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Alabama Virtual Library provides free access to numerous reliable online research databases for all Alabama residents.... Click on an AVL resource below to view its description. To view AVL's Collection Policy, please click here.
Academic Search Premier provides access to full text journals, magazines, and other resources. Subjects include biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, psychology, religion and philosophy, science and technology, and veterinary science.
Audience: College and General Public
AlabamaMosaic (Alabama's Digitization Project) is a work in progress. A number of collections are available for browsing and searching. More collections will be added in the near future. The purpose of AlabamaMosaic is to make unique historical treasures from Alabama's archives, libraries, museums, and other repositories electronically accessible to Alabama residents as well as scholars throughout the world.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Alt HealthWatch focuses on the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health care and wellness. Alt HealthWatch provides access to full text articles for more than 190 international and often peer-reviewed journals.
Audience: College and General Public
Book Collection: Nonfiction provides access to abstracts and searchable full text for thousands of popular nonfiction books. Book Collection: Nonfiction includes titles on careers, health, adventure, sports, technology, life skills and more.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
Britannica Academic delivers fast and easy access to high-quality, comprehensive information. The combination of Encyclopedia 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.
Audience: College
Britannica Library combines three sites in one: Children, Young Adults, and the Reference Center - where users can conduct research, complete homework assignments, and work on special projects. Britannica Library lets users choose the age-appropriate level that works best for them.
Audience: General Public
Britannica Original Sources provides access to more than 420,000 works of classic, primary reference sources in world history, U.S. history, political science, law, literature, science, mathematics, social science, philosophy, religion, and language arts.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Britannica School offers thousands of up-to-date, curated, and curriculum-relevant articles, images, videos, audio clips, primary sources, maps, research tools, recommended Web sites, and three separate encyclopedias. Choose from three user-friendly learning entry points Elementary, Middle, and High School for a wealth of content to explore.
Audience: Elementary School through High School
Business Insights: Essentials provides access to company and industry information, articles, and statistical data. Access brokerage reports, investment research, SWOT reports, corporate chronologies, full text periodicals, industry research reports, market research reports, company histories, and company profiles.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Business Source Premier provides access to full text and searchable cited references for top journals covering a variety of business disciplines. Topics include accounting, finance, economics, marketing, management, management information systems, and operations management.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Contemporary Authors Online provides access to current biographical and bibliographical data on more than 120,000 modern authors.
Audience: Middle School through High School, College, and the General Public
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online provides access to biographical and critical essays on the lives, works and careers of the world's most influential figures. The database includes more than 16,000 articles and thousands of images, the online collection of Dictionary of Literary Biography (volumes 1-348), Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series (50 volumes), and Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook (23 volumes.)
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
EBSCO Discovery Service brings together the most comprehensive collection of content—including superior indexing from top subject indexes, high-end full text and the entire library collection—all within an unparalleled full-featured, customizable discovery layer experience. - EBSCO Website
Audience: All
EBSCOhost is a menu of full text databases provided by EBSCO. Databases can be searched individually or (by marking the selection boxes) can be searched simultaneously in related groups.
Audience: Middle School through College, and General Public
The Encyclopedia of Alabama is a free, online resource on Alabama history, culture, geography, and natural environment.
Audience: All
ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), provides access to indexed and full-text education literature and resources. Sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.
Audience: College, Educators, and General Public
Ethnic NewsWatch provides access to full-text newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press. Ethnic NewsWatch provides researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives.
Audience: High School through College, and General Public
Explora provides an engaging interface for schools and public libraries. Students have access to age-appropriate content from popular magazines and reference books.
Audience: Elementary School through High School and Educators
General encyclopedia for K-12 students includes full text articles; its 25,000 encyclopedic entries are searchable by subject or keywords.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
Gale General OneFile offers single source searching for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
Access to cross-curricular content aligned to national and state curriculum standards. Learners can access news content including full-text newspapers and periodicals. Gale In Context: High School also provides access to thousands of videos, images, and audio selections.
Audience: Middle School through High School
Gale in Context: Middle School combines the best of Gale's reference content with age-appropriate videos, newspapers, magazines, primary sources, and much more. Categories covered include cultures, government, people, world and U.S. history, literature, and many more.
