Online Resources

Know what you are looking for? Use the search bar to find resources by name or descriptions, scan the listings in alphabetical order, or use filters to explore different subjects, formats, age groups and more.


Academic Search Premier

Includes full text of many articles, plus index entries for others. Subject areas covered include arts & literature, humanities, science, social science and many other specialties. Updated daily.

Library card required

Ancestry.com

A searchable collection of billions of historical records from the USA and other countries. Get access to census and military records, birth, marriage and death records, and immigration records. Available at public computers at all Brooklyn Public Library locations.

For remote access to U.S. Federal Census records, genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, Census data, slave schedules, maps, local history books and articles, and more, please visit our HeritageQuest resource.

Only in library branches

ARTstor

A comprehensive image resource for students, teachers and scholars, with new collections added monthly. All images are rights-cleared for educational use. 

Library card required

Bibliography of the History of Art

A searchable bibliography of works on European and American visual arts material published between 1975 and 2007. Search by subject, artist, author, article, or journal title.

Free & accessible anywhere

Black Short Fiction and Folklore

Collects African and African-American short stories and folktales published in more than 15 countries from the mid-1900s to the present. Includes full digitized runs of select literary magazines and black-owned journals and newspapers.

Library card required

Black Women Writers

Collects fiction, poetry and essays by black women published in Africa and the Americas from the 1700s to the present.

Library card required

Brooklyn Newsstand

Brooklyn Newsstand is a collection of digitized Brooklyn newspapers made possible through a partnership between Brooklyn Public Library and Newspapers.com.  

Brooklyn Newsstand (2,402,000 digitized pages) contains 44 newspaper titles-including the full run of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper (1841-1963) and Brooklyn Life (1890-1931), a Brooklyn Society Magazine. Learn more about the history of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

View the full list of newspapers and their date ranges.

This site is best viewed using Chrome or Safari. 

Free & accessible anywhere

Brooklyn Public Library Digital Collections

Discover Brooklyn history: Explore our collection of digitized Brooklyn content.

Free & accessible anywhere

Caribbean Literature

Searchable collection of Caribbean poems, plays, novels, short stories, and other materials from 1700 to the present. Works are in English, French, Haitian Creole, Spanish and Dutch.

Library card required

Chinese Electronic Journal Database (Qikan)

A full-text resource of over 500 Chinese popular and scholarly periodicals published in China. Search this Chinese database to find periodical articles for adults, young adults and children.

Library card required

Creative Commons

Creative Commons searches openly licensed and public domain images. Search for works that are available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.

Free & accessible anywhere

Creativebug

Creativebug is a video-learning site for art and craft classes. New classes from top artists are released every day, with instructors bringing a lifetime of practice and proven teaching methods. Public Performance Rights are included for programming.

Interested in becoming a Creativebug Instructor? Brooklyn Public Library is partnering with the Creativebug editorial team to recruit Brooklyn-based creators and artists, particularly those who can help increase the diversity and representation of Creativebug's course catalog. Apply here: https://cbug.tv/BecomeAnInstructor

Library card required

Directory of Open Access Journals

Free community-curated directory that indexes and connects to full text, open access, peer reviewed scientific and scholarly journals.

Free & accessible anywhere

Ebscohost Espanol

Artículos con texto completo de revistas, diarios y revistas académicas, índices generales, y otros recursos en ambos Español e Inglés. EBSCOhost Español tiene una función de traducción, pero no es garantizado obtener una traducción completamente exacta.

Library card required

EPOCH - Electronically Preserving Obituaries as Cultural Heritage

A website that allows anyone to create and publish a free obituary online and in the process involve the community in building their own collection of local history.

Free & accessible anywhere

Europeana

Web portal to the digital resources of many European museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. Formats include books, paintings, films, objects, sound recordings and archival records. 

Free & accessible anywhere

Flipster

Get access to major magazines and journals to read on your smartphone, tablet, or PC. Check out Flipster's getting started guide here. To get the free Flipster app, search for "Flipster" in either Google Play or  Apple's App Store

Library card required

Gale Academic OneFile

Academic One File lets you access millions of articles from thousands of scholarly and authoritative sources in the humanities, science, social science, business, and more. The Topic Finder feature is an easy visual to help explore sub-topics of your initial search.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale eBooks

24/7 access to reference ebooks. No checkout necessary. Titles can be browsed, searched, and downloaded anytime from any Internet-connected device. Topics include arts, business, education, history, law, literature, medicine, religion, science, and social science.

Library card required

Gale Literature Criticism

An online collection of literary criticism. Based upon well known reference series like Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Poetry Criticism. Conduct research on authors and their works, as well as articles on multiple eras, genres, and regions.

Library card required

Gale Literature: LitFinder

Full text online editions of classic poems, short stories, essays, plays, and speeches.

Library card required

Gale OneFile: Fine Arts

Customized selection of journals from the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection relating to the fine arts and music, from filmmaking, jazz and Mozart to Shakespeare and Van Gogh.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

HeritageQuest

Genealogical tool that includes U.S. Federal Census records, genealogical and historical sources for more than 60 countries, Census data, slave schedules, maps, local history books and articles, Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant application files, and the Freedman's Bank Records 1865-1874.

