Use these librarian-selected tools to access electronic encyclopedias, full-text magazine and newspaper articles, and more.
Automotive
ALLDATA
ALLDATA is an online source that provides vehicle manufacturers' diagnostic and repair information, and Original Equipment Manufacturer information.
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Funded by MELSA*
Driving-Tests.org
Offers online test preparation for students preparing for their Minnesota driving tests or anyone looking to brush up on their knowledge of Minnesota’s traffic laws. This resource includes practice car and motorcycle tests, Minnesota Driver’s Manual, Minnesota Motorcycle Manual, and FAQs to answer questions about visiting local license centers.
Biography & Genealogy
Ancestry Library Edition
This premium version of Ancestry.com provides extensive genealogy and family history resources, including census and immigration records.
Funded by MELSA*
Biography in Context
Biographical information on thousands of people, from historical figures to modern day celebrities.
Funded by MELSA*
Fold3 History and Genealogy Archives Plus
Features premier collections of original military records, including the stories, photos and personal documents of the men and women who served in the military. Many of the records come from the U.S. National archives, The National Archives of the U.K. and other international records.
Funded by DCL*
HeritageQuest
Search thousands of family and local history books and the complete U.S. Federal Census records, digitized family and local history books. Also includes Revolutionary War records and the Freedman's Bank records (1865-1874).
Funded by DCL*
Books & Reading
Cloud Library
E-books that can be read on your computer or mobile device. A variety of popular titles are available. Funded by MELSA/DCL*
Ebooks Minnesota
Online e-books available to all Minnesotans. Items are always available for checkout without waitlists.
Hoopla Digital
Hoopla allows you to watch streaming videos or listen to streaming audio on your computer, or you can download to your mobile device to enjoy later. The collection includes videos, audio and e-books, music CDs and comic books. Items are always available for checkout without waitlists. Funded by DCL*
Literature Resource Center
Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. Includes Contemporary Authors.
Funded by MELSA*
LitFinder
Features a searchable collection of full-text poems, essays, speeches, plays and stories. Includes biographies, explanations, and literary criticism.
Funded by DCL*
NoveList Plus - your guide to reading
Looking for a good read? This readers' advisory tool helps you find new books based on other books you've enjoyed or topics in which you're interested. Now includes nonfiction.
Funded by MELSA*
RBdigital
Allows access to downloadable audio books.
Funded by MELSA/DCL*
Zinio
Zinio provides a quick and easy way for Library customers to read digital copies of some of their favorite magazines on any Internet-enabled device.
Funded by MELSA/DCL*
Business & Finance
EBSCO Business Source Premier
Covers virtually all subject areas related to business, including company profiles and scholarly journals.
Funded by ELM*
EBSCO Regional Business News
Incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from metropolitan and rural areas within the United States.
Funded by ELM*
Lynda.com
Easy-to-use video tutorials to help you learn software, technical, creative and business skills — anytime, anywhere. Log in with your Dakota County Library card, create your profile and you are ready to start learning. The Library’s contract allows for 75 simultaneous users – if that number is reached, you may be asked to wait until a seat is free to use.
Funded by MELSA*
Morningstar Investment Research Center
Features financial data on more than 30,000 stocks, mutual funds and ETFs, plus buy/sell guidance on more than 1,900 stocks and 2,100 mutual funds, and a "portfolio x-ray" to analyze your holdings.
Funded by MELSA*
ReferenceUSA
Directory of over 14 million U.S. businesses and 200 million U.S. residents, plus median income and median home values.
Funded by MELSA*
Value Line
Get investment ratings, research, statistics and forecasts for thousands of stocks and mutual funds.
Funded by DCL
Children & Youth
BookFlix
Scholastic BookFlix is an online literacy resource that pairs classic video storybooks with related nonfiction e-books to build a love of reading and learning.
Funded by MELSA*
Early World of Learning
Produced with advice from experts in early childhood development and education, this database offers an interactive learning environment including engaging games and beginning reading activities.
Funded by DCL*
Explora Kids
Contains elementary school-appropriate magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and images. Funded by ELM.
Explora Teens
Contains middle and high school-appropriate magazine, journal and encyclopedia articles and also includes primary source documents, reference books and multimedia. Funded by ELM.
Britannica Online Library Kids Edition
Articles and learning materials for upper elementary school students.
Funded by ELM*
Britannica Online Middle School Edition
Articles and learning materials for middle school students.