Audience: Middle School and High School
Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is an online resource that covers the hottest social issues of today. Informed, differing views help learners to develop critical thinking skills. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints offers periodical content that covers current events, news and commentary, economics, environmental issues, political science, and more.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Cross-search Literature Resource Center, LitFinder, Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Literature Criticism, Twayne’s Authors, and Scribner Writers.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Provides coverage of all business disciplines, including accounting, economics, finance, marketing, management and strategy, as well as business theory and practice. Users will understand the activities of companies and industries worldwide through business and trade publications, complemented by a selection of international, U.S., and regional news publications.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Gale OneFile: Fine Arts provides access to over 10 million articles on drama, art history, music, and filmmaking. More than 250 journals covered in Wilson Art Index, the Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM), and other databases are available in full text.
Audience: High School, College and University, and General Public
Garden and horticultural enthusiasts have access to more than 3 million articles from more than 100 journals, as well as access to more than 20 reference titles from Delmar.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public.
Access to more than 4 million articles from more than 200 home improvement focused titles that cover topics including tool and material selection, zoning requirements, architectural techniques, and others.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Access the topics on the cultural and economic aspects of travel and tourism. Gale OneFile: Hospitality and Tourism offers current and relevant content for both the historical and current state of affairs in the hospitality and tourism industry.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Gale OneFile: Informe Academico provides access to Spanish- and Portuguese-language scholarly journals and magazines. Gale OneFile: Informe Academico offers a wide range of content both from and about Latin America.
Audience: All
Researchers can remain current with the latest developments in particle physics, advanced mathematics, nanotechnology, geology, and hundreds of other areas. Gale OneFile: Science provides access to more than 350 full-text, non-embargoed journals that are updated daily.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Gale OneFile: Vocations and Careers provides access to magazines and journals that aid in researching a vocation, finding an appropriate institution of learning, job searching, and maintaining a career. Access hundreds of current periodicals, from general career guides to highly specialized industry journals.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Gale PowerSearch provides access to periodical, reference, multimedia, and primary source information.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
A database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. These reference materials once were accessible only in the library, but now you can access them online from the library or remotely 24/7. Because each library creates its own eBook collection,the content you see may vary if you use the database at different libraries (your school, your public library, or your office).
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
GreenFILE offers well-researched information. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. The database provides indexing and abstracts for approximately 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Health InfoNet of Alabama is a free, award-winning consumer health information service of the Alabama public and medical libraries. This website is designed as a service for online users and a gateway to quality information resources. If you don't find what you're looking for here, please call your local public library and ask for Health InfoNet assistance.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Consumer health information on health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. It provides access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines.
Audience: College, Medical Professionals, and General Public
History Reference Center features cover-to-cover full text for more than 650 historical encyclopedias and other non-fiction books. The database also includes full text for nearly 60 leading history periodicals; 58,000 historical documents; 43,000 biographies of historical figures; more than 12,000 historical photos and maps; and 87 hours of historical film and video.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
MasterFILE Premier also contains full text for nearly 500 reference books and over 164,400 primary source documents, as well as an Image Collection of over 592,000 photos, maps & flags.
Audience: General Public
Kids InfoBits features age-appropriate, reliable, curriculum-related content that coverers a broad range of educational topics.
Audience: Elementary School and Middle School
Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA) indexes more than 560 core journals, plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s.
Audience: Media Specialists, College, and General Public
Literature Criticism Online provides access to scholarly and popular commentary from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals in a format that matches the look and feel of the print originals.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Literature Resource Center provides access to more than 160,000 entires with in-depth biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors' works and lives. The database includes access to literature criticism, biographies, topic and work overviews, news, primary sources, literary works, images, links to audio interviews, and reviews.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
LitFinder provides access to literary works and secondary-source materials. Access more than 132,000 full-text poems, 670,000 poetry citations, as well as short stories, speeches, and plays.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
MAS Ultra Student Edition provides access to full-text biographies, primary source documents, reference books, an image collection, and expanded full text backfiles for key magazines.
Audience: High School, College, and General Public
Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for nearly 1,700 periodicals. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest. It also contains full text for nearly 500 reference books and over 164,400 primary source documents, as well as an Image Collection of over 592,000 photos, maps & flags.
