• Last updated: August 13, 2007
  

Summary of Databases for Members of the Boston Regional Library System

Webmasters:
Click here for a quick set of links for your library's web page. 

ProQuest's eLibrary Curriculum

ProQuest's eLibrary Curriculum can be accessed directly from all member libraries in the Boston Region. A link to eLibrary Curriculum is listed below.

If your institution's external IP addresses are on file with the region, then this link should allow you direct access to the database. If not, then you will need to set cookies on your computers by manually logging in to the link below. Contact the BRLS office if you do not know your login and password.

You may also log in to this database and set cookies by using a Boston Public Library card, though be aware that traffic to this database from your site will then be credited to the BPL.

Remote patron access can be arranged for those library accounts that either have their own unique library cards or their own patron-authentication system. Otherwise, remote access to both of these databases is available through the Boston Public Library with the use of an MBLN library card number.

• eLibrary Curriculum is the perfect resource for delivering full-text and multimedia reference essentials. The easy-to-use interface makes research easy. Students find the answers they need from more than 2,000 full-text magazines, newspapers, books, and transcripts--plus thousands of maps, pictures, educator-approved websites from Homework Central®, and audio/video files.

EBSCO Databases

** As of July 2007, the Marshall Cavendish databases supplied through EBSCO will be discontinued. Our apologies for any inconvenience this will cause. In their place we will be oferring Scientific American Archive Online (tm) to our public and school library members. As always, academic and special libraries may access these databases remotely using a barcode from a Regional public or school library. Watch this page for more information.**

The EBSCO databases can be accessed directly from all public, school, and academic libraries in the Boston Region. Special libraries may access these databases remotely using a barcode from a Regional public, school, or academic library so long as they are not used for commercial, for-profit purposes.

Below are listed direct links to the nine new EBSCO databases. Click here for a list of the URLs that you can copy and paste. Within these URLs, the "authtype=..." section instructs EBSCO to first check for a cookie, then IP address, and, finally to ask for login identification.

If your institution's external IP addresses are on file with the region, then these links should allow you direct access to all of these databases. If not, then you will need to set cookies on your computers by manually logging in to one of the links below. Your log in account is either an institutional barcode (so long as your barcode format has been registered with the region) or your state Libkey code. If you do not know your state-assigned Libkey code, then please contact the BRLS office.

You may also log in to these databases and set cookies by using a Boston Public Library card, though be aware that traffic to these databases from your site will then be credited to the BPL.

Remote patron access to these databases is available by using an institutional library card that has been registered with the region. Please do not circulate your Libkey code for customer use. If your institution does not use library cards, and you prefer to track your remote patron use of these databases, then please contact the BRLS office for information on how to acquire a unique barcode format. You do not necessarily need to issue library cards, but you will then be able to at least issue a single library card number that your customers can use.

Customers can always use a registered library card from any Boston Region public, school, or academic library to remotely access any of these databases.

For additional information about these products, or for questions about funtionality, please contact Ann Murdock (amurdock@ebsco.com) at EBSCO.

EBSCO Databases included are:

• MasterFILE ™ Premier is designed specifically for public libraries, and contains full text for more than 2,000 periodicals covering general reference, business, health, education, general science, multicultural issues and much more. This database also contains full text for more than 320 reference books, 84,074 biographies, and 86,135 primary source documents.


• Primary Search ®, designed specifically for elementary school libraries, contains full text for more than 60 popular, elementary school magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for over 100 student pamphlets. Additionally, Primary Search includes the Encyclopedia of Animals, and features Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, providing students with easy-to-read encyclopedic entries written specifically for kids. The database also provides the American Heritage ® Children’s Dictionary, 3rd Edition from Houghton Mifflin, and an Image Collection.

• MAS Ultra - School Edition contains full text for nearly 600 popular magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator. Full text is also available for 90,915 primary source documents. Additionally, MAS Ultra (School Edition) contains 518 pamphlets, more than 260 reference books (including the Columbia Encyclopedia, the CIA World Fact Book and World Almanac & Book of Facts), an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps & flags, color PDFs and expanded full text backfiles (back to 1975) for key magazines. MAS Ultra (School Edition) also includes the Our States reference book series from Great Neck Publishing, a new collection made up of 54 titles on each of the states, commonwealths, and territories in the United States. This comprehensive series has carefully-written, in-depth articles covering each state's history, averaging 10 pages in length, and includes information on the economy, geography, natural resources, wildlife, state flags and landmarks. Biographies on each state's governors, senators and representatives, as well as other leaders such as Rudolph Giuliani, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, Bill Clinton, and Condoleezza Rice are also included.
  
• Health Source - Consumer Edition is the richest collection of consumer health information available to libraries worldwide. This resource provides access to nearly 300 full text consumer health periodicals, and searchable full text for nearly 1,100 health-related pamphlets and 135 health reference books, including books published by the People's Medical Society. Additionally, Health Source - Consumer Edition contains more than 4,500 Clinical Reference Systems reports (in English and Spanish); Clinical Pharmacology, which provides access to 1,100 drug monograph entries and 2,700 patient education fact sheets; and Stedman's Medical Dictionary. This full text database covers topics such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, aging, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, children's health, women's health, etc.
  
• Newspaper Source provides selected full text for 25 national and international newspapers, including USA Today, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, The Times (London), The Toronto Star, etc. The database also contains selected full text for more than 200 regional newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, The San Jose Mercury News, etc. In addition, full text television& radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, etc.
  
• Professional Development Collection is the most comprehensive and most valuable collection of full text education journals in the world. The Professional Development Collection includes full text for more than 550 high quality education journals including: Chronicle of Higher Education, Booklist, Education, Education Digest, Education Week, Educational Leadership, High School Journal, Journal of Education, Journal of Higher Education, Journal of Educational Research, Journal of Learning Disabilities, Phi Delta Kappan, Reading Teacher, School Library Journal, and many others. This database also contains more than 200 educational reports.

• Scientific American Archive Online™. Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in America. Now current issues of the magazine are combined with a large backfile of this authoritative source of scientific and technical information, and are available online as a stand-alone database. Scientific American Archive Online is a comprehensive, searchable science and technology resource containing the full text and graphics of every Scientific American issue from 1993 to the present. The archive features the writings and colorful graphics that readers of Scientific American have come to depend upon and enjoy. Each of the more than 4,000 articles in the archive is available to view online or to download in color PDF, and presented exactly as originally printed in the magazine. In addition to the regular monthly issues of the magazine, users will find all of the Scientific American special issues included in the archive as well. Among the topics covered in the archive are: health and medicine, cosmology and astronomy, chemistry, life sciences, physics, oceanography, medicine, mathematics, archaeology, and much more. .
  
• TOPICsearch allows researchers to explore social, political & economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics discussed in today's classrooms including controversial opinions and viewpoints. TOPICsearch contains full text for over 78,000 articles from 3,000 diverse sources including international and regional newspapers, EBSCO's unparalleled periodicals collection, biographies, public opinion polls, book reviews, pamphlets, government information and EBSCO's Current Issues databse.
  
• ERIC was created to assist teachers, administrators and researchers in gaining immediate access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resrouces in Education Index. ERIC includes full text for more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information and citations and abstracts from over 1,000 educational and education-related journals. In addition, EBSCO SmartLinks provide the ability to link from citations in ERIC to full text articles in the Professional Development Collection.
  
• Index list of links for all Ebsco titles