Library card required

Hyread

Access Chinese eBooks and audiobooks on a variety of topics including health, English learning, art, literature and children’s materials. Titles can be read or played on PCs, laptops, or mobile devices. Download the free app.

Library card required

Instructables

Get step-by-step, user created instructions on how to make just about anything. Examples include instructions on building a digital microscope or sewing a zipper.

Free & accessible anywhere

JSTOR

JSTOR offers researchers the ability to retrieve high-resolution, scanned images of journals, books, and primary sources as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. The material available spans many disciplines in the arts, sciences, and humanities.

When browsing or searching, you may find locked content. We apologize that some content is not available via Brooklyn Public Library's subscription. 

Only in library branches

MasterFILE Premier

Full text articles covering a broad range of subjects including general reference, business, education, health, general science and multicultural issues.

Library card required

New York Times (1851-2007) with Index (1851-1993)

PDFs of articles include original layout, images, and advertisements. Limit searches by topic, article title, date, and more.   

Library card required

New York Times Digital Microfilm

Browse 2008 - present issues of the New York Times by date and page number or search for articles by keyword. Includes high-quality replications of photos, graphs, and tables. (Please note that present coverage will be one month behind due to a publisher embargo period.)

Library card required

Novelist Plus

Find good books and audiobooks for adults, whether fiction or nonfiction. This online resource includes reading recommendations from librarians. Search for books by genre, content, time period, and more.

Library card required

Oxford Research Encyclopedias

Oxford Research Encyclopedias are a collection of essays on a variety of topics, designed to give readers an overview of a subject that they can understand in half an hour of reading or less.

Remote users: Type your Brooklyn Public Library card number in the box "Sign in with your library card", click Sign In, and then select Brooklyn Public Library.

Library card required

Oxford Very Short Introductions

The full text of the entire catalog of Oxford University Press's Very Short Introductions series. The books in this platform offer concise overviews to a range of academic subjects in the arts & humanities, law, medicine & health, science & mathematics, and social sciences. 

Remote users: Type your Brooklyn Public Library card number in the box "Sign in with your library card", click Sign In, and then select Brooklyn Public Library.

Library card required

PressReader

Access to current newspaper editions from around the world in a full color readable online format.  

Library card required

Project Muse

Humanities and social science content for the scholarly community. Complete, full-text versions of scholarly journals and books from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies. 

You may encounter locked content. When browsing or searching "All Muse", select "Only Content I have access to" to find subscription content. We apologize that some content is not available via Brooklyn Public Library's subscription.

Library card required

Salem Literature

Collection of classical and current literary criticism of the world’s most-studied literature. Focuses on both an individual author’s entire body of work or on a single work of literature.  Based off of Magill Books or Masterplots series.

Library card required

Smarthistory

Smarthistory is an always-free resource for learning about global art history featuring curated article, image and video content—created by respected scholars in collaboration with museum curators—that is engaging, informative, and accessible. Patrons can explore a wealth of high-resolution images of art from museums, galleries and cultural heritage sites throughout the world, all of which are free to download and use for classroom presentations and projects under Creative Commons (CC) licensure. 

Free & accessible anywhere

Sports Market Analytics

SBRnet and the Sports Market Analytics Data Platform are a comprehensive online platform of nationwide sports business data and analytics, using syndicated and custom proprietary research for the professional and college sports categories as well as sports participation and equipment sales information. Data is driven from consumer research, industry reports, and licensed industry articles. Topics include:

  • · Sports Fan Demographics
  • · Attendance
  • · Television Viewing
  • · Streaming Media
  • · Social Media Usage
  • · Logo Merchandise Sales
  • · Sponsorship Influence
  • · Sports Participation
  • · Fitness Participation
  • · Sports Gambling
  • · Sports Travel
  • · Collectibles
  • · Device Usage
  • · Fantasy Sports Play
  • · Consumer categories: Sports Drinks, Homeowners Insurance, Driver’s Insurance, Cell Phone Carrier, Banking, Credit Cards, Hotel/Motel, Air Travel and Quick Service Restaurant.


On the SMA log-in page, enter only your library card number. The username and password fields are auto-populated by the vendor.

Library card required

Where to Write for Vital Records

Find information on vital records like birth records, death records and marriage records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Offers direct links to state and other agencies that assist in locating information on vital records.
 

Free & accessible anywhere

World Digital Library

Images of historic items from countries around the world, curated by the U.S. Library of Congress and the United Nations.  Materials include photographs, maps, newspapers, journals, books, and manuscripts from museums, libraries, and national archives from around the world, representing over 100 languages.  Easily search by time period, institution, type of material, language, place, or topic.

Free & accessible anywhere

WorldCat FirstSearch

Search other libraries' catalogs for books and other materials. WorldCat FirstSearch is a service of OCLC, a library cooperative.

Library card required