What's the difference between a library database or online resource and a website?

New ELM Portal   This link provides access to all of the ELM (Electronic Library for Minnesota) databases from one convenient page. Subject areas include: arts & humanities, biographies, business, consumer information, e-books, education, health and medicine, hobbies, science, social science and other areas.

Academic Search Premier  
Search for citations to 8,000+ scholarly and professional publications.  It also includes full text articles for more than 4,600 magazines and journals in subjects such as biology, chemistry, education, engineering, humanities, physics, psychology, religion & theology, and sociology..   Backfiles to 1975 and earlier are available for over one hundred journals. 


Alldata     
This online Automotive Repair database provides the detailed information you need to tackle both simple and complex auto repair jobs. Do-it-yourselfers can rely on auto repair answers to topics such as, maintenance, troubleshooting, engine performance and tune-up, brakes, emission control, chassis, electrical and more.  Technical service bulletins and recall information is also provided.
By subscription agreement, this resource is available for in-library use only.

Alt HealthWatch 
This database focuses on the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. It offers libraries full text articles for more than 180 international, and often peer-reviewed journals and reports.
In addition, there are hundreds of pamphlets, booklets, special reports, original research and book excerpts. Full text titles include American Acupuncturist, American Homeopath, Gerson Healing Newsletter, Health & Homeopathy, JOY: The Journal of Yoga, Massage Magazine, Natural Life, Reiki News, Today's Chiropractic Lifestyle, Yoga Journal and many others. Alt HealthWatch provides in-depth coverage across the full spectrum of subject areas covered by complementary and alternative medicine.
Information provided in this database should not be viewed as a means for self-diagnosis or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.


Ancestry     HOW TO USE
Access genealogical and historical resources including the decennial U.S. census from 1790 to 1930, military , court, land, probate, immigration, birth, marriage, and death records, (including the Social Security Death Index) periodicals and newspapers,  finding aids, and directories.
By subscription agreement, this resource is available for in-library use only.

Archive Grid
Archive Grid is an important destination for searching through historical documents, personal papers, and family histories held in archives around the world.Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid. Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the many items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.

Biography Resource Center   HOW TO USE
Search for biographical information based on one or more personal facts such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation, and gender, or combine criteria to create a custom search. The complete Marquis Who's Who(R) biographies of 900,000 people plus full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals are included.

Britannica Online Academic Edition 
The award-winning Britannica Online® delivers fast and easy access to high-quality, comprehensive information. The rich combination of the insightful Encyclopædia Britannica plus Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, magazines and periodicals, and many other research tools provides the variety of reliable sources that students need to consult when conducting thorough research—all from one database.

Britannica Online School Edition

High School

Middle School

Elementary School

Pre-School
Business and Company Resource Center   HOW TO USE
Research detailed company and industry news and information. It brings together company profiles, brand information, rankings, investment reports, company histories, chronologies and periodicals. Search this database to find detailed company and industry news and information.

Business Searching
The business searching interface of Business Sourch Premier provides an easy way to both browse and search for country economic data, company profiles, industry information and market research.

Business Source Premier
Over 3200 periodicals are indexed.  Full text articles from over 2700 scholarly journals and business periodicals covering subjects such as management, economics, finance, accounting, and international business are available.   Included are Country Reports with and national and international company profiles.


Byki Online
Byki Online is a powerful language learning system that uses flashcards to teach you a set of words or phrases.

With Byki, you may:

• Create an account for yourself to track your progress

• Language overviews and proficiency tests

• Sign up for "Word of the Day"

• Follow language blogs

• Join Facebook groups around the language you are studying
  
  

Camio
The Catalog of Art Museum Images Online — is a growing online collection documenting works of art from around the world, representing the collections of prominent museums. CAMIO highlights the creative output of cultures around the world, from prehistoric to contemporary times, and covering the complete range of expressive forms.

Carver County Newspaper Index
Obtained from the files of the Carver County Historical Society Library, articles are indexed by individuals, organizations, businesses, government bodies, and subjects. The Young America Eagle is fully indexed. The Waconia Patriot is indexed to 1994. The Chaska Herald is indexed to 1940.