Funded by ELM*
Britannica Online Preschool Edition
Articles and learning materials for preschool students.
Funded by ELM*
Mango Little Pim
Online language learning designed for kids aged 0-6. Each course is designed to provide the basic building blocks of a second or third language while enhancing development and social skills.
Funded by DCL*
Middle Search Plus
Contains full text for more than 150 popular, middle school magazines.
Funded by ELM*
PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next
Packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities.
Animals and Biographies is specifically designed for K-3 students and
States and Native Americans is designed for grades 3-5. PebbleGo is not compatible with Internet Explorer.
Funded by ELM*
TumbleBook Library - eBooks for eKids
TumbleBooks is collection of animated, talking picture books for kids. It also includes puzzles, games, audiobooks, and language learning. Requires Adobe Flash Player.
Funded by DCL*
Education & Colleges
EBSCO Academic Search Premier
Provides full text of scholarly journals and other publications from a wide variety of academic disciplines.
Funded by ELM*
ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)
This database consists of the Resources in Education (RIE) file of document citations and the Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE) file of journal article citations from over 980 professional journals in the field of education.
Funded by ELM*
ERIC (via OCLC)
Journal articles and reports in education.
Funded by ELM*
HelpNow
Online homework live help.
Funded by MELSA*
LearningExpressLibrary 3.0
Online courses in math and English, plus online practice tests for official exams, including civil service, academic achievement, citizenship, real estate, and military.
Funded by ELM*
Lynda.com
Easy-to-use video tutorials to help you learn software, technical, creative and business skills — anytime, anywhere. Log in with your Dakota County Library card, create your profile and you are ready to start learning.
Funded by MELSA*
Professional Development Collection
Provides a highly specialized collection of electronic information especially for professional educators, professional librarians and education researchers.
Funded by ELM*
Student Resources In Context
A database of reference works, biographies, essays, overviews, primary works, and periodical articles from literary, science, health, history, and biography resources. Designed for use by high-school students for both homework and in-depth research assignments.
Funded by ELM*
Consumer Information
Consumers' CHECKBOOK
Features consumer information and ratings of services and products in the Twin Cities. Includes ratings for auto repair, banks, health care, phone services, roofers, and much more.
Funded by DCL*
EBSCO MasterFILE Premier
Covers virtually every subject area of general interest. Includes general interest publications, full-text reference books, biographies, primary source documents, and an Image Collection of photos, maps and flags.
Funded by ELM
Current Events & Issues
ArticleFirst
OCLC index of articles from the contents pages of journals.
Funded by ELM*
Points of View Reference Center
A full-text database designed to provide students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue.
Funded by ELM*
General Reference
Britannica Online Academic Edition
The rich combination of the insightful Encyclopædia 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—all from one database.
Funded by ELM*
Britannica Online Elementary School Edition
Articles and learning materials for elementary school students.
Funded by ELM*
Britannica Online High School Edition
Articles and learning materials for high school students.
Funded by ELM*
Britannica Online Library Edition
Contains comprehensive content – from elementary students to university students, from business professionals to curious seniors. Whether it’s frogs or physics, gardening or geography, Britannica Online Library Edition covers it all.
Funded by ELM*
CountryWatch
News, maps, overviews and detailed reports on each of the recognized countries of the world.
Funded by DCL*
EBSCO Master File Complete
Provides full-text magazines, reference books and primary source documents. It also includes an extensive image collection containing photos, maps and flags.
Funded by ELM*
EBSCO MegaFILE
Search the combined content of EBSCO Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and Regional Business News (also listed here separately).
Funded by ELM*
Electronic Collections Online A&I
Provides bibliographic information for a growing collection of more than 6,200 electronic journals from over 70 publishers in a wide range of subject areas, with article citations and full text available through several options.
Funded by ELM*
Gale in Context: Middle School
Designed for grades 6-8. Search magazines, newspapers, and reference books for information on current events, the arts, science, popular culture, health, etc.
Funded by ELM*
MAS Ultra
Full-text database of popular magazines, reference books and primary sources covering many subjects, including history, science and health. It also includes and over a million photos, maps and flags.
Funded by ELM*
OAISTer
Contains digital resources from open archive collections; representing multidisciplinary resources from more than 1000 contributors worldwide.
