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

African American Experience

A collection of scholarly articles and primary source documents on African American history and culture. Includes books, speeches, letters, photographs, illustrations and audio clips.

Library card required

American History

Conduct research on American history with more than 16,000 primary and secondary sources, including overview essays, biographies, government and court documents, photos, maps, audio/video clips, and statistics.

Library card required

American Indian Experience

A collection of scholarly articles and primary source documents covering American Indian history from the paleolithic to the present. Includes treaties, speeches, and captivity narratives as well as traditional storytelling, maps, photographs, and video.

Library card required

Black Thought and Culture

Collects published works by leading African American writers, spanning the 1700s to the present. Includes books, interviews, journal articles, speeches, essays, pamplets and letters.

Library card required

Brainfuse HelpNow

Brainfuse HelpNow offers personalized academic assistance in core subjects (math, reading, writing, science), a 24/7 Writing Lab, academic content and practice tests for skills-building (including SAT preparation), and much more. Live tutoring from Brainfuse experts is available from 2:00 PM - 11:00 PM EST.

Library card required

Brainfuse JobNow

Brainfuse JobNow is designed to support every step of the job search process:

  • Find live online coaches who assist with job search, resumes, interviews and more from 2:00 PM - 11:00 PM EST every day
  • Check out eParachute to discover careers that match your skills and interests
  • Check out SkillsFirst to find sample resumes in your profession
  • Check out SkillSurfer for study materials
  •  

 

 

Library card required

BrainPop

Watch animated movies, play learning games, and more. Includes BrainPOP Jr. (K-3), BrainPOP, BrainPOP Español, and, for English language learners, BrainPOP ESL. Videos and activities cover topic areas within Science, Math, Social Studies, English Language Arts, and more.

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

CIA World Factbook and Country Maps

The Central Intelligence Agency's basic intelligence for 266 world entities; free maps can be downloaded and printed in PDF or JPEG formats.

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

E-books on Ebscohost Collection

Search, read, and download eBooks in different subject areas, including business, career, classic literature, etc.

Library card required

eBooks and More

Access Brooklyn Public Library’s collection of digital books, magazines and reference library, available to download wirelessly to your device.

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

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

Fire Insurance Maps Online (FIMO)

New York State high-definition, full-color fire insurance maps from Sanborn and other publishers, real estate atlases, plat books, and other historical maps showing building structures, building construction details, property ownership, property uses, and other useful information. The site has an Interactive map search, and Geo-referenced or search by place name and drop-down menus.

Library card required

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 General OneFile

A searchable collection of general interest and scholarly publications on topics including Careers, Computers & Technology, Education, Health, History, Personal Finance, and Self-Help. Content includes reference books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and audio & video files.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale In Context: High School

Gale in Context High School (Formerly Student Resources) contains information on a variety of topics in an easy to read format. Includes primary documents, biographies, topical essays, background information, critical analyses, magazine articles, audio and video clips, and thousands of photographs and illustrations. Includes topics in science, health, history, literature, current events, sports, world cultures, and business/economics. Easy to search and topics are comprehensive in content.

Library card required

Gale In Context: Middle School

Gale In Context: Middle School is a Gale database created specifically for middle school students, combining reference content with age-appropriate videos.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints

Gale in Context Opposing Viewpoints covers today’s social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change. Helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations and more.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale OneFile: Computer Science

Customized selection of journals of leading business and technical publications spanning the computer industry. From the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies

Customized selection of journals relating to Diversity Studies. From the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale OneFile: Environmental Studies and Policy

Journals from the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection relating to environmental studies and environmental policy, including climate change, recycling, and sustainability.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale OneFile: Health and Medicine

Resources from the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection relating to health studies. Health reference topics include immunization, youth sports, food allergies and more.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

Gale OneFile: Science

Journals from the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection relating to general science. Coverage spans 1980 to the present and includes general interest periodicals as well as academic journals. Learn about scientific developments, global warming, alternative energy and more.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

GCFLearnFree.org

Video tutorials and self-paced courses to learn computer basics and build skills, including in Microsoft Office, the Internet, Email, and Google Workspace

Free & accessible anywhere

GreenFile

Resource draws on the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling and more.

