Catch the Wave: Visit the All NewSawyerFree2025

Research Resources

The following list of databases is a good place to get started with your research. Many of these are subscription resources paid for by the Sawyer Free Library, NOBLE, and the state of Massachusetts, and they offer more information than a Google search. If you don’t know where to start, ask one of our Information Service Librarians for assistance.

Need assistance using our online research resources? Ask a librarian for assistance via Ask a Librarian chat, call us at 978-325-5500, or email us at info@sawyerfreelibrary.org. 

Reference | Arts, Humanities, & Culture | Business | Career | Genealogy  | Grants | Health & Medicine | History | Newspapers & Periodicals | Readers’ Advisory | Science | Social Sciences

 

New Resources

Mango Language Learning (Arts, Humanities & Culture)

Learn real-life conversations with native-speaker audio and cultural context so that you can speak like a local.  Over 70 language available as well as a downloadable app for easy practice.

 

LinkedIn Learning (Career)

LinkedIn Learning is an American massive open online course provider. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills.

 

Foundation Directory Online (On-site Access Only)

Foundation Directory is a research tool to help nonprofits find grants from funders most likely to support their cause.

On-site access to FDO is permitted anytime the library is open and requires no login. It can be accessed directly through the link above on one of the public computers or by connecting to the Sawyer Free Library wi-fi network.

 

Reference

 

These research resources cover a wide range of topics and can be a great first step for locating articles and other information before jumping into a subject-specific database.

 

Academic OneFile

Peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world’s leading journals and reference sources. With extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects.

Academic Search Elite

This resource offers full text for more than 2,000 journals, including more than 1,500 peer-reviewed titles. A multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Elite covers virtually every area of academic study. (NOBLE cards only)

Britannica Online

Offers reference materials for adults, as well as children. Included are a dictionary, thesaurus, videos, images, primary sources, and e-books.

Encyclopedias (English and Spanish)

Brittanica comprehensive encyclopedias with dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, and more.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia

This database provides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries covering a variety of subject areas.(NOBLE cards only)

General OneFile

Use this comprehensive periodical resource for any subject. Coverage goes back to 1980 with over 12,000 titles (7,800 full-text including The New York Times back to 1985).

Kids InfoBits

For beginning researchers in Kindergarten through Grade 5. The curriculum-related, age appropriate, full-text content is from the best elementary reference sources and magazines.

MasterFILE Premier

More than 1,730 general reference publications such as Consumer Reports with full text information dating as far back as 1975. (NOBLE cards only)

Middle Search Plus & Primary Search

Popular magazines for middle and jr. high school research. All full text articles included in the database are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles), and full text information dates as far back as 1990. Includes biographies, primary source documents, photos, maps and flags. (NOBLE cards only)

Research Companion (new)

ProQuest Research Companion is ProQuest’s flagship information literacy product. It was built to help students do more effective scholarly research and to support educators as they teach the core information literacy principles of finding, evaluating, and using information.

Research in Context

An engaging cross-curricular, K-12 resource created for middle school assignment needs

 

Art, Humanities, & Culture

 

Culinary Arts Collection

Includes major cooking and nutrition magazines, and culinary journals. Coverage includes thousands of searchable recipes, restaurant reviews, and industry information.

Diversity Studies Collection

Find engaging explorations of cultural differences, contributions and influences.

Fine Arts and Music Collection

Wilson Art Index and RILM are among the resources in this collection.

Home Improvement Collection

Nearly 100 titles suit hobbyists and professional carpenters alike.

Literature Research Center

Gale Literature Resource Center is Gale’s most current, comprehensive, and reliable online literature resource, offering the broadest and most representative range of authors and their works, including a deep collection of full-text critical and literary analysis for literary studies.

Mango Language Learning

Learn real-life conversations with native-speaker audio and cultural context so that you can speak like a local.  Over 70 language available as well as a downloadable app for easy practice.

Pop Culture Collection

Full-text periodicals support coursework and general interests alike.

Religion and Philosophy Collection

Insightful content covers every category of religion and philosophy.

 

Business

 

Business Collection

Coverage includes accounting, marketing and management, plus business theory and practice.

Business Source Premier

The industry’s most used business research database, providing full text for more than 2,300 journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. (NOBLE cards only)

Hospitality, Tourism & Leisure Collection

Find information on the history of the hospitality and tourism field, also. Study specialized aspects of the industry including cultural aspects of travel, leisure activities, economic aspects of tourism, and more.

Insurance and Liability Collection

Reliable information on labor relations, mortgages, legal issues and more.

Regional Business News

Comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. (NOBLE cards only)

Small Business Resource Center

Startups and established businesses alike can access How To’s covering vital questions.

 

Career

 

Career Transitions 

Career Transitions provides guidance and essential activities for job seekers and those investigating new careers options, including the college bound, enrolled students, and soon to be graduates and alumni. The site also contains specific tools for school, public, and academic libraries. 

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is an American massive open online course provider. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills.

Professional Development Collection

Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of 520 high quality education journals, including nearly 350 peer-reviewed titles. This database also contains more than 200 educational reports. (NOBLE cards only)

Vocations & Careers Collection

Covers the college and job search and provides current and applicable content for all vocational milestones from nearly 400 journals. General career guides as well as highly specialized industry journals.

 

Genealogy

 

Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition makes family research easy for beginners while still providing in-depth tools for even the most advanced genealogists. (In-library access only)

Fold3

Fold3 is an Ancestry database that allows researchers to look for their military and veteran ancestors. (Gloucester cards only.)

 

Grants

 

Foundation Directory Online (On-site Access Only)

Search thousands of grantmakers, grants, and funding opportunities for projects and non-profit organizations.

