Academic ASAP

Abstracts and some full-text articles from popular and professional periodicals on current events, economics, education, history, humanities, literature, art, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology. (Provided by InfoTrac)

AccessScience

Provides access to over 7,100 articles, 115,000 dictionary terms, and hundreds of Research Updates covering breakthroughs and discoveries in all areas of science and technology. Also includes over 2,000 in-depth biographies of leading scientists through history, research guides, and web links. (Provided by McGraw-Hill)

AMA Physician Select

This is a free website provided by the American Medical Association. The database includes more than 690,000 American doctors. Physicians can be searched by name or by specialty and location and listings include such information as education, specialty, hospital affiliation and type of practice.

American Periodicals Series

Contains the full text of 1,100 American magazines and journals spanning a period of over 150 years, from 1741 through 1900. Since this database contains digitized images of the original periodicals, users can see all of the original typography, drawings, graphic elements, and article layouts exactly as they were originally published. (Provided by ProQuest)

AnyWho Online Directory

The AT&T Corporation's national telephone directory. This free website can be used to locate both businesses and individuals. Reverse look up feature allows AnyWho to be used as a criss-cross directory. Also includes links to international telephone directories and a toll-free telephone directory.

Auto Repair Reference Center

The Auto Repair Reference Center includes repair information on thousands of car models going, in a few cases, as far back as 1954. Also includes wiring diagrams, technical service bulletins, a labor time estimator, maintenance schedules, troubleshooting information and other auto repair related information. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Baltimore Sun Archive

Free full-text access to the Baltimore Sun newspaper from 1990 to the present.

Baltimore Sun Jobs

The classified employment ads that run in the Baltimore Sun.

Biography Resource Center

Thumbnail sketches and full-text articles from reference works and magazines covering more than one million people throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. (Provided by InfoTrac)

Books in Print (Bowker)

If you can't locate an item in the library, use Books in Print's database of 5 million book, audio book, and video titles to find out what is available for purchase in the world outside the library. Books can be searched by author or by title and they can also be browsed by subject. Additional features include more than a century of annual bestseller lists and extensive lists of award winning books, in order by award. (Provided by Bowker)

Business Source Elite

Full-text articles from scholarly and professional journals covering business, management, economics, finance, banking, and accounting, as well as detailed company profiles. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

CareerOneStop

This free website maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor offers a variety of basic employment and job hunting information. Also provides links to employment-related websites, including electronic bulletin boards listing employment opportunities.

Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs

This free website is organized by medical condition and/or drug classification. Each category first lists the drugs that fall within it. Next, each drug is described in greater detail in a two page and/or a 15 to 20+ page survey. Each survey also contains comparative cost and dosage information for every listed drug. Spanish language versions are available for many of these drug surveys.

CQ Researcher

Full-text electronic access to weekly reports on issues of current interest and importance. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education, science and technology. Covers from 1991 to the present. (Provided by Congressional Quarterly)

CultureGrams

This product surveys more than 200 of the world's countries, 50 American states and 13 Canadian provinces. The information it contains for each jurisdiction includes history, climate, customs, economy, a recipe collection, a flag collection and much more. Also included is a "Kids Edition" aimed at meeting the needs of upper level elementary school students. (Provided by ProQuest)

EBSCO Animals

An online encyclopedia of animals and related topics with full-text articles covering their behavior, habitat, and much more. Many articles include images and web links to more information. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center

Citations and abstracts from over 980 educational and education-related journals, as well as full text of more than 2,200 digests. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)

This U.S. Department of Education free web site is an essential destination for the parents of college age students because filling out a "FAFSA" form is the first step when you apply for federal student grants, work-study aid, and loans. You may also use this form to apply for most state and some private aid. While print FAFSA forms are widely available, this website allows you to fill out and deliver the form online. Included on this site is the online equivalent of the print Federal School Code List.

FictionConnection

Use this resource to locate books similar to the books you already enjoy. It allows you to search by topic, genre, setting, character, location, timeframe, title and author. Initial searches can be amplified by using a "Find Similar" button accompanying each title or modified by taking advantage of a "Refine results by" list on the right of the main results display screen. Display screens for individual titles have an option that allows you to search for the title in the library's catalog. Many title displays include cover art, plot summaries and reviews.