Consumer Health Complete 
Consumer Health Complete™ (CHC) is the single most comprehensive resource for consumer-oriented health content. It is designed to support the information needs of patients, and to foster an overall understanding of health-related topics. CHC provides content covering all areas of health and wellness from mainstream medicine to the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated medicine. This full text database covers topics such as aging, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, children's health, men & women's health, etc.
Information provided in this database should not be viewed as a means for self-diagnosis or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.


CQ Researcher
Search this resource for user-friendly access to in-depth, non-biased coverage of today’s most important political and social issues. Each weekly 12,000-word report is on a single topic and includes extensive bibliographies, charts and graphs.  Coverage includes subjects such as health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the U.S. economy.


Discovering Collection    HOW TO USE
Use the DISCovering Collection to retrieve in-depth reference content for school curriculum areas of literature, history, biography, science, and social studies.


EBSCO Megafile
This is the broadest of the EBSCO databases, combining Masterfile Premier, Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and Regional Business News, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, ERIC, Health Source: Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, MAS Ultra, Middle Search Plus, EBSCO Animals, Primary Search, Professional Development Collection, and Science Reference Center.

Educator's Reference Complete HOW TO USE
K-12 teachers, administrators and undergraduate or graduate students in education will appreciate the focused and timely resources available within Educator’s Reference Complete. This powerful database covers multiple levels of education from preschool to college and includes every educational specialty, such as bilingual studies, health, technology and testing. Also included are resources on issues related to administration, funding and policy in education. Educator's Reference Complete has more than 1,100 periodicals that cover a wide variety of subjects and 200 reports from the United States Department of Education. 

ERIC 
ERIC®, the Education Resource Information Center, provides access to education literature and resources. The database provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index.   ERIC contains more than 1,300,000 records and links to more than 317,000 full text documents from ERIC back to 1966.

Expanded Academic ASAP HOW TO USE
This premier database offers balanced coverage of every academic concentration — from advertising and microbiology to history and women's studies. Combining indexing, abstracts, full text and images, Expanded Academic ASAP delivers answers for both the novice and the experienced researcher — all in one seamless search. Balanced coverage is available through more than 4,200 indexed and more than 2,500 full-text titles in a wide variety of disciplines including: social science journals, humanities journals, science and technology journals, national news periodicals, general interest magazines, newswires, The New York Times and many others. More than 2,800 journals are refereed, and more than 20 years of backfile coverage are included with your subscription.

FirstSearch list of databases and descriptions.
A selection of databases covering a wide range of research areas.

General Science Collection HOW TO USE
General Science Collection consists of over 200 journals encompassing the most popular scientific titles available today. Titles include Scientific American, Archeology, Physics Today, Info Today, Mathematics Magazine and many more. This resource provides researchers with the information needed to stay current on the latest scientific developments -- including such topics as particle physics, advanced mathematics, and nanotechnology.

Health Source: Consumer Edition 
Health Source®: Consumer Edition is a rich collection of consumer health information. This resource provides access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines, including American Fitness, Better Nutrition, Fit Pregnancy, Harvard Health Letter, HealthFacts, Men's Health, Muscle & Fitness, Prevention, Vegetarian Times, and many others.  This database also includes searchable full text for current, health-related pamphlets and more than 130 health reference books, including books published by the People's Medical Society.
Additionally, Health Source: Consumer Edition contains more than 5,100 Clinical Reference Systems reports (in English and Spanish); Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names; and Merriam-Webster's Medical Desk Dictionary. Health Source: Consumer Edition covers topics such as AIDS, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, aging, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, children's health, women's health, etc.
Information provided in this database should not be viewed as a means for self-diagnosis or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition 
Articles from scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Information provided in this database should not be viewed as a means for self-diagnosis or a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.


Homework Rescue
Get live online homework help from an expert tutor. For grades 3-12, Homework Rescue is available from 1:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m., 7 days a week, in English and in Spanish. There is also an adult component with assistance with resumes and selected software tutorials. Brainfuse Holiday Closures - 2010


Informe (English)   HOW TO USE
Specifically designed to meet the research needs of Spanish speaking users, this database has full-text articles from such popular magazines as Latina, Actual, and Siempre!  It also contains articles about cultural and lifestyle issues, health and parenting, entertainment, politics and current events.  Searches can be made in both English and Spanish, with title names shown in both languages, and text in Spanish only.


