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Unless indicated as "In Library Use Only," these resources are available from any internet connection.  Most databases will require you to enter your Minuteman Library card number for access outside the library.

For a few databases, home access is available only to Needham residents.

Academic Onefile contains 8,000 academic journals, the majority in full-text, available in HTML and PDF formats. In addition it contains hundreds of podcasts and transcripts from NPR, CNN, and the CBC, as well as full-text New York Times content from 1985.

Universal Class offers patrons a unique online education experience. With a growing catalog of over 540 courses, Universal Class is committed to providing only the most affordable and highest quality online training. Over 300,000 students around the world have benefited from Universal Class’ unique instructional technologies. With real instructors guiding the learning, engaging video-based lessons, a collaborative learning environment, graded lesson tests, certificates of achievement and Continuing Education Units available for selected courses, students enjoy an engaging and measurable learning experience that helps them master and document their educational goals.

Thousands of family history databases, including vital records, census records, ship passenger lists, military records and lots more!

Biography in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on the world's most influential people. The new solution merges Gale's authoritative reference content (including Lives & Perspectives) with periodicals and multimedia organized into a user-friendly portal experience while also allowing users to search for people based on name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender as well as keyword and full text.

Books & Authors offers new ways to explore the endless possibilities 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 favorites lists, Books & Authors helps bring readers and literature together. Through the use of expertly written and arranged content and a dynamic, cutting edge user interface, Books & Authors makes exploration of genre fiction and essential non-fiction fun!

Boston Globe Digital Microfilm provides online access to digitized full-page images from newspapers on microfilm. Convenient controls allow you to browse individual issues, or go to specific pages within specific issues.

Business and Company Resource Center is a fully integrated resource bringing 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.

Career Transitions is a complete, self-paced application that walks job-seekers through the entire process from assessing strengths and interests, to exploring new opportunities, to ultimately improving the chances of landing a job.

Consumers' Checkbook is an independent, nonprofit consumer organization founded in 1974 with the help of funding from the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs. They do not accept support from businesses, and their publications and website carry no advertising.

Both the website and the print version of Boston Consumers' Checkbook (available in the Periodicals area) evaluate the quality and prices of local service firms and stores, such as auto repair shops, plumbers, dentists, veterinarians, banks, insurance companies, and many more. Checkbook's special health guides provide you with critical ratings and reports on doctors, hospitals, and health plans. The site also provides various kinds of help to consumers who want to buy or lease a new car.

ConsumerReports.org is the sister product of the Consumer Reports print magazine--both are published by the independent nonprofit Consumers Union, one of the most trusted sources for information and advice on consumer products and services. ConsumerReports.org provides ratings and recommendations on cars, appliances, electronics, and thousands of other products under the categories of Home and Garden, Babies and Kids, Money, and Food.

Contemporary Literary Criticism - Select (CLC-Select) is an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors.  Each CLC-Select entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, listing of principal works, and sources for further study.

The Digital Media Catalog (OverDrive) provides popular audiobooks and eBooks for users to download.

There is also a collection of Public Domain eBooks that includes many popular classics.

A collection of more than 1,100 periodicals and 200 reports (most full-text) focusing on all levels of education, educational administration and policy.

From 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 - with full text and images!

The Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Sources may be searched individually or together. See a list of GVRL titles.

Use this database to research all business and management topics. Includes directory listings for over 150,000 companies as well as investment analysts' reports on major companies and industries. Choose "Advanced search" and then type a ticker symbol into the pop-up box to search Reuters Research on Demand, which contains investment reports produced by financial institutions and Wall Street and International brokerage firms.

General OneFile is a one-stop source for news and periodical articles, including most of the content across all Thomson/Gale databases. OneFile contains over 5,000 full-text periodical titles, and more than 9,200 titles in all, on a wide range of topics.

Use this general interest database to search magazines, reference books, and newspapers for information on current events, popular culture, the arts and sciences, sports, etc.

Global Issues in Context 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 "perspectives" articles written by local experts, reference, periodical, primary source and statistical information. Rich multimedia - including podcasts, video, and interactive graphs - enhance each portal. Use Browse Issues and Topics, Country Finder, Basic Search or Advanced Search to explore the database.

The Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources focuses on the physical, social, and economic aspects of environmental issues. Topic, organization, and country portals form research centers around issues covering energy systems, health care, agriculture, climate change, population, and economic development. Portals include authoritative analysis, academic journals, news, case studies, legislation, conference proceedings, primary source documents, statistics, and rich multimedia.

Provides instant access to carefully compiled and trusted medical reference materials. Includes nearly 400 health/medical journals, numerous reference volumes, over 700 health videos from partner Healthology, Inc., hundreds of pamphlets and health-related 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.

Use this database to find articles on: Fitness, Pregnancy, Medicine, Nutrition, Diseases, Public Health, Occupational Health & Safety, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, HMOs, Prescription Drugs, etc. The material contained in this database is intended for informational purposes only.

HeritageQuest Online is a digital resource that combines searchable images of U.S. federal genealogical census records with digitized books containing family and local histories from around the country. It includes 25,000 family and local history books, U.S. census records, and PERSI, an index of over 1.6 million genealogy and local history articles.

Designed for junior high and middle school students. Includes mainly full-text magazines, newspapers and reference books covering current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, people, government, history, sports and more.

Kids InfoBits targets the research needs of students in Kindergarten through Grade 5. It features a developmentally appropriate and visual graphic interface, a subject-based topic tree search and full-text, age-appropriate, curriculum-related magazine and reference content.

