More Online Resources
Alphabetical List of Online Resources
Access over 1000 journals on a host of subject matters and 75,000 videos from the Associated Press going back over 90 years.
On-demand, anytime, anywhere eLearning. View how easy, intuitive, and engaging Brainfuse HelpNow eLearning is for all ages and levels.
Recent news and analysis from
- Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, and other business publications
- Academic journals and conference proceedings
- Trade publications
Company and industry profiles and surveys from private and government sources.
ComicsPlus
ComicsPlus provides unlimited, simultaneous access to thousands of comics, manga, and graphic novels. The diversity of content means ComicsPlus has something for everyone – with no wait, no holds, and no borrowing limits. You can access the ComicsPlus web page using one of the links below or by clicking on the icon to access the whole collection. OR you can install the ad-free app on your iOS or Android mobile device. Just look for Plainsboro Library, select the collection you want to access (children, teen, or full), and enter your library card number and PIN!
In the market for a laptop? A new car? A dishwasher? You name it. Consumer Reports has it covered. Consult this database for the results of scientific tests and ratings of thousands of products every year. More than 100 experts evaluate appliances, cars, products for infants and children, electronics, foods, health-related items, and recreation and home improvement products. This database will enable you to make the best purchasing decision possible!
Search for books by the author’s name, as well as by the book’s subject and title. Complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 authors from the United States and around the world.
For the business professional or job seeker, Data Axle provides instant, real-time access to accurate, in-depth, current information on U.S. and Canadian businesses. Information includes names and contact information for executives, financial performance, and significant corporate relationships. Newly formed businesses and historical (closed) businesses are separated out for easy search and analysis. Lifestyle profiles for over 320 million American individuals are also available. White pages support the creation of postal mailing lists by zip code, town, state, or even street. Job postings for government positions and links to independent job boards for non-government job openings.
For consumers, search U.S. and Canadian white pages to find postal addresses and phone numbers for friends and relatives. Contact information for doctors and other healthcare professionals are separated into their own data set.
Free practice tests based on the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s materials. Includes practice tests and driver manuals for car, motorcycle and CDL licenses.
Tens of thousands of (mostly) non-fiction, (mostly) academic e-books. Titles come from industry-leading publishers of academic source material. Depending on the publisher, books can be downloaded as PDFs, read online, or both. Some publishers limit the number of pages that can be downloaded. Books are available in over a dozen languages and a few children’s books are also available.
A top-notch, one-stop database that covers over 4,600 journals and newspapers with expansive search capabilities. Full text for 1/3 of citations. Web-based interface, updated daily. Courtesy of the New Jersey State Library.
ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, is a national information system supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Library of Education, and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. It provides access to information from journals included in the Current Index of Journals in Education and Resources in Education Index.
Ebscohost Explora for kids provides a safe and trustworthy environment for students to look up articles and facts for research papers, class projects, or homework with easy-to-browse categories by popular topic overviews with content from the world’s leading magazines and reference books.
Search the online database or download the latest US Department of Energy “Fuel Economy Guide”. Find and compare cars from 1984 to the present. The Find-a-Car feature provides up-to-date fuel economy information – as well as environmental and safety data – for many model years. Search by make and model, by model year, or by category. Information is updated weekly with new vehicles and fuel cost estimates.
Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia
For students and adults alike, the Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia provides over 25,000 articles covering an array of topics. Full text for each record may be easily accessed by double clicking on the topic from the display. The database contains images, biographies and information in subject areas from computer science through music and history.
GreenFILE covers the connections between the environment and a variety of disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology.
Subjects include
- Global climate change
- Green building
- Pollution
- Sustainable agriculture
- Renewable energy
- Recycling
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition
Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition is a trusted full-text database covering nursing and allied health topics, including pediatric nursing, critical care, mental health, nursing management, medical law and more.
Health Source: Consumer Edition
This rich collection of consumer health information provides access to full-text consumer health magazines and reference books. It also includes searchable full text for current health pamphlets.
Heritage Quest is a genealogical database with access to government records, census data and auxiliary resources to help find information regarding your family history.
eBooks, Audiobooks, Movies / TV, and Music
- Hoopla walkthroughs to get you started
- FAQ and support
If you are a Plainsboro Library cardholder, select “Plainsboro Public Library” as your public library in the registration.
JerseyClicks is New Jersey’s statewide portal for searching the statewide full-text databases offered by the New Jersey State Library, the New Jersey Library Network, and funds from the Library Services and Technology Act.
Kanopy is a video-streaming platform dedicated to thoughtful and thought-provoking films. Think Netflix, Amazon, or Hulu, but without all the fizz. Kanopy delivers a diverse collection of 30,000+ of the world’s best films and television shows, including award-winning documentaries, rare and hard-to-find titles, film festival favorites, indie, and classic films, and world cinema with collections from BBC, PBS, The Criterion Collection, Kino Lorber, Music Box Films, Samuel Goldwyn, Lionsgate, The Orchard, The Great Courses, and thousands of independent filmmakers. Checkout up to 8 items a month and stream them on your computer, TV, tablet or mobile device. All free, of course, with your library card. Also, while other content is limited to 8 items per month, you get unlimited access to children’s titles.
