Jacob Edwards Library - Southbridge, Massachusetts :

World Book presents a universe of information. From A to Z, the world of knowledge unfolds. World Book Online includes more than 26,000 articles that are written clearly and includes more then 12,000 pictures and maps. They are interesting and packed with facts.

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Whether it's frogs or physics, gardening or geography, this database covers it all! Contains content for students as young as elementary school, as well as advanced content for college students and researchers and everything in between.

Articles from scholarly, trade and general-interest publications. Topics include arts, humanities, social sciences, sciences, technologies, and other academic disciplines. Full-text, abstracts, and citations to articles from 1980 - present.

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A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics. Millions of full-text articles, many with images. Updated daily.

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General interest database that integrates a variety of sources - newspapers, reference books, magazines, and trade publications. Find articles on current events, popular culture, business and industry trends, the arts and sciences, sports, hobbies, and more.

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Contains more than 1,100 periodicals and 200 reports from the U.S. Department of Education. A resource for any educator - from school teachers and administrators to those studying in the field at the collegiate and graduate level. Provides full-text results for nearly half of the journal titles found in ERIC.

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From the arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology, this database meets research needs across all academic disciplines. Access scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images. Delivers answers for both the novice and the experienced researcher.

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Over 20 full-text reference books covering the arts, biography, business, environment, history, literature, medicine, multicultural studies, geography, and science.

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Newspapers

Each local newspaper provides unique coverage of local and regional news, including companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, and people in the community. Paid advertisements are excluded.

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The Boston Globe

An online resource that provides full-text access to The Boston Globe (1980-present).

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Newsbank

Provides full-text online access to:
Cape Cod Times (1998-current);
Springfield Republican (1988-current);

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New York Times

Search the full text of the New York Times (1980-current).

Internet Access

New York Times Online Archive Search

(1851-1995) Article searching is free; articles require payment.

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Biography, History, & Genealogy

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Contains 600,000+ biographies covering more than 525,000 individuals. Entries span history and geography, with media-rich content including integrated reference material, periodical information, multimedia content, and hand-crafted topic pages covering

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-Brings together 500 years of political, social, military, and cultural history highlighting the American experience. Browse events & topics, biographies, primary sources, timelines, images & videos, maps & charts.

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-Focuses on the contributions of women to American history. Browse events & topics, biographies, primary sources, timelines, images & videos, maps & charts.

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-Explores all aspects of more then 500 years of African-American history. Browse events & topics, biographies, primary sources, timelines, images & videos, maps & charts.

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Massachusetts History On-Line (Gale)

Contains full-text articles gathered from almost 50 sources that directly relate to Massachusetts history, both past and present, including people, places, historical events and more.

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Need a primary source document for your paper or project? This valuable online chronicle provides a year-by-year documentary of American thought and action. Read the original words of more than 1,500 authors who made and analyzed American history through their speeches, writings, memoirs, poems, and interviews.

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Students can explore the history of great ancient cultures and civilizations, such as the Egyptions, Greeks, Romans, Native Americans, and Chinese, among others.

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This library includes an examination of inventions and discoveries in the following fields: agriculture, architecture & engineering, the arts, astronomy, communications, economics, industry & manufacturing, mathematics, medicine, personal & household items, transportation, and warfare.

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Provides a complete overview of U.S. history that covers the most-studied events, issues, and current information, combining primary source documents with reference resources. Includes more than 185,000 reference articles, 613,000+ periodical articles, easy to search image galleries, including seals, maps, & flags, viewpoint essays, primary documents, video and audio.

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Offers students and researchers unparalleled access to more than 2,000 reference articles, historical maps, atlases, and images, primary source documents, video and audio. Covers over 5,000 years from antiquity to present around the globe.

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Contains current and historical statistics on the countries of the world, making historical and cross-national comparisons easy. Create tables and charts, and even export information to a spreadsheet for data crunching. Ideal for research, exploring topics for study, or just to learn more about the world.

Library Use

Contains data from the U.S. census; Social Security Death Index; U.S. Birth, Death and Marriage Collections; WWI Draft Registration; New York Passenger List; San Francisco Passenger List; New York Petitions for Naturalization Index; U.K. Census Indexes; Civil Registration Indexes; Parish and Probate Records; This database can only be accessed in the library. Please see the Library staff for assistance.

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Languages

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Mango is an online language learning system teaching practical conversation skills for real communication. It's the fast, easy and effective way to learn to speak a foreign language!

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Current Issues & Cultures

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Covers today's hottest social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Healthcare to Immigration. Helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for research, writing assignments, debates, presentations, and more. Contains more than 14,000 pro/con viewpoint essays, topic overviews, primary source documents, court case overviews, statistical tables, charts and graphs, images and podcasts.