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

Latino American Experience

Scholarly articles and primary source documents covering Latino American history and culture from the 1400s to the present.

Library card required

LearningExpress Library 3.0

This resource supports those looking to improve core academic skills, pass standardized tests, prepare for college, join the military, obtain occupational certification, find a job, change careers, become a U.S. citizen and much more. Includes practice tests and other study materials for the GED/HSE/TASC, HiSET, TASC, SAT, elementary school and middle school standardized tests, civil service, technical, and other professional exams.

Hay recursos para hispanohablantes, incluyendo herramientas de aprendizaje, carrera y ciudadanía en español.

Please note that you will need to create a username and password.

To learn more about using this resource, check out this video tutorial.

Library card required

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda.com)

LinkedIn Learning offers more than 16,000 online courses in seven languages, hosted by expert instructors with real-world experience. Courses on LinkedIn Learning include Leadership, Project Management, Mental Wellness, Job Hunting, Digital Marketing, Data Science, 3D Animation, and CAD.

For Mobile users: 
1. Download the LinkedIn Learning app from Google Play / App Store 
2. Open the app 
3. Select - "Sign In" 
4. Select "Sign in with your library card" 
5. You'll be prompted to "Enter your Library ID". Tap on the box and enter "bklynlibrary" (all lowercase, no quotation marks) 
6. Use your BPL library card number or username and PIN and click on "Continue". 
First time users will be prompted to select topics of interest.

Library card required

Mango Languages

Learn a new language or brush up current skills.  Contains 52 language learning courses including Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Vietnamese as well as 17 English courses for speakers new to English.  There is a mobile app to use to learn on the go and there are feature films to complement select courses.

Library card required

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

Mometrix eLibrary

Unlimited access to test preparation materials for over 1,000 different standardized exams. Access study guides and practice questions for exams including the GED, SAT, ACT, TEAS, HESI, Praxis, TOEFL, career and technical certification.

Library card required

New York Heritage Digital Collections

Search and browse digital collections about New York State's extensive history. Includes letters, diaries, photographs, newspapers, and maps from over 160 museums, libraries and archives.

Free & accessible anywhere

NovelNY (resources for students)

Encyclopedias and research tools for elementary and middle school students: the Scholastic Go! encyclopedia, eLibrary Elementary for books and magazines, Kids Infobits for children's magazines, and Opposing Viewpoints in Context. High school and college students can access General OneFile, Academic OneFile, and Opposing Viewpoints for research. From the New York State Online Virtual Library database collection.

Free & accessible anywhere in NY state

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

PowerMyLearning

Online learning activities curated by educators and organized by subject, grade and Common Core standard. Educators can create playlists of activities tailored to their lessons and invite students to a "class" with a code and track their students' progress. Students can create an avatar and "level up" the more they play. Parents can also log in and connect with their children to set goals and rewards for them. Create a free login to get started.

Free & accessible anywhere

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

Science.gov

Searches over 60 databases and over 2200 selected websites from 15 federal agencies, offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information including research and development results.  Also includes information education and training opportunities in science, tecnology, engineering, and mathematics fields for undergraduate and graduate students.

Free & accessible anywhere

ScienceFlix

Covers major science areas like Earth Science, Space, Life Science, Human Body, Physics, and Engineering, with general overviews and articles for deeper understanding. Includes videos, project ideas, experiments, quizzes, and information about careers in science. Complements the Next Generation Science Standards.  Can adjust Lexile reading levels of articles.

To learn more about this resource, check out this video tutorial.

Library card required

SIRS Discoverer

Areas covered include: current events, history, health, language arts, math, science, social studies, and technology. Includes newspaper and magazine articles, material from DK Eyewitness books, and science experiment ideas. Search for something specific or explore a variety of topics and current events.
 

Library card required

Urban Archive

View our collection of city stories and check out the platform of digital collections of New York City's museums, archives, and libraries.

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