FirstGov.gov

This free website is the U.S. Government's official web portal. It can be used to find any federal agency and, also, to find information produced by federal agencies, such as federally generated statistics, government forms, information on government benefits, etc.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia

Over 25,000 full-text records covering an array of topics. Records often include images and brief biographies. Content appropriate for middle and high school students. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Gale Virtual Reference Library

This product allows electronic access to encyclopedias, almanacs, and other reference books that, in earlier days, were only available in print. Includes about fifty titles on a broad range of topics. (Provided by InfoTrac)

Grolier Online

The Grolier Online database includes the six major titles listed below. These can be searched as one database or individually. To search individual Grolier Online titles click on the appropriate hyperlink.

• America the Beautiful Interesting and easy-to-use articles about each U.S. state, territory, and region. Also includes articles on U.S. topics; profiles of famous people, almanac facts, timelines, and games.

• Encyclopedia Americana Full-text essays from the renowned print encyclopedia as well as special features covering current events and topics of interest. Also includes biographical sketches and links to online news.

• Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Extensive articles covering topics in geography, history, science, the arts, etc. Includes research aids such as maps, flags, pictures, and Internet links.

• Lands & People A colorful encyclopedia covering countries, cultures, and current events. Geared to students, it includes maps, flags, tables, and graphs plus cross-cultural comparisons and articles on geographic features.

• New Book of Knowledge The New Book of Knowledge is based on the 20+ volume print encyclopedia by the same name. Like the print title, this online encyclopedia is focused on the needs of elementary and middle school students.

• New Book of Popular Science Presents articles, web links, lists, charts and tables covering a variety of science topics, as well as biographies of important scientists. In addition, provides projects and games which explain scientific and mathematical theories and concepts.

Grove Dictionary of Art

Full-text articles and full-color images covering all aspects of the visual arts worldwide-from prehistory to the present. (Provided by Grove)

Health Source: Consumer Edition

Authoritative, full-text journal articles on health-related questions including food and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine, general health, and medical science; also full-text access to the USP Pharmacopoeia DI and Stedman's Medical Dictionary. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition

Access to nearly 600 full-text scholarly journals with particularly strong coverage of nursing and allied health issues back to 1975. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

HeritageQuest Online

A genealogy research collection including Federal census records, source documents, and indexes as well as guidelines and sample worksheets for researching your family history. (Provided by ProQuest)

Historical New York Times

Contains the full text of the New York Times from 1851 through the early years of the twenty first century. Contains digitized images of the original newspaper so advertisements, announcements, etc. are included, in addition to articles. (Provided by ProQuest)

History Reference Center

Howard County Government Mapping Page

This free Howard County Government website is a comprehensive geographic resource for all of Howard County. At a basic level you can use it to create on-demand maps of your neighborhood or to locate Howard County public facilities. Additional information included with these on-demand maps allows you to find school assignments for your residence, crime statistics for the surrounding area, county council district assignment, etc. At a more advanced level, there are links to an extensive selection of map overlays. These allow you to map out such things as police beats in your neighborhood, the location of all neighborhood fire hydrants and, also, to map out local soil types and the local watershed. A wide variety of additional features include county-wide political and school district maps, aerial photos and planning maps.

Howard County, MD

The official website of the Howard County Government. This free resource can be used to locate county agencies and information about county services.

Kelley Blue Book

This free web site is a useful place to find pricing information for both new and used cars, motorcycles, jet skis and snowmobiles. It also provides automotive reviews and ratings. A similar service is edmunds.com, though edmunds.com seems to focus exclusively on automobiles. Local information on automobile pricing and availability can be found in the automotive pages of the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post.

Learning Express Library (LearnATest)

To use this product you will need to set up a personal user name and password so that the system can help you keep track of your progress on individual tests and courses. Provides interactive online practice tests in a broad variety of academic and career related areas. These include advanced placement tests, GED tests, college entrance exams (ACT and SAT), and job related qualification tests in such areas as nursing, the military, real estate and a variety of public safety fields. Also includes tutorial courses on job related skills, such as resume creation, and subject reviews in such areas as citizenship requirements, math skills and writing skills.

