articles 2012-Current
  • Newspaper Source: searchable full-page image reproduction 2017-Current, full-text articles 2012-Current
  • News-Herald: searchable full-page image reproduction 2021-Current, full-text articles 2000-Current
  • Plain Dealer Historical and Current: Searchable full-page reproductions 1845-1991 and 2018-Current full-text articles 1989-Current

Ohio Resources

  • 211 Help Link: United Way 2-1-1 is a free and confidential community helpline available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week.
  • NEO CANDO: NEO CANDO, Northeast Ohio Community and Neighborhood Data for Organizing, is a free and publicly accessible social and economic data system of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, a research institute housed at Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.
  • Ohio.gov: Official State of Ohio web site.
  • Ohio Connection Databases: Use these Ohio History Connection databases to search for information about people, places and events in Ohio.
  • Ohio Death Certificates: Please note: Only Ohio death certificates from December 20 1908 through 1953 are available through this page.
  • Ohio Means Jobs: Skill assessment and practice tests.
  • Ohio Memory: Established in 2000, Ohio Memory is the collaborative statewide digital library program of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio. On this free website, you can explore digital content from over 360 cultural heritage institutions representing all 88 of Ohio’s counties!
  • Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Over 40,000 detailed maps of Ohio cities drawn between 1882 and 1962.

On-Line Learning

  • The Great Courses: The Great Courses offers engaging and understandable lectures by esteemed professors, professionals, and experts in topics ranging from history, better living, science, language learning, and much more.
  • HelpNow: On demand, anytime, anywhere eLearning. View how easy, intuitive and engaging Brainfuse HelpNow eLearning is for all ages and levels.
  • Learning Express Library: The LearningExpress suite of highly-acclaimed eLearning solutions provides interactive tutorials, practice tests, e-books, flashcards and articles for academic skill-building, standardized test preparation, career development and more.
  • Linkedln Learning: Over 16,000 courses from LinkedIn Learning and Lynda.com by industry experts.
  • Northstar Digital Literacy: Northstar Digital Literacy will help you test your computer knowledge! Create an account to save your progress and use Northstar’s guided learning tutorials to boost your computer skills. Staff are available to help you create an account at all GCPL locations.
  • Rosetta Stone: Create an account to Improve your English or learn another language. Choose from 30 languages.  This is an effective, easy-to-use program that allows you to learn a new language on your own time.
  • Transparent Language Online: Transparent Language helps millions learn over 100 foreign languages. Download free language-learning software and start learning a language now.

Science and Nature

  • Computer Source: Computer Source provides researchers with the latest information and current trends in high technology.
  • Science Reference Center: Designed to meet every student researcher’s needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other reliable sources.

Student Resources

  • BrainFuse Help Now: Homework Help with live tutors, real-time skills-building help, 24-hour writing lab for essays and other forms of writing, Homework Send Question, Foreign Language Lab, and more!
  • College Admissions Test Preparation (Ebsco Learning Express): Prepare for important exams like the ACT®, SAT®, AP® Tests, and more.
  • Explora: Ensure student and educator success with EBSCO’s interface for schools and public libraries. Designed to meet the unique needs of its users, Explora supports both student research and classroom instruction with rich, reliable content and easy-to-use functionality.
  • Gale In Context: Elementary
  • MAS Ultra School Edition: MAS Ultra — School Edition for high school students, provides articles for almost 500 magazine titles, updated daily. It provides reference eBooks, biographies, primary source documents and an image collection of photos, maps and flags.
  • Novelist K-8 Plus: NoveList K-8 Plus is especially for younger readers. It has reading recommendations for both fiction and nonfiction, for kids in grades K-8.
  • Rosetta Stone: Create an account to Improve your English or learn another language. Choose from 30 languages.  This is an effective, easy-to-use program that allows you to learn a new language on your own time.
  • School Center (Ebsco Learning Express): Skill-building resources for classroom and homework success.
  • Science Reference Center: Designed to meet every student researcher’s needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other reliable sources.
  • Transparent Language Online: Transparent Language helps millions learn over 100 foreign languages. Download free language-learning software and start learning a language now.
  • World Book Advanced: World Book Advanced is a powerful multimedia reference tool, perfect for high school students, that integrates reference articles and primary source database in a single search.
  • World Book Kids: World Book Kids is the premier general reference web site developed especially for younger users.
  • World Book Student: Optimized for iPads, this comprehensive sites includes engaging content, built-in features, and fun tools specifically designed to make knowledge accessible and easy-to-find for all kids in elementary through middle school.

Databases

Alphabetical