Informe (Spanish)  
To use the Spanish-language interface, click on the link to Informe, select "Preferences", and choose "Spanish" under the language options.
Diseñadas específicamente para resolver las necesidades de la investigación de utilizadores de habla hispanola. Esta base de datos tiene artículos completos del texto de los compartimientos populares tales como Latina, Actual, y Siempre!. La base de datos contiene muchos artículos sobre los temas tales como ediciones culturales y de la forma de vida, salud y crianza de los niños, la hospitalidad, políticas y sucesos actuales. Las búsquedas se pueden hacer en inglés y español, con los nombres del título mostrados en ambos lenguajes.


InfoTrac Junior Edition   HOW TO USE
Designed for students in junior high and middle school, InfoTrac® Junior Edition offers  magazines, newspapers and reference books (most full-text) about current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.


InfoTrac Student Edition     HOW TO USE
Designed for high school students, InfoTrac® Student Edition provides indexed and full-text magazines, newspapers, and reference books about current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.


Junior Reference Collection   HOW TO USE
Nearly 12,000 documents, 8,500 photographs and illustrations, 50 video and audio clips, and significant reference book content are included.  Search by subject area–People, Places, Subjects, Authors, Books, and Timeline.  


Kids InfoBits   HOW TO USE
Developed for K-5 students, 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.  Find information about current events, the arts, science, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

Kids Search
Kids Search makes it easy for students to search by keyword or by topic to find the most useful search results. Results can be easily sorted by source type - -magazines, reference books, photos, flags, etc.


Legal Forms - Thomson Gale HOW TO USE Online Video Tour
Minnesota specific, federal, business, personal, real estate and general forms covering hundreds of legal subjects and issues are available including power-of-attorney, landlord/tenant, and mechanic's lien. 
The legal forms contained in this database are not a substitute for consulting with an attorney concerning your unique legal matter.

Lexis
The Law Library maintains an online subscription to Lexis, a legal electronic research database. This subscription includes Dunnell's Minnesota Digest, annotated Minnesota Restatement cases, all Minnesota law reviews, Minnesota federal and state cases, Minnesota statutes and bill tracking, Minnesota Rules, Minnesota Register, and regulation tracking, Minnesota administrative and agency decisions, all 8 th Circuit cases, Supreme Court cases, USCS, Public Laws, Federal Rules Annotated, Martindale-Hubbell with U.S. listings and U.S. law digest and full jurisdiction Shepard's.
By subscription agreement, this database is available for use only in the Law Library .

Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts
This world-class bibliographic database provides coverage on subjects such as librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Delivered via the EBSCOhost platform, LISTA indexes nearly 600 periodicals plus books, research reports, and proceedings. With coverage dating back to the mid-1960s, it is the oldest continuously produced database covering the field of information science.

Literature Resource Center HOW TO USE
Gain access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. This database covers more than 120,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors.

MAS Ultra – School Edition 
This comprehensive database, designed specifically for high school libraries, contains full text for more than 500 popular, high school magazines including America's Civil War, American Heritage, American History, Archaeology, Astronomy, Bioscience, Careers & Colleges, Civil War Times, Congressional Digest, Discover, Economist, History Today, Nation, National Review, New Republic, New Scientist, Popular Science, Science News, Scientific American, Smithsonian, World War II, etc.
All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for 85,670 biographies and 105,786 primary source documents. MAS Ultra -- School Edition also contains more than 360 reference books (including the Columbia Encyclopedia, the CIA World Fact Book and World Almanac & Book of Facts), an Image Collection of over 440,000 photos, maps & flags, color PDFs and expanded full text backfiles (back to 1975) for key magazines.


MasterFILE Premier  
Read full text articles from more than 1,900 popular and general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural periodicals. It offers indexing and abstracts for an additional 2,510 periodicals. The database also contains full-text articles from book reviews, reference works, travel books, biographies, primary source documents, and an image collection of photos, maps, and flags.

Medline
Index to articles in all areas of medicine, including dentistry and nursing.

