Databases

Chester County Library System offers its cardholders access to a variety of quality electronic resources, covering topics from genealogy to business research to test prep & more.

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  • Black Freedom Struggle: The Black Freedom Struggle website is freely available to students, educators and patrons. This curated selection of primary sources is designed for teaching and learning about the struggles and triumphs of Black Americans. Developed with input from Black history scholars and advisors, its easily discoverable materials are ideal for assignments and special projects focused on U.S. Black history.
  • BookFlix (POWER Library): Children’s fictional video storybooks and related nonfiction ebooks.
  • Books, movies and more in a PA library (Access PA Catalog): Search a single catalog reflecting the holdings of over 1,500 Pennsylvania libraries and their combined collections of over 41 million books, audio materials, reference materials, movies, and much more.
  • Business Source Premier: An essential article database for business research providing the full text for more than 2,000 periodicals, including about 1,000 scholarly journals. Covers virtually all disciplines in business and economics, including: accounting, economics, econometrics, finance, marketing, management, MIS, QMM and supply chain management.
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  • Driver’s Education – Practice Tests and Handbooks: Free online driver education program for individuals preparing to take permit exams at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Contains practice tests and handbooks for automobile and motorcycle driving, including the following state-specific information:
    • 10 car practice tests
    • 5 motorcycle practice tests
    • 3 CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) practice tests
    • 3 online driver’s manuals (car, motorcycle, CDL)
    • An FAQ section with detailed answers to 100+ DMV-related questions
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  • Flipster: Access over 100 titles anywhere you are with an active Chester County Library System card. Simple and convenient to use, especially when on-the-go and traveling! Some titles include: HGTV Magazine, Rolling Stone, Clean Eating, Real Simple, and House Beautiful.
  • Foundation Online Directory Quick Start: Includes basic profiles of over 140,000 U.S. foundations. Users can search by name, EIN, and location. Profiles include a foundation’s background, purpose and activities statement, program area(s), fields of interest, financial data, and 990-PFs. For more advanced search options, such as program and interest field searches. Visit the Chester County Library, Exton, to use Foundation Directory Online Professional.
  • Foundation Directory Online Professional: (In-library use at Chester County Library only. Desktop computer access only.) A premier grantseeking research tool. Includes over 140,000 U.S. foundations and corporate donors, over three million recent grants, and over half a million key decision makers. Updated weekly.
  • Foundation Grants to Individuals Online: (In-library use at Chester County Library only. Desktop computer access only.) Find funders that provide scholarships, fellowships, grants, and a wide range of financial support to individuals.
  • Foundation Maps: (In-library use at Chester County Library desktops only. Desktop computer access only.) The Foundation Center’s interactive mapping tool. Display grantmaker, grant recipient, and grants data using maps, charts, and lists.
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  • Gale eBooks (formerly known as Gale Virtual Reference Library) (POWER Library): A collection of reference titles in the arts, biography, business, education, environment, general reference, history, literature, medicine, nation and world, science, and the social sciences.
  • Gale eBooks (formerly known as Gale Virtual Reference Library) (Chester County Library): A collection of reference titles in the arts, biography, business, education, environment, general reference, history, literature, medicine, nation and world, science, and the social sciences. Includes the Business Plans Handbook series.
  • Gale in Context | Elementary (POWER Library): A collection of reference titles in the arts, biography, business, education, environment, general reference, history, literature, medicine, nation and world, science, and the social sciences.
  • GreenFILE (POWER Library): GreenFILE offers well-researched information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. 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 more than 384,000 records, as well as Open Access full text for more than 4,700 records.
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  • HeritageQuest: Genealogy and local history resources including periodical articles.
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  • IN CONTEXT: Middle School (POWER Library): Discover reliable and trusted information on a variety of topics to support middle school student research for government, U.S and world history, geography, literature, sciences, and social issues. Research In Context offers cross-curricular content aligned to national and state standards, and presents material organized into a highly visual and topic portal approach to quickly find answers.
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  • Kanopy: On-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows, and documentaries.
  • Kids InfoBits (POWER Library): Elementary students in kindergarten through grade five will find age-appropriate content covering a broad range of educational topics such as animals, arts, geography, health, literature, people, social studies, technology, etc. Kids InfoBits includes full-text proprietary content from Blackbirch Press®, U-X-L, KidHaven Press™, and more! Content is continuously updated and provides interesting and important facts with connections to current and past events.
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  • Learning Express Library – supports those looking to improve core academic skills, pass a high school equivalency test, prepare for college, explore careers, join the military, study for occupational certification tests, become a U.S. citizen and much more. Learning centers contain practice tests, interactive tutorials, microlessons, e-books, articles and flashcards.
  • Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (POWER Library): 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. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s.
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  • Mango Languages: Mango is the fast, easy, and most effective way to learn to speak a foreign language.