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Offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events. Featured are hundreds of continuously updated issue and country portals that bring together a variety of specially selected, highly relevant sources for analysis of social, political, military, economic, environmental, health, and cultural issues. Each of these gateway pages includes an overview, unique "perspective" articles written by local experts, reference, periodical, primary source, and statistical information, as well as podcasts, video and interactive graphs.

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A-Z World Culture

Provides information on 175 countries, including standard data, with a focus on culture. Greetings, holidays, customs, stereotypes, travel, and religions are only a few of the cultural aspects covered for each country.

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Auto Repair

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Database content includes approximately 25,000 vehicles covered from 1954 to present; over 100,000 factory drawings and step-by-step photographs; over 65,000 technical service bulletins & recalls issued by the original equipment vehicle manufacturer; wiring diagrams for easy viewing and printing; specifications & maintenance schedules; Labor Time Guide & Estimator; Quick Tips, a complete guide to vehicle ownership & maintenance. ARRC now features the audio/visual learning aid Auto IQ. This supplemental resource provides detailed content such as full-motion video and animated technical diagrams.

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Practice Tests

Learning Express (Learn-A-Test)

Practice for such tests as the GED, SAT and AP, ASVAB, Civil Service, TOEFL, and many others in the privacy of your home. Recently updated to include practice tests on the new SAT 2005. Register with your library card number and a password of your choice.

NOTE: You will need to register to use this program. Select "new user"; Your "user name" begins with 01605, then the first 9 digits of your valid Jacob Edwards Library card (without spaces or letters); Create a password; Choose the "Worcester Public Library" option; click update. This will allow you to save your test results and to log in later for more practice tests sessions.

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Literature & Art

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Offers new ways to explore the endless possiblities and combinations of books, authors, genres, and topics. Combining over 140,000 titles, 50,000 authors, and thousands of read-alike, award winner, and librarian's favorite list, this database helps bring readers and literature together.

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An extensive collection of more than 11,000 critical essays on contemporary authors. Each entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, a list of principal works, critical essays, and sources for further study. Allows users to search by author name, title of work, nationality, subject/genre, ethnicity, critic name, and more.

Find up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world.

Need some ideas on what novels to read? This reader's advisory tool will help. Search award and prize booklists by genre; search by plot, title, or author to find similar books; browse books by subject; explore fiction through genres and subcategories; read reviews, descriptions and articles; etc.

Library Use

This database includes access to the complete content of Masterplots, Fourth Edition. Masterplots analyzes the most important works in all genres - long fiction, short fiction, poetry, drama, and nonfiction - throughout history and around the world.

Grove Art Online provides web access to the entire text of The Dictionary of Art and The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Offers ongoing additions of new and updated articles, over 2,500 thumbnail art images and line drawings displayed in the text of articles, extensive image links, and sophisticated search and navigation tools.

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Health & Science

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Articles on fitness, pregnancy, medicine, nutrition, diseases, public health, occupational health & safety, substance abuse, HMOs, etc. Plus medical directories, pamphlets, and a dictionary. Materials in this database are intended for informational purposes only. Full-text, abstracts, citations from 1980 to the present, updated daily.

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Provides instant access to carefully compiled and trusted medical reference materials. Includes nearly 400 health/medical journals, hundreds of pamphlets, over 700 health-related videos from partner Healthology, Inc., and articles from 2,200 general interest publications in addition to a broad collection of Gale reference titles. Material contained in this Resource Center is intended for informational purposes only.

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Offers supplemental reference material geared to the education and research needs or nursing students, providing relevant, easy-to-understand information on nursing topics. Includes access to sample care plans, multimedia content, full text reference books, citations to journals in the field, and more.

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This database includes access to Salem Press' award-winning health reference works; Magill's Medical Guide, and Salem Health: Cancer. The Guide helps bridge the gap between medical encyclopedias for professionals and popular self-help guides. Includes over 1,000 essays and over 400 photos and drawings. Includes concise information on causes, symptoms, duration and treatments for almost 900 diseases and disorders. Salem Health: Cancer covers more than 800 topics of crucial interest to students, patients, caregivers, and others who have received a diagnosis or are associated with those who have cancer.

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Contains extensive information on a broad range of scientific disciplines. Includes biographies, essays on cutting-edge science issues, science experiments, diagrams and a searchable timeline of scientific and medical discoveries. Note: use capital "D" when entering library card number.

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An engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of today's most significant science topics. Merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, experiments, images, videos, audio files, and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

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A comprehensive database that allows teens (and those who care about them) to research health-related issues important to their well-being. It's both a research and report tool and a self-help resource.