Middle Search Plus 
Middle Search® Plus contains full text for more than 140 popular, middle school magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for thousands of biographies and historical essays.
Additionally, Middle Search Plus contains primary source documents including Essential Documents in American History, reference books including the Funk & Wagnall's New World Encyclopedia and American Heritage® Dictionary, 4th Edition from Houghton Mifflin, the Encyclopedia of Animals™, and an Image Collection of over 400,000 photos, maps and flags.

Minnesota Court Information System (MNCIS)
Check the criminal, civil, family, probate, and judgment records from many counties in Minnesota including Carver.
This database is only available at county court houses.  You may access this database at the Carver County Law Library.

Minnesota Trial Court Public Access Remote
Minnesota District Courts offer an online case inquiry tool for statewide electronic case records. This is a public-view version of the Minnesota Court Information System (MNCIS), the computerized case management system used by Minnesota District Courts to track and manage cases. The search results display case information for public viewing, including register of actions, calendars, judgments, and orders and notices prepared by the court. Please note: Courthouse public access terminals provide the most complete access to electronic district court case records, because they are not restricted by the remote access provisions of the Rules of Public Access

Morningstar Investment Research Center  HOW TO USE
Comprehensive financial information on New York Stock Exchange, American Stock Exchange, and NASDAQ stocks; financial information on thousands of mutual funds, including the Morningstar star rating; financial information on hundreds of exchange-traded funds with up-to-date information on returns, reports and Morningstar ratings; return information on various investment indexes and groups; and the ability to enter two or more stocks, funds, and ETFs to see how they will work together as a portfolio.


NetLibrary  
Full text of over 5,400 eBooks and 2,600 eAudiobooks are available.

For a list of eBooks that can be downloaded to some e-book readers:

1. Select Advanced Search. 
2. Scroll down to Limit Search by Format. 
3. Check Downloadable eBooks. 
4. Select Show Details to checkout and download the eBook.

For a list of eAudiobooks that can be downloaded to iPods:

1. Limit Search by Format.
2. Select MP3 from the small pull down menu.  Or browse our eAudiobook collection and make your selection based on the WMA or MP3 icon
3. Select Download this eAudiobook to begin downloading your eAudiobook.
   
   To borrow an electronic book, you will need to complete a one-time registration process.

1. Click on remote access.
2. Click on the "Create a Free Account" link in the upper right corner of the NetLibrary page.
3. Fill out the form choosing a user name and password.
4. You now have an account and may search the NetLibrary collection.
5. To check out your selection, click on “Show Details” and you will have the option of downloading, if an audio book, or viewing or checking out, if a full-text book.

New York Times - Historical (1851-2004) (via Proquest)
This database provides digital reproductions of every page from every available issue in the date range available.  Search the full text and display pdfs of articles. Currently, there are over 3,400,000 pages available for the Historical New York Times. Each year one additional year is digitized and added to this resource. Current coverage, 1980 to present, is available in the Proquest Newsstand Complete database.

To search the Historical New York Times, scroll to the bottom of the Proquest Database page's list of newspapers. Click on the link to the Historical New York Times.


NewsBank Newspapers
Get full-text content of local and regional newspapers: Star Tribune, Pioneer Press, St. Cloud Times, and the Duluth News Tribune newspapers. Paid advertisements are excluded. Purchased by the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA), using state and federal tax money.


Novelist Plus
Search hundreds of thousands of popular fiction and nonfiction titles. Find author read-alikes, book lists, book discussion guides, and more.

Points of View Reference Center 
Points of View Reference Center™ is a full-text database designed to provide students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. The database provides 255 topics, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (argument),counterpoint (opposing argument), and Critical Thinking Guide. Topics covered include: affirmative action, cloning, DNA profiling, HIV/AIDS status disclosure, immigration, Iraq, Israel & the Palestinians, Katrina and FEMA response, nuclear proliferation, separation of church and state, standardized testing, stem cell research, tax cuts, voting machines, and many more.
Points of View Reference Center contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including 1,143 main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books. The database also offers guides to debate, developing arguments and writing position papers. Additionally, this database contains the Video Encyclopedia of the 20th Century, providing students with a searchable collection of some of the most important social, political, and cultural moments of the 20th century. Points of View Reference Center provides the basis from which students can realize and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues and develop analytical thinking skills. Critical Thinking Guides for every topic covered helps the student judge Fact vs. Opinion and enhances the student's ability to read and think critically.