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. The optional MLA International Bibliography module adds citations for hundreds of thousands of books, articles and dissertations from 1926 to the present, linked to full text where available.

Covering world literature and authors throughout history, LitFinder contains a wealth of literary works including over 150,000 full-text poems and 800,000+ poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays. For students or patrons seeking a deeper view into literature, LitFinder also includes secondary materials like biographies, images, and more! From Shakespeare's sonnets to poems by Donald Hall or short stories from Edgar Allan Poe to works by Annie Proulx, LitFinder has you covered.

Mango is designed to equip you with conversational abilities from the very start. Whether you're learning how to order a pizza or ask when the game starts, Mango immerses you in real, everyday conversations in a wide variety of foreign languages. It also features ESL instruction in English, tailored for speakers of more than a dozen languages.

Use this collection for full-text articles from 50 magazines and local newspapers for coverage of Massachusetts people, places and historical events.

Includes:
Cape Cod Times
Springfield Republican

Provides full text access to several Massachusetts newspapers dating back to the 1980's, including The Boston Globe.

Includes:
Boston Globe (1980-Current)
Berkshire Eagle (2005-Current)
BusinessWest (Chicopee) (1992-Current)
North Adams Transcript (2005-Current)
Plymouth County Business Review (1991-Current)
Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg) (2005-Current)
The Sun (Lowell) (2004-Current)
Telegram & Gazette (Worcester) (1989-Current)
Gazette (Haverhill (12/31/92 - 8/9/97)
Standard Times (New Bedford (1/4/92 - 8/19/97

This database includes the New York Times from January 1, 1985 to the present, including the New York Times Magazine and the New York Times Book Review.

News for You Online.com is an online news source designed for people who are learning to read, write, or speak English. Seven new stories are posted weekly for 48 weeks a year. These engaging articles are based on world and national news events. Each article audio includes audio where readers can listen to the whole article or sentence by sentence. Key vocabulary is shown in bold with the definition appearing by just rolling the mouse over the word. An interactive crossword puzzle provides an enjoyable activity while strengthening vocabulary skills.

NoveList Plus is a comprehensive readers' advisory resource for both fiction and nonfiction and will help you to answer the question of what to read next. In addition to the title records, NoveList Plus offers a rich array of customized feature content such as Author Read-alikes, Book Discussion Guides, BookTalks, and Feature Articles by the top names in the industry. Hundreds of ready-made, hand-crafted reading lists on popular fiction and nonfiction genres provide additional support for readers looking for their next great read. NoveList Plus offers bibliographic information on more than 200,000 titles, including over 50,000 nonfiction titles selected for their appeal to the general reader - all available to you with just a click of your mouse. Approximately 20,000 new titles are added each year.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. Drawing on the acclaimed Greenhaven Press series, the new solution features continuously updated viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

See Digital Media Catalog (above)

Pop Culture Universe is an authoritative, yet irresistible, digital library of information on American and world popular culture, past and present-in a package as dynamic as the topic it covers. Built on hundreds of award-winning titles for all levels of researchers, PCU provides a safe haven for investigating topics that appeal to students-without the bias, advertising, suggestive content, or questionable authorship of commercial or fan sites.

Gale PowerSearch is a platform unlike any other, providing libraries with a sophisticated, yet simple, solution for managing a wealth of periodical, reference and primary source information. Moreover, PowerSearch provides your patrons with access to all the Gale content in your library's collection through one, single search query.

Gale PowerSearch helps users select the databases most appropriate to include in a cross-search by providing an alphabetical listing along with a description of each one. Users search with the method that's easiest for them - by entering keywords, using pre-defined subject terms or constructing complex search queries using Boolean logic. Below the search term field, users will find a list of Gale databases so they can simply select as many databases as they want to include in their search. The database from which each document is found appears as part of the search results.

Finding the relevant business answers has never been easier. Business Reference Suite, an exciting Web-based subscription service gives you balanced and highly focused full-text coverage of company and industry news, management practices, and market research information. RDS Business Suite features more than 1,400 leading worldwide business sources, plus tens of thousands of tables with strategic data. Suite coverage is over 60% full text, and over 45% international.

A directory of nearly 14 million U.S. businesses, searchable by name, yellow page heading, SIC code, zip code, estimate sales volume, and more.

Science in Context provides topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures and illustrations, as well as articles from over 200 magazines and academic journals and links to quality web sites. The database covers curriculum-related science topics, and offers teachers an easy-to-use tool to identify content directly correlated to state and national standards.

This 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.

Student Resources In Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on a broad range of topics, people, places, and events. The new solution merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience combined with new features such as "Search Assist" and quick fact boxes.

TumbleBook Library is an online collection of TumbleBooks – animated, talking picture books which teach kids the joy of reading in a format they'll love. TumbleBooks are created by adding animation, sound, music and narration to existing picture books in order to produce an electronic picture book which you can read, or have read to you.

The TumbleBook Library is a collection of licensed titles from children's book publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Chronicle Books, Candlewick Press, Charlesbridge Press, Harcourt, Little Brown, Walker & Company, Lerner Books, and HarperCollins Publishers, amongst others.

(note: Flash needed)

U.S. History in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History. The new solution merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

World Book Online is your online route to reliable, authoritative, easy-to-understand information and an array of supplementary search tools and information sources.  World Book Online can fulfill many research needs.  You may need the answer to a particular question.  Or you may want general information to help with a school assignment.  And, of course, many people simply like to explore World Book, letting one topic lead them to another.

World History in Context is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in World History. The new solution merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

OCLC catalog of books and other materials in libraries worldwide.


For home access try the free version at http://www.worldcat.org