Reference

Alternative Press Index is a database of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from hundreds of international alternative, radical, and left periodicals. Topics include anarchism, ecology, democracy, feminism, organized labor, LGTBQ+, indigenous people, and emerging social movements. Covers 1991--present. Not full-text.

Three levels of age-appropriate encyclopedia content for adults, middle and high school students, and children. Includes articles, primary sources, audiovisual materials, dictionaries, a world atlas, web links, and a country comparison feature.  Research tools include citation assistance and a step-by-step planner and tutorial for research and reports.

Full-text searchable articles and entries from hundreds of sources, including general and subject-specific encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other books covering a wide range of topics. Includes an alphabetical topic list for easy browsing.

Search across decades of news and broad-interest magazine back issues. Titles include:

• The Atlantic - 11/01/1857 to 04/01/2014 
• Ebony -  11/01/1945 to 06/01/2014
• Esquire - 10/15/1933 to 03/02/2014
• Life - 11/23/1936 to 05/01/2000
• Maclean's - 10/01/1905 to 10/26/2015 (including Busy Man's Magazine (1905 - 1911) and Business Magazine (1905 - 1905)
• People - 03/04/1974 to 12/25/2000
• Time - 03/03/1923 to 12/26/2000
• U.S. News & World Report - 03/04/1926 to 12/31/1984 (including United States Daily (1926 - 1933), United States News 03/04/1926 to 01/09/1948 and World Report (1946 - 1948)
• Vanity Fair - 09/01/1913 to 10/01/2015 

Encyclopedias and other specialized reference sources covering the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences, including medicine, business, law, and more.

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Access a range of periodical content to explore cultural differences, contributions, and influences in the global community.

Discover content useful for starting a business, marketing a product, developing policy, analyzing trends, and more.

Discover balanced coverage of topics related to gender studies, family and marital issues, and more.

Search home improvement topics such as architectural techniques, tool and material selection, zoning requirements, and more.

Access articles covering all aspects of managing and maintaining information and technology. Updated daily.

Search authoritative periodical content covering topics like organizational dynamics, adult learning, and more. Updated daily.

Search scholarly journals, magazines, and reports covering all aspects of past and present military affairs. Updated daily.

Find authoritative periodical content supporting research in all fields of psychology.

Research the impact of religion on culture throughout history, including literature, arts, and language. Updated daily.

Cross-search Gale OneFile, Gale In Context, and Gale eBooks. Subjects include: agriculture, biography, business, communications and mass media, criminal justice, culinary arts, diversity studies, economics and theory, environmental studies and policy, fine arts, gardening and horticulture, gender studies, global issues, health and medicine, high school edition, home improvement, hospitality and tourism, information science, insurance and liability, leadership and management, military and intelligence, news, nursing and allied health, opposing viewpoints, physical therapy and sports medicine, pop culture studies, popular magazines, psychology, religion and philosophy, science, U.S. history, war and terrorism, and world history.

Cross-search all Gale databases to which BPL subscribes. Subjects include: agriculture, biography, business, communications and mass media, criminal justice, culinary arts, diversity studies, economics and theory, environmental studies and policy, fine arts, gardening and horticulture, gender studies, global issues, health and medicine, high school edition, home improvement, hospitality and tourism, information science, insurance and liability, leadership and management, military and intelligence, news, nursing and allied health, opposing viewpoints, physical therapy and sports medicine, pop culture studies, popular magazines, psychology, religion and philosophy, science, U.S. history, war and terrorism, and world history.

Contains the full searchable text and images of Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.

Resources in the broader Oxford Art Online may not be available.

Full-text articles from hundreds of scholarly journals from the mid-19^th century to the early 21^st century covering a wide range of subjects, including complete runs of many historical journals. The most recent 3-5 years of current journals are not available in full-text.

Widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language, The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

Indexes articles, book reviews, poems, and short stories from general-interest U.S. periodicals, including Time, Newsweek, and Ladies’ Home Journal.

The Social Law Library in Boston has made a subset of its legal research databases available to public library patrons in Massachusetts. These databases focus on legal topics relevant to Massachusetts, both state and federal. Please ask a BPL librarian for access to this resource.

Social Law Library databases available through BPL (PDF).