Primary Search 
Primary Search® contains full text for more than 70 popular, elementary school magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Additionally, Primary Search includes the Encyclopedia of Animals™, and features the Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, which provides students with easy-to-read encyclopedic entries written specifically for kids. This database also provides the American Heritage® Children's Dictionary, 3rd Edition from Houghton Mifflin, and an Image Collection of 400,972 photos, maps and flags.


Professional Collection     HOW TO USE
Educators may access more than 300 full-text journals.  It offers balanced coverage for any professional educator in the following areas: arts and humanities, child and adolescent psychology and development, drug and alcohol abuse, health/nutrition/fitness, learning disabilities, literature, school law, science and technology, social sciences, and sports/athletic training..


Professional Development Collection 
This is the most comprehensive and most valuable collection of full text education journals in the world.
The Professional Development Collection™ includes full text for nearly 520 high quality education journals including: Booklist, Education, Education Digest, Education Week, Educational Leadership, High School Journal, Journal of 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.


ProQuest Newsstand Complete      HOW TO USE
Read the full-text articles of over 350 newspapers.  Search the latest news from around the world.  Access a wide range of articles – news, arts, sports, and entertainment.


Reader's Advisor Online
Bringing books and readers together, The Reader’s Advisor Online is an easy and effective way for readers looking for something new to read. Identify books you will enjoy with this database.


Reference USA   HOW TO USE
Look up detailed information on more than 12 million U.S. public and private businesses and 102 million U.S. residents. This database can be searched on a national scale, or can be limited by state, county, metropolitan area, city, company name, company size, yellow page heading, or SIC code.  Searches can also be narrowed to retrieve only headquarters or subsidiaries for companies.


Regional Business News   
Updated daily, this news database provides comprehensive full text articles from over 50 regional business publications (including titles from Crain Communications). It also includes a rotating 30-day backfile for over 25 national and international newspapers and news transcripts.

Science Reference Center 
Science Reference Center™ is a comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full text science-oriented content. Designed to meet every student's science research needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other sources.
Topics covered include: biology, chemistry, earth & space science, environmental science, health & medicine, history of science, life science, physics, science & society, science as inquiry, scientists, technology and wildlife. Science Reference Center also satisfies the demand for standards-based content by providing teachers and librarians with articles correlated to state and national curriculum standards.

Searchasaurus
Searchasaurus makes it easy for students to search by keyword or by topic to find the most useful search results.

Star Tribune - Historical (1867-1922)(via Proquest)
The Minneapolis Tribune (1867-1922) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.

To search the Historical Star Tribune scroll to the bottom of the Proquest Database page's list of newspapers. Click on the link to the Historical Star Tribune .

Student Research Center
EBSCO's Student Research Center makes it easy for students to search by keyword or by topic to find the most useful search results. Results can be easily sorted by source type—magazines, reference books, photos, flags, etc.

Student Resource Center Gold HOW TO USE
Offering easy access to award-winning content based on national curriculum standards this database covers the major subject areas, including history, literature, science, social studies and more, Student Resource Center provides a premium selection of reference, thousands of full-text periodicals and newspapers, primary documents, creative works, and multimedia, including hours of video and audio clips and podcasts. Users are able to access a variety of resources that will help them conduct research, complete assignments, create presentations and more, with content and curriculum-focused tools that include but are not limited to: Read Speaker auditory articles, more than eight million full-text articles from one thousand periodicals and newspapers, more than 4,000 proprietary primary documents, hundreds of plays and poems, more than 63,000 topic overviews, biographies, and pieces of literary criticism, and more 1,700 study guide questions.

Westlaw
The Law Library maintains an online subscription to WestLaw, a legal electronic research database. This subscription includes case law from all 50 states and the federal appellate courts, all federal and state statutes and regulations, journals and law reviews, and state and federal practice materials.
By subscription agreement, this database is available for use only in the Law Library.

WorldCat 
Need to see if somebody, somewhere in the world owns a particular book? This is your source!  WorldCat is a worldwide union catalog created and maintained collectively by more than 9,000 member libraries. With millions of online records built from the bibliographic and ownership information of contributing institutions, it is the largest and most comprehensive database of its kind.