Grants to Individuals (On-site Access Only)

Find funding opportunities and resources for individuals, including scholarships, fellowships, and more from nearly 10,000 grantmakers.

 

Health & Medicine

 

Health Reference Center Academic

Full text of nursing and allied health journals, plus the wide variety of personal health information sources.

HealthSource

Provides information on many health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. (NOBLE cards only)

HealthSource: Nursing/Academic Edition

This database provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. (NOBLE cards only)

Medline

Provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine. (NOBLE cards only)

Nursing and Allied Health

All aspects of the Nursing profession–from direct patient care to health care administration–are covered in this collection.

 

History

 

Biography in Context

Nearly a million biographical entries spanning history and geography. Search by name, occupation, Nationality, birth place, or death place.

Black Life in America

This NewsBank database gives users access to the experience of African American life as recorded by the news media, from the early 1700s through modern times.

Military and Intelligence Database Collection

Journal content covers the past and current state of military affairs.

U.S. History in Context

Comprehensive, contextual, media-rich search results from an extensive collection of historical information, including Primary Source Microfilm’s digital archives, Macmillan Reference USA, Charles Scribner’s Sons, and full-text periodicals and academic journals.

War and Terrorism Collection

Periodicals for analysts, risk management professionals and students.

World History in Context

Offers students and researchers access to periodicals, reference works, and primary documents. Includes historical maps, atlases, and audio and video selections from NPR, archival newsreels, and more.

 

Newspapers & Periodicals

 

America’s News

Explore and stay informed on local and national topics, people and events in areas such as business, health, education, jobs and careers, political and social issues and more.  Features a wide variety of credible, vetted news sources spanning the U.S. Also available remotely 24/7 on any device.

Boston Globe

Full text from 1980-current. Includes published obituaries. Click here for a video tutorial on using The Boston Globe Online.

Consumer Reports (Newspapers & Periodicals)

Consumer Reports, formerly Consumers Union, is an American nonprofit consumer organization dedicated to independent product testing, investigative journalism, consumer-oriented research, public education, and consumer advocacy.

Gloucester Daily Times

Full text of Gloucester Daily Times from 2009-2019. Limited articles from 2008 are available.

InfoTrac Newsstand

Search full-text articles by headline, date, newspaper section and more.

InfoTrac Student Edition

A periodical database designed for students in junior high and middle school 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.

New York Times

Full-text of The New York Times, including the NYT Book Review and NYT magazine from 1985-current.

Newspaper Source

Cover-to-cover full text articles for 28 national (U.S.) & international newspapers; selected full text for more than 260 regional (U.S.) newspapers; and 20,000+ full text television and radio news transcripts. (NOBLE cards only)

PressReader

An easy-to-use collection of over 7,000 international newspaper and magazine publications, including translations in 60+ languages. Enter your Sawyer Free Library credentials to enter and then select PressReader from the list of offerings. Access is authenticated for 24 hours, but can be renewed unlimited times.

 

Readers’ Advisory

 

NoveList Plus

A readers’ advisory database, Novelist Plus provides reviews, Author Read-alikes, What We’re Reading, Book Discussion Guides, BookTalks, Annotated Book Lists and much more for over 135,000 fiction and non-fiction titles. (NOBLE cards only)

NoveList K-8 Plus

NoveList K-8 Plus is a comprehensive reading resource for fiction and nonfiction. With its fun and intuitive interface, NoveList K-8 Plus will help you integrate reading across the curriculum and support your young readers. (NOBLE cards only)

 

Science

 

Agriculture Collection

Nearly 200 titles provide broad coverage of agriculture and related fields.

Environmental Studies & Policy Collection

Includes magazines and academic journals, and provides instant access to multiple viewpoints, including perspectives from the scientific community, governmental policy makers, and corporate interests.

Gardening, Landscape & Horticulture Collection

Ideal for gardeners, landscape architects, farmers and biotechnologists, this collection of journals includes content relating to both the practical aspects as well as the scientific theory of horticulture studies.

GreenFILE

Well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. (NOBLE cards only)

Science Database (new)

This database is a definitive resource for students studying both the applied and general sciences. With coverage dating back to 1986, ProQuest Science Journals features over 1030 titles, with more than 760 available in full text. Search over 2.7M records, dating back to the mid 1980s.

Science in Context

Information on hundreds of today’s most significant science topics.

 

Social Sciences

 

Communication and Mass Media Collection

Current, accurate information covers advertising, literature, linguistics and more.

Criminal Justice Collection

Whether studying to become a lawyer or law enforcement officer, paralegal, or for a career in Homeland Security, this collection provides users with access to a variety of materials, including more than 700 journals.

Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC)

The Educational Resource Information Center contains more than 2,200 digests along with references for additional information and citations and abstracts from over 1,000 educational and education-related journals. (NOBLE cards only)

Educator’s Reference Complete

More than 450 full-text academic journals, hundreds of full-text reports, and many premier reference sources. Focuses on educational principles, child development and psychology, and best practices in education.

Gender Studies Collection

Balanced coverage of gender studies, feminism, family/marital issues, health, and more.

Global Issues in Context

Offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics and current events.

Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts

LISTA indexes more than 560 core journals, nearly 50 priority journals, and nearly 125 selective journals; plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more.  (NOBLE cards only)

Opposing Viewpoints (new)

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints is the premier online resource covering today’s hottest social issues, from capital punishment to immigration to marijuana. This cross-curricular resource supports science, social studies, current events, and language arts classes. Informed, differing views help learners develop critical-thinking skills and draw their own conclusions.

Psychology Collection

Find 24/7 access to 200 subject-appropriate full-text periodicals.

Featured Lists
Most Popular
Featured Movies