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Allows students to explore environmental issues and efforts to reduce human impact on the environment.

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Business

Analyze company performance and activity, industry events and trends as well as the latest in management, economics and politics. Articles on business and management; directory of 150,000+ companies; investment analysts' reports on major companies and industries. Use advanced search for Company profiles, SIC descriptions, and Investext Select (investment reports & forecasts). Full-text and citations from 1980 to the present.

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Provides access to a wide variety of global business information including competitive intelligence, career and investment opportunities, business rankings, company histories, and much more. Search this electronic resource to find detailed company and industry news and information.

Kids & Teens

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Meets the research needs of students in Kindergarten through Grade 5. It features a developmentally appropriate, visually graphic interface, a subject-based topic tree search and full-text, age-appropriate, curriculum-related magazine, newspaper and reference content for information on current events, the arts, science, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

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Gives students access to four complete encyclopedias and other resources. Designed for all levels or learning from elementary school through high school.

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Early-Childhood Learning - Designed specifically for the needs of children ages 4-7. Includes an interactive atlas, online art activities, interactive games and learning materials, audio and video, and vocabulary builders to teach childrens concepts such as geography, numbers, colors, times, and sounds. Also includes a Teacher's Guide.

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Allows students to explore environmental issues and efforts to reduce human impact on the environment.

Library Use

Students can explore the history of great ancient cultures and civilizations, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Native Americans, and Chinese, among others.

Library Use

This library includes an examination of inventions and discoveries in the following fields: agriculture, architecture & engineering, the arts, astronomy, communication, economics, industry and manufacturing, mathematics, medicine, personal & household items, transportation, and warfare.

Library Use

Expands proven approaches to building reading fluency and content comprehension. By turning texts into plays, skits, and monologues, and providing adaptations of classic works, Dramatic Learning can help students become more fluent readers.

Library Use

An online resource for preschoolers and children in early grades, it offers a visual encyclopedia, readers to develop and strengthen phonics and vocabulary, and teaches early childhood themes such as numbers, shapes, colors, opposites, and more.

This periodical database is designed for junior high and middle school students with access to a variety of indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

This periodical database is designed for high-school students with access to a variety of indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

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A-Z World Culture

Provides information on 175 countires, including standard data, with a focus on culture. Greetings, holidays, customs, stereotypes, travel, and religions are only a few of the cultural aspects covered for each country.

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En Espanol

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Remote Access

La Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos en Linea esta orgnizada de modo que los estudiantes puedan encontrar informacion rapida y facilmente. Article text is in Spanish only.

Library Use

Includes Enciclopedia Moderna for high school and college students, and Escolar Online for students ages 6-12.

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Library Catalogs & Other Library Resources

Internet Access

Jacob Edwards Library Catalog

Contains entries for books, videos, CD-ROMS, DVDs, audiobooks, music recordings and other materials in the Jacob Edwards Library and other libraries in Central Massachusetts. Access your library record and renew and/or request materials online. If you need assistance, ask at the Reference Desk or call the Library at 508-764-5426, Ext. 105.

Internet Access

C/WMARS Regional Catalog

C/W MARS is a network of over 150 public, academic, school, regional, and special libraries in Central and Western Massachusetts. Members share an online computer system and have combined collections of more than 6 million items.

Internet Access

Massachusetts Virtual Catalog (via C/WMARS)

The Virtual Catalog allows you to find books and other materials in multiple library catalogs with a single search. Library catalogs will continue to be added to the Virtual Catalog over the next two to three years until the majority of the online catalogs in Massachusetts are included. Choose your region (Western or Central) from the drop-down menu, enter your library card number (found on the back of your card) and choose a library for your pickup location from the menu. You may then enter the Virtual Catalog and request materials from libraries throughout Massachusetts. If you need assistance, see a librarian. Note: the Virtual Catalog should be used only when materials are not available in Western or Central Massachusetts through the C/WMARS catalogs.

Internet Access

Boston Public Library eCard

All Massachusetts residents (13 or older) are eligible to sign up for a Boston Public Library eCard. A BPL eCard allows access to all of the Boston Public Library's remotel-accessible electronic resources, including magazine and journal articles from BPL's 140 online databases, and a large selection of downloadable audiobooks, ebooks, video, and music.

WorldCat – The World’s Catalog

WorldCat is a database of information about the things libraries own that is constantly updated by information professionals. Whether you are searching for something yourself or a librarian is working on your behalf, WorldCat makes it easier to find and obtain reliable, validated information. WorldCat allows you to search the world’s library collections then to find the item in a library near you.