Literature Resource Center

Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Includes information about literary movements and themes as well as literary-historical timelines and definitions. (Provided by InfoTrac)

LitFinder

A source for full text poems, stories, essays, plays and speeches. Made up of the five modules listed below

• Essay Finder Thousands of full-text essays and discursive writing focusing on the humanities and social sciences. Includes biographies and literary criticism. (Once in LitFINDER, click on the ESSAYS tab.)

• Play Finder Over 1,000 complete plays covering the range of dramatic expression: including one-act plays, puppet plays, Harlinquinades, tragedies, gothic, children's, religious, romantic, historical, children's and comedic plays. The collection includes many nationalities, all in English or English translations. (Once in LitFINDER, click on the PLAYS tab.)

• Poem Finder More that 125,000 full-text poems, from all major movements-antiquity to the present-and poets from every continent presented in the finest available English translations. Also includes over 800,000 poem citations and excerpts as well as poet biographies. (Once in LitFINDER, click on the POEMS tab.)

• Speech Finder Speeches from antiquity to modern times, representing the finest examples of recorded oratory and commenting on the milestones of history as well as the minutiae of everyday life. (Once in LitFINDER, click on the SPEECHES tab.)

• Story Finder More than 5,000 of full-text short stories-both classic and contemporary-with explanations, biographies, pictures and more. (Once in LitFINDER, click on the STORIES tab.)

Live Homework Help

A live online tutoring service, aimed at students, grades 4 and up. Interact with tutors on these subjects: math, science, English, and social studies. Tutors available seven days a week from 2:00 pm until 12:00 am. Math and science tutors also available in Spanish, Sunday through Friday from 2:00 pm until 10:00 pm.

Marina

Marina is the interlibrary loan system for Maryland's public libraries. Use Marina to borrow books that are not owned by the Howard County Library.

Maryland Manual Online: A Guide to Maryland Government

The official directory of the Maryand State Government. Formerly published in book form, this directory has, for some years, only been available online.

Maryland Share

Maryland Share is a Community Information Database that was created by local public libraries in Maryland. It allows keyword searches of database files, and presents the information in a relatively uniform format. If available, links are offered to organizations' websites.

Maryland State Jobs

The central employment web site of the Maryland State Government. Includes links to current state openings and related information such as information on how to obtain a state job, benefits of working for the state, information about internships, etc.

Maryland.gov

The official website of the Maryland State Government. Can be used to find Maryland agency websites and Maryland government information.

MasterFILE Premier

Access to citations and full-text articles and images from over 1,900 general periodicals and important reference resources covering a broad range of topics including current events, business, health, general science, the arts, and more. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Middle Search Plus

Contains the full-text articles and full-color images from over 150 popular middle school magazines, plus 96,600 biographies, and 76,000 primary source documents. Includes Essential Documents in American History. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Newspaper Source

Selected full-text coverage of over 200 U.S. and international newspapers and newswires. Also includes full-text transcripts from a variety of important and popular news-television and news-radio programs. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

NoveList

Locate books of interest by searching for your favorite author or genre, or, by using the "Describe a Plot" tool. Includes book reviews, book discussion guides, "best" booklists and guidance for age-appropriate reading. (Results provided by EBSCOhost)

NoveList K-8

Specially designed to help students and teachers, grades K through 8, find appropriate and interesting books to read and discuss. Includes linked lists of titles by subject/theme, plot summaries, and teaching aides such as review questions and Lexile (reading level) rankings. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Occupational Outlook Handbook

Produced by the U.S. Department of Labor, this free website is the online equivalent of the print Occupational Outlook Handbook. Both in print and online the Occupational Outlook Handbook surveys a large percentage of the most significant careers and occupations in the United States. For each surveyed occupation it describes the nature and conditions of the work, the number of individuals employed, training and education requirements, wage levels and the job outlook for the profession.

