River Forest Public Library, About the Library

Read About our Databases

Each of the databases listed below serves a different purpose. Some are updated daily to bring you the most current information. Others can be used as encyclopedias to check facts and figures. The short descriptions below can point you in the right direction. All of these databases are available from home with your River Forest library card.

Questions? Call the Reference Staff at 366-5205 x 316 or email us at reference(@)riverforestlibrary.org

American History Online
This database spans over 500 years of American history. Special features include biographies, primary source documents, images and videos, as well as specially selected "learning center" entries to help users start research.

Ancient and Medieval History Online
This database provides in-depth information on 8 ancient civilizations: ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, ancient Mesopotamia, the Americas, medieval Europe, and ancient and medieval Africa and Asia. Do in-depth research on a specific civilization or use the browse features to explore broad topics. Special features include primary source documents, videos and images, and a hyper-linked and sortable timeline.

Bloom's Literary Reference Online
Find information on authors, works of literature, themes and topics in literature, critical articles, a character archive and more in this extensive literature database.

Booklist Online
Complementing and expanding on the print journal Booklist, Booklist Online delivers highly searchable and creatively linked reviews, columns, and features-all designed to help users find exactly the right book.

Chicago Tribune
Full-text Chicago Tribune newspaper articles from 1985 to the present. The Chicago Tribune archives include data from 1860-1984. Can be searched for obituaries.

Computer Source
This database includes full-text access to over 300 technical journal and consumer magazine articles on a variety of computer and technology related topics.

ERIC/FirstSearch
Contains annotated references to journals about education. Subject areas include vocational education, disabilities and gifted education, educational management, elementary and early childhood education.

Forest Leaves
Complete full-text content of local and regional news from October 1995 to present. Paid advertisements are excluded.

Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL)
Over 300 reference books, covering art, biography, business, education, environment, history, law, medicine, multicultural studies, religion, science, social sciences and more.

Health Source: Consumer Edition
This database provides access to almost 80 full text magazines, 130 full text reference books and current, health-related brochures on a variety of health topics. It also includes generic drug patient information sheets and the Merriam-Webster Medical Desk Dictionary. The material contained in this database is intended for informational purposes only.

Heritage Quest
A resource for census data, family records and local histories. Includes U.S. federal census through 1930, some family genealogies, local histories, birth, marriage and death records, genealogical and local history serials and more.

Issues and Controversies
This database provides information on current hot topics and social issues. Contains articles, pro and con statements for various issues, timelines, editorial cartoons and more. This database is updated weekly and also links to 12-year back file.

Literary Reference Center
This database is a comprehensive literary reference database, which provides users with a broad spectrum of reference information from antiquity to the present day. LRC is a completely full-text database that combines information from over 1,000 books and monographs, major literary encyclopedias and reference works, hundreds of literary journals, and unique sources not available anywhere else. LRC contains detailed information on the most studied authors and their works.

MasterFILE Premier
This database provides access to over 1,750 periodicals and over 400 reference books, as well as a large number of biographies, primary source documents, and images. Find articles on current news and events, popular culture, business, health, education, history, sports and much more!

Modern World History Online
Covering world history, from the 15th century to the present, this database provides thousands of biographies, subject entries, videos, images, primary sources documents and more.

Newspaper Source
This database provides full-text, cover to cover, access to 28 national and international newspapers, as well as selected full-text articles from over 260 regional United States newspapers. Also find full-text television and radio news transcripts from a variety of sources including ABC, CNN, and NPR.

NoveList
An advisory tool that helps readers find new books based on books they have read or topics in which they are interested. Provides access more than 29,000 full textbook reviews or annotations.

NoveList K-8
Find the books that students will want to read or locate new resources for classroom instruction.

Opposing Viewpoints
A complete one-stop source for information on social issues. Access viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents, links to websites, and full-text magazine and newspaper articles.

Physicians' Desk Reference
This database contains the PDR Library (Physicians' Desk Reference, PDR for Nonprescription Drugs and Dietary Supplements and PDR for Opthalmology), Stedman's Medical Dictionary, and the PDR for Herbal Medicines. Funded by the Illinois State Library.

PubMed
This service of the National Library of Medicine includes over 15 million citations of biomedical articles back to the 1950's. These citations are from MEDLINE and life science journals. Incorporates links to additional sites providing full text articles and other related resources.

Rosetta Stone Online Language Learning Center
This language learning software is based on immersion instruction in the chosen language. Courses in 8 languages are offered: English (UK) Traveler, English (US) Traveler, French Traveler, German Traveler, Italian Traveler, Russian Traveler, Spanish (Latin American) Traveler and Spanish (Spain) Traveler.New users will be asked to register with their River Forest Public Library card number. Rosetta Stone requires software Shockwave 8 plus one additional install when the web site is accessed. Also available for use at the River Forest Public Library.

WilsonSelects/FirstSearch
Full text articles in science, humanities, education and business. Includes US and international professional publications, academic journals, and trade magazines. Wilson Select is the only database that is 100% full text articles.

World Almanac/FirstSearch
This resource contains Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia, four almanacs and includes biographies, encyclopedia entries and statistics.

World Book Encyclopedia
World Book offers in-depth information on a variety of subjects and educational activities for all age levels.

World Atlas
Use this database to find a variety of different types of maps including political, elevation, outline and more for all the countries of the world. Also find country profiles that provide descriptive information and use the comparison and ranking tool to compare countries by statistics. Other special features of this geography database include news articles and a gazetter.

last revised 06/27/2008

River Forest Public Library

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Read About our Databases