  • MasterFile Premier Provides subject overviews, full text for magazine articles (including Consumer Reports Magazine and Consumer Reports Buying Guides), an image collection and AP clips. Excellent resource for student research and classroom instruction. Information is rich, reliable, and easy-to-use.
  • Morningstar Investing Center: Includes research on more than 30,000 stocks, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It is designed specifically for individual investors. The Library subscription only allows a limited number of concurrent users. Please sign out to allow others to access the database.
  • MyHeritage Library Edition: This multilingual family history research database includes billions of historical documents from 48 countries, millions of historical photos, public records, indexes, and additional resources that span the past five centuries.
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  • News for You Digital Access: ‘News for you’ is a weekly news publication written at a basic adult English level for ESL speakers and others with limited English proficiency. ‘News for You’ includes weekly assignments for ESL students and teachers. Contact the Reference Desk at 610-280-2620 or ref@ccls.org for login credentials.
  • New York Times Includes articles from the New York Times from 1981 to the present, and an archive from 1851-1922. To access within a library, create a free account on nytimes.com and log in with your email address and password.
  • NextReads: Book suggestions in up to twenty different subject areas delivered to your email.  Find the NextReads Archives here.
  • NoveList Plus Find reading recommendations including reviews, lists, articles, and more. Use NoveList to find read-alikes in both fiction and non-fiction for readers of all ages. NoveList also has series information, award winners, best-of lists, top ten lists, and much more!
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  • ONEFILE: High School Edition (POWER Library): Secondary school students will have access to age-appropriate content from magazines, journals, newspapers, reference books, and engaging multi-media covering a wide range of subjects, from science, history, and literature to political science, sports, and environmental studies.
  • ONEFILE: News (POWER Library): Browse and read full-text newspapers from more than 2,300 major U.S. regional, national, and local newspapers, plus leading titles from around the world, or search articles instantly by title, headline, date, author, newspaper section, or other fields. InfoTrac Newsstand also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts, and transcripts.
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  • PA Online Learning: PA Online Learning is a FREE growing collection of tutorials on how to use software, social media, and library resources, such as POWER Library! Explore now and check back later to see how it grows! Selecting the link will take you to directly to PA Online Learning.
  • Pennsylvania Job Resources (POWER Library) – Discover job resources for Pennsylvania job seekers and employers. These Pennsylvania government provided resources are designed to help you find a good career, review job openings, and match you with employers.
  • Philadelphia Inquirer Current & Historical -Scanned copies of the complete issues from 1829-1922 and January 2018 to current, including advertisements, classified, obituaries, etc.  Search entire issue or current page; export features include citation format, print,e-mail, and download. Full text of articles from 1981-current.
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  • Science Reference Center (POWER Library): Perform research from hundreds of full text science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other reliable sources. View more than 280,000 high-quality science images from sources such as UPI, Getty, NASA, National Geographic and the Nature Picture Library.
  • SIRS Discoverer: This database provides coverage in areas including history, health, language arts, math, science, social studies, and technology. All newspaper, magazine, and reference book content is 100% full text, editorially-selected and indexed from over 2,200 reliable, high-quality global sources, including 400 full-text nonfiction books and around 300 full-text book chapters from publishers such as Britannica, World Book, Rosen Publishing Group, Enslow, and ReferencePoint Press.
  • Small Engine Repair Reference Center (POWER Library): Find detailed repair guides for all types of small engines. Offers assistance in providing routine maintenance (tune-ups, break service) as well as extensive repairs such as engine and transmission disassembly. Search by product type, brand, model/engine type, specific area of model/engine type and model numbers.
  • Statista (Access from inside the Library): Find statistical information, company dossiers, topical reports, and high-quality infographics. With an international focus, this resource offers statistics on a wide variety of industries and topics such as communications, education, health care, and hospitality. eCommerce Insights reports are not currently included in the library’s subscription.
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  • Teacher Reference Center (POWER Library): Teacher Reference Center provides indexing and abstracts for 280 of the most popular teacher and administrator journals and magazines to assist professional educators.
  • Transparent Language Online: Whether you’re a true language learning beginner, dusting off your old high school Spanish, or eager to tackle your tenth language—Transparent Language Online will help you get started and stick with it.
  • TrueFlix (POWER Library): is a multimedia literacy-based read aloud experience for young children that includes: interactive games, author biographies, video adaptations, Spanish translated pairs, read alouds, and digital nonfiction flipbooks.
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  • U.S. Consumers / Lifestyles: Use this database of over 203 million U.S. consumers for market research or to locate friends and relatives.
  • U.S. Healthcare: 855,000 records of doctors and dentists, all of which have been phone-verified.
  • U.S. New Businesses: 50,000 new businesses added weekly; identify local business trends and build client base.
  • U.S. New Movers/Homeowners: More than 300,000 movers and homeowners added weekly. Great source for small businesses and entrepreneurs to expand client base.
  • U.S. Standard White Pages: Use this database of over 89 million U.S. resident for market research or to locate friends and relatives.
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