Primary Search

Contains the full text of more than 50 elementary school magazines and pamphlets, and indexes over 80 additional magazines covering topics of interest to elementary school students. Includes the American Heritage Children's Dictionary. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

PubMed

PubMed is a free website maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. It is primarily aimed at medical practitioners. At its core is Medline, the National Library of Medicine’s index of journal citations. Medline now indexes nearly 4,500 journals published in 70 countries, including the United States. PubMed contains additional materials which allow the user to access over 15 million journal citations going back to the 1950s. Since, overwhelmingly, the materials a user locates via PubMed are journal citations, obtaining the full text of articles you locate can be difficult. However, in some cases articles can be ordered online, for a fee, directly from PubMed. Since this is not a Howard County Library product, responsibility for all online purchases must rest with PubMed.

ReferenceUSA Residential, Business & Healthcare Databases

Divided into three sub-databases. One provides detailed directory information for 120 million U.S. households. Another provides directory information for 12 million U.S. businesses. The third is a directory of 650,000 U.S. physicians and dentists. . Ability to search by phone number and by address allows this database to be used as a criss-cross directory.

Regional Business News

Provides full text articles from local and regional business journals, newspapers, and newswires. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

Science Resource Center

Contains the full text of over fifty book titles in the sciences plus full text articles from several hundred scientific magazines and journals. Extra features include a timeline of the history of science and such "science tools" as taxonomic tables, the periodic table of the elements, planet data and diagrams of the systems of the human body. Results are color coded to allow easy identification of materials written at basic, intermediate and advanced levels. (Provided by InfoTrac)

Searchasaurus

A great source of information on many topics in an easy-to-use and visually stimulating format designed for elementary and middle school children. Includes the American Heritage Children's Dictionary. (Provided by EBSCOhost)

SIRS Researcher

Contains full-text articles from domestic and international newspapers, magazines, journals, and government publications exploring social, scientific, health, business, economic, political, and other topics of global interest and importance. (Distributed by ProQuest)

Standard and Poor's NetAdvantage

A comprehensive investment resource. Includes electronic access to traditional Standard and Poor's print offerings, such as Corporation Records, Industry Surveys and Stock Reports and adds to this a good deal of daily business news and investment commentary. Additionally NetAdvantage includes directory information, bond ratings and profiles of thousands of mutual funds. The mutual fund module includes a "fund screener" which allows the user to sort S&P's mutual fund database by a vartiety of performance criteria. Similarly, the bond module contains a "bond screener."

Teen Health & Wellness

This database focuses on matters related to the health and well being of teenagers. While teens are obviously its primary audience, this product should also be useful to adults who work with teens and to the parents of teenagers. In fact, written as it is with a minimum of medical jargon, this database might also prove helpful to adults who need medical information written at a layman's level. Teen Health and Wellness takes a broad view of health. So in addition to discussing most major diseases and developmental disabilities, it also includes
information on emotional and psychological issues, lifestyle issues, work skills and careers.

Testing & Education Reference Center, with Career Module

Take a variety of free high school, college and career related online practice exams. Sort through thousands of colleges, graduate schools and vocational schools to identify the school or schools that fit your individual needs. Search for sources of college and graduate school financial aid. Take a career assessment to help identify the careers that best suit your interests and capabilities. View online editions of Petersons and Arco test prep books.

US Government Manual

As the official handbook of the Federal Government, the United States Government Manual provides comprehensive information on the agencies of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches. It also includes information on quasi-official agencies, international organizations in which the United States participates, and boards, commissions, and committees. Also available in book form in all Howard County libraries, at call number, R353U.

USAJOBS

Official job site of the United States Federal Government. Allows user to search for jobs available in the Federal Government. Also provides links to vocational guidance and resume-writing information.

Wall Street Journal

Index and primarily full-text access to the Wall Street Journal from 1986 to the present. (Provided by ProQuest)

Washington Post

Index and primarily full-text access to the Washington Post from 1986 to the present. (Provided by ProQuest)

Washington Post Jobs

The classified employment ads that run in the Washington Post.

World Book Online Reference Center

World Factbook

Produced by the Central Intelligence Agency. This free website is the online equivalent of a print title by the same name. Surveys each of the world's countries, providing a map, a historical narrative, and fairly extensive statistical information on every nation.