Kanopy Kids, included in the Kanopy streaming service, is a curated collection of thoughtful films, TV series and educational videos for children ages preschool and up. Kanopy Kids includes read-along storybooks, storytime classics, educational videos from around the world and some favorite children’s TV programming such as PBS Kids, BBC Muzzy, Highlights for Children, Sesame Street, Arthur, Dinosaur Train and many more. Kanopy Kids provides unlimited plays without using your Kanopy monthly film credits.
Learning Express is an easy-to-use online test prep resource for college admissions and placement (SAT, ACT, AP, etc), graduate admissions (GRE, GMAT, LSAT, etc), and professional certification (nursing, law enforcement, etc). Additional resources facilitate change in careers, becoming a U.S. citizen, and more.
New members are encouraged to click on the drop down menu labeled “Centers” and choose their area of interst:
- Career Development.
- Grade 4-8 Educational Enhancement.
- College Admission Test Preparation.
- High School Level Study Enhancement.
- Adult Core Skill Enhancement (including Citizenship Test Preparation)
In compliance with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) regulations, LearningExpress provides an alternate registration option that does not require a name or email address. To access this option, registrants should select the “Register without Email” option during sign-up.
Legal Information Reference Center
Full text for many of the top consumer legal reference books, Legal Information Reference Center contains hundreds of full-text publications and thousands of legal forms, with more content being added on a regular basis.
eBooks, Audiobooks and Digital Magazines
Available on the Apple App Store, Google Play Store, and Amazon App Store, Libby offers tens of thousands of ebooks and audiobooks, hand selected by eLibraryNJ (NJ State Library) and Plainsboro Library. Libby also offers thousands of magazines. Access Libby through various devices, including your phone, tablet, PC, and ereader (eg: Kindle, Kobo). Search for books by title, author, or keyword. Browse categories (eg: medical mysteries, romances, scifi), target audiences (eg: teens), or both. For more information, check out Libby App by Overdrive or visit the eLibraryNJ website. If you are a Plainsboro Library cardholder, select “STELLA” as your public library in the registration. STELLA is the name of our library consortium.
Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (LISTA)
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.
Choose from thousands of online courses to learn in-demand skills from real-world industry experts.
A comprehensive literary reference database, providing a broad spectrum of reference information from antiquity to the present day. LRC 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.
LOTE4Kids is the leading digital library of children’s audio-picture books, designed for libraries and schools to support English and bilingual language learning through storytelling. All books are read aloud by native speakers (not AI), with English translations, reader levels, various reading formats, and built-in quizzes. Over 9,000 titles in over 100 languages. You can access the web page using the link above or clicking on the icon. OR you can install the ad-free app on your mobile device. Just look for Plainsboro Library and enter your library card number!
Lumos Learning provides skill building and practice tests for New Jersey Student Learning Assessments (NJSLA). Lumos Learning helps students in grades 3 through 8 by reinforcing their classroom learning to prepare for the English Language Arts (ELA) and Math assessments.
Magill’s Medical Guide is the perfect mix of accessibility and depth, providing general readers with an authoritative reference source that helps bridge the gap between medical encyclopedias for professionals and popular self-help guides. It is an up-to-date and easy-to-use compendium of medical information suitable for student research as well as use by general readers, including patients and caregivers.
The link will take you to Salem Press. Sign in with your library card and navigate to Magill’s Medical Guide on the home page under “Health”.
MasterFILE Elite provides full text for magazines and publications covering many general interest topics including business, health, education, general science and multicultural issues. It also includes an image collection of more than 2 million photos, maps and flags.
MedlinePlus is an online information service produced by the United States National Library of Medicine. The service provides curated consumer health information in English and Spanish. The site brings together information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), other U.S. government agencies, and health-related organizations.
Middle Search Plus contains full text for more than 150 popular magazines plus thousands of biographies, historical essays, and student pamphlets created for middle school students. In addition to the full text items, MiddleSearch Plus offers indexes and abstracts for nearly 200 magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles).
Military & Government Collection
Designed to offer current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, this database offers a thorough collection of periodicals, academic journals, and other content pertinent to the increasing needs of those sites. The Military & Government Collection provides cover-to-cover full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals and indexing and abstracts for more than 400 titles.
Coming July 15, access Morningstar Investing Center for financial research. Morningstar provides in-depth research and ratings on stocks, funds, and ETFs. Through Morningstar Investing Center you can screen for stocks, funds, CEFs and ETFs, create side-by-side comparisons of investment options, stay current on daily market news, take self-study courses to sharpen your investment knowledge, and learn about retirement planning, 529 College Savings Plans, and more.
Morningstar Investing Center is a professional grade resource and we encourage patrons to access the instructional resources in pdf and video format that are available in the HELP section of the Morningstar web site.
As a Plainsboro Library patron, you have complimentary access to everything The New York Times has to offer, including News, Games, Cooking, Wirecutter and The Athletic!