Audience: General Public
MedlinePlus has extensive information from the National Institutes of Health and other trusted sources on over 650 diseases and conditions. There are also lists of hospitals and physicians, a medical encyclopedia and a medical dictionary, health information in Spanish, extensive information on prescription and nonprescription drugs, health information from the media, and links to thousands of clinical trials. MedlinePlus is updated daily.
Audience: General Public
Middle Search Plus is a full-text database that provides access to middle school magazines and reference books. Middle Search Plus also includes thousands of biographies and primary source documents.
Audience: Middle School
Military & Government Collection provides full text for nearly 300 military and general interest publications. Designed to bring current news to all branches of the military.
Audience: Military Personnel and General Public
Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for more than 40 US & international newspapers. It also contains selected full text for 389 regional U.S. newspapers. Full text TV & radio news transcripts are also provided.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
Collaborate, explore, and create with educators around the world to improve curriculum. - OER Commons website
Access Common Core resources, access content that is curated for the AVL Hub, and search collections that curated by digital librarians.
Audience: Educators
The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. The OED covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa, from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. It also offers the best in etymological analysis and in listing of variant spellings, and it shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Oxford Reference Online Premium brings together language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource. The Core Collection contains over 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these books, giving subscribers unprecedented access to a comprehensive information resource. The Premium Collection offers all of the above, plus added functionality and more detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions Series, to enhance the coverage already provided by the award-winning Core Collection.
Audience: High School through College, and General Public (Oxford Reference Title List)
Oxford Reference Online offers full-text access to 89 academic monographs in Business & Management, Mathematics, Public Health & Epidemiology, and Social Work.
Audience: High School through College, and General Public (Oxford Scholarship Online Title List)
PebbleGo Animals is an animal database designed specifically for K-3 emergent readers and researchers. It features more than 200 animal articles correlated to life science standards, animal audio and video, carefully leveled text, educational games, and innovative read-aloud capabilities. Web access from school or home makes PebbleGo an ideal K-3 resource. PebbleGo features easy-to-use searching tools, and introduces early learners to database and research concepts.
PebbleGo Science lets beginning researchers explore the world around them. Aligned to Next Generation Science standards and supportive of STEM instruction, PebbleGo Science covers key topics in life, physical and Earth and space science along with engineering and technology. Expertly-leveled text, simple navigation and read-aloud audio recorded by professional voice-over artists make PebbleGo Science an indispensable tool for early elementary instruction.
Audience: PreK-3
Provides students and schools with a series of controversial essays and presents multiple sides of the issue.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Primary Search provides students access to encyclopedic entries written specifically for kids. Primary Search also includes full-text popular children's magazines and a vast image collection.
Audience: Elementary School
ProCitizen helps you prepare for the U.S. Naturalization Test with 100 informative videos, practice exercises, and quizzes.
Audience: General Public
Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of nearly 520 high quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles. It also contains more than 200 educational reports.
Audience: College, Educators, and General Public
Learn 100 languages with Pronunciator. Each language course has on average 9,500 instructional phrases. Many languages also have live teachers to provide one-to-one instructions. It allows users to learn any language, in virtually any other language. Learn sign language with 20,000 instructional videos. This resource has four types of ESL (American, Australian, British, and Canadian) for speakers of 55 non-English languages.
Audience: All
PubMed, a service of the National Library of Medicine, provides access to over 11 million MEDLINE citations back to the mid-1960's and additional life science journals. PubMed includes links to many sites providing full text articles and other related resources.
Audience: Medical Professionals, High School through College, and General Public
This database provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 80 regional business publications covering all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. This database is updated on a daily basis.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Scribner Writer Series provides access to signed essays on the lives and works of authors from all around the world and from all time periods.
Audience: Middle School through High School and General Public
Twayne's Authors Series provides access to in-depth critical introductions to the works and lives of major writers of the world within the context of the time period in which they lived.
Audience: High School through College and General Public
Vocational & Career Collection is designed for vocational and technical libraries servicing high schools, community colleges, trade institutions and public libraries. The collection provides full text coverage for nearly 340 trade and industry related periodicals including American Machinist, Pediatric Nursing, Wireless Week, Drug Store News, Reeves Journal, Hotel and Motel Management, Restaurant Business, Advertising Age, and many more.
Audience: Middle School through College and General Public
Search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world.
Audience: College