Onsite at the library: Ensure that you are using the library’s WiFi connection (or a library computer) and simply visit nytimes.com. Go to the upper right-hand corner of The New York Times front page and click on “Log in” to create a free account or log-in to your existing account. You now have full access to all the resources of The New York Times web site while at the library.
From home: Visit plainsborolibrary.org/nytimes and follow instructions on the webpage to get unrestricted access to The New York Times.
Newspaper Source Plus provides a full-text digital collection of the world’s major news content. It includes millions of articles from newspapers, newswires and news magazines. In addition, it offers television and radio transcripts and ongoing daily updates from popular news sources.
Newsreel
Newsreel delivers journalist-written stories every day in a swipeable stack. Quizzes test what sticks. Polls show where you stand. Streaks keep you coming back. No infinite scroll. No ads. No low-quality algorithm. Newsreel is optimized for use on mobile devices. If you like Tik-Tok and Instagram and want a news medium that satisfies the same activity style, Newsreel was built for you.
Download for Apple products from the App Store
Download for Android devices from Google Play
Whether you’re looking for the latest best-selling author, science-fiction, spy story, mystery, fantasy, graphic novel, or a classic like Mark Twain, this kid-friendly database has all the information you need. Includes author bios, information on award-winning fiction, recommendations, reviews. Information for teachers too.
This reader’s advisory database will help fiction readers find the next great read, or identify a long-lost favorite. It is web-based and offers links to various author-related sites. Courtesy of the New Jersey State Library.
Ebsco Open Dissertations (previously “American Doctoral Dissertations”), is an open-access database built to assist researchers in locating both historic and contemporary dissertations and theses. Created with the generous support of the H.W. Wilson Foundation and the Congregational Library & Archives in Boston, it incorporates EBSCO’s previously released American Doctoral Dissertations, and features additional dissertation metadata contributed by select colleges and universities from around the world. Providing researchers with citations to graduate research across a span of time, from the early 20th century to the present, this database will continue to grow through regular updates and new partnerships with graduate degree-granting institutions.
Peterson’s Test and Career Prep
Prepare for standardized tests using online texts and courseware. Practice with full-length sample tests for GED, SAT, ACT, AP, PSAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, TOEFL, U.S. citizenship, and more in Gale Presents: Peterson’s Test and Career Prep.
Research undergraduate and graduate programs and find tuition assistance.
Explore career options – whether you’re entering the workforce for the first time or searching for new opportunities. Interactive tools develop personalized career recommendations and insights on programs, knowledge, skills, and abilities that will help with career achievement.
Search for jobs and create visually interesting résumés, cover letters, and websites that can be externally shared with prospective employers using prebuilt templates.
Points-of-View Reference Center
Perfect for researching a school report or preparing a debate presentation. Whatever your subject — pacifism, abortion, political action, organic food, drilling for Arctic oil, flu vaccine, or anything else — you can always find arguments pro and con here, as well as a guide to critical analysis.
PressReader contains current and back issues of thousands of domestic and international newspapers and magazines, including The South China Morning Post, Harper’s Bazaar, The Economist, and The New York Times. Many of the publications are in languages other than English and all the current issues are available on PressReader as soon as they are available anywhere else. In addition, PressReader can translate between dozens of languages including English, Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic.
At the library, simply connect your device to library wifi and launch the PressReader app or visit the PressReader web site (linked above).
At home, select “Sign In” on the PressReader App or at the pressreader.com web site, select “Library or Group,” and search for “Plainsboro”. Sign in using your library card. PressReader is available on iOS through the Apple AppStore and on Android through Google Play.
Primary Search – Elementary Age Magazines
Primary Search is designed specifically for elementary school libraries and public library children’s rooms. It contains full text for more than 60 popular, elementary school magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). No illustrations
Companies: Research companies in the USA and Canada. Data on large companies, their subsidiaries, and many small mom-and-pop businesses. Find their executives, track down addresses and phone numbers, see ownership and relationships to other companies, see sales figures and major expenses, and research major corporate events. Includes information on some businesses that have been closed. Directories of newly established businesses.
Individuals: White page directory of individuals around the USA and Canada. Lifestyle profiles of 325 million Americans.
Healthcare: Profiles and contact information for 3.1 million physicians and dentists.
Referencia Latina, a comprehensive Spanish-language database, offers content from a variety of sources including 49,000 encyclopedia entries. Many are scanned images of original print publications.
This database provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. This database is updated on a daily basis.
Small Business Reference Center
For the entrepreneur and small business executive, the Small Business Reference Center pulls together a wide variety of practical resources including books in both digital and downloadable formats, videos, and web pages. Download legal documents and templates for other essential business materials. Research business formation options, state laws, tax implications and obligations, etc, etc.
Teacher Reference Center provides indexing and abstracts for hundreds of periodicals. In addition, 96% of journals indexed in TRC are peer-reviewed.
Topics include: Assessment, Best Practices, Continuing Education, Current Pedagogical Research, Curriculum Development, Elementary Education, Higher Education, Instructional Media, Language Arts, Literacy Standards, School Administration, Science & Mathematics, and Teacher Education.