Funded by ELM*
Oxford Reference Online
Contains over 100 dictionaries and reference titles covering the complete subject spectrum: from general reference and language to science and medicine, and from humanities and social sciences to business and professional.
Funded by DCL*
PapersFirst
OCLC index of papers presented at conferences worldwide. Covers every published congress, symposium, conference, exposition, workshop and meeting received by The British Library Document Supply Centre.
Funded by ELM*
ProceedingsFirst
An OCLC index of worldwide conference proceedings.
Funded by ELM*
WorldCat (OCLC FirstSearch)
WorldCat is a catalog of books, videos, recordings, and other materials held in thousands of libraries worldwide.
Funded by ELM*
WorldCat Dissertations and Theses
OCLC catalog of dissertations and theses available in OCLC member libraries.
Funded by ELM*
Health & Medicine
Alt HealthWatch
Alt HealthWatch provides indexing and full text for more than 160 complementary, alternative, and holistic health care publications, approximately 20 of which are peer-reviewed.
Funded by ELM*
Consumer Health Complete
Provides content covering all areas of health and wellness from mainstream medicine to the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated medicine. This full text database covers topics such as aging, cancer, diabetes, drugs & alcohol, fitness, nutrition & dietetics, children's health, men & women's health, etc.
Funded by ELM*
Health Source: Consumer Edition
This resource provides access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines, and many others. This database also includes searchable full text for current, health-related pamphlets and more than 130 health reference books, including books published by the People's Medical Society.
Funded by ELM*
MEDLINE
All areas of medicine, including dentistry and nursing. Corresponds to the print indexes Index Medicus, Index to Dental Literature, and International Nursing Index.
Funded by ELM*
Minnesota Public Health Data Access
Public access to Minnesota data about environmental risk factors and health. Includes interactive charts and figures, maps, custom tables and county profiles across a range of environmental indicators.
Jobs & Careers
JobNow!
Get live job coaching, resume assistance, and more...
Funded by MELSA*
LearningExpressLibrary 3.0
Online courses in math and English, plus online practice tests for official exams, including civil service, academic achievement, citizenship, real estate, and military.
Funded by ELM*
Lynda.com
Easy-to-use video tutorials to help you learn software, technical, creative and business skills — anytime, anywhere. Log in with your Dakota County Library card, create your profile and you are ready to start learning.
Funded by MELSA*
Traitify
Traitify is a visual personality assessment tool that recommends careers, jobs and education based on personality and preference data.
Language & Travel
Mango Languages
Mango is a self-paced online language-learning system that teaches actual conversation skills for many different languages including English.
Funded by DCL*
Mango Little Pim
Online language learning designed for kids aged 0-6. Each course is designed to provide the basic building blocks of a second or third language while enhancing development and social skills.
Funded by DCL*
Transparent Language
Transparent Language is a powerful and personalized language-learning system. It locks foreign language words and phrases into your memory so that you can recall them perfectly and remember them forever.
Funded by MELSA*
Law & Government
GPO Monthly Catalog
Contains records of reports, studies, fact sheets, maps, handbooks, conference proceedings, etc., issued by all U.S. federal government agencies, including the U.S. Congress.
Funded by ELM*
Local Information
Magazines & Newspapers
EBSCO Academic Search Premier
Provides full text of scholarly journals and other publications from a wide variety of academic disciplines.
Funded by ELM*
EBSCO Business Source Premier
Covers virtually all subject areas related to business, including company profiles and scholarly journals.
Funded by ELM*
EBSCO Master File Complete
Provides full-text magazines, reference books and primary source documents. It also includes an extensive image collection containing photos, maps and flags.
Funded by ELM*
EBSCO MegaFILE
Search the combined content of EBSCO Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier and Regional Business News (also listed here separately).
Funded by ELM*
EBSCO Regional Business News
Incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from metropolitan and rural areas within the United States.
Funded by ELM*
Explora Kids
Contains elementary school-appropriate magazines, encyclopedias, dictionaries, and images. Funded by ELM.
Explora Teens
Contains middle and high school-appropriate magazine, journal and encyclopedia articles and also includes primary source documents, reference books and multimedia. Funded by ELM.
Explora Library
Full text of popular magazine and scholarly journal articles covering all subject areas including multimedia, primary source documents and reference books.
Funded by ELM.
Historical Minneapolis Tribune (1867-1922)
Full page images from the Minneapolis Morning Tribune (1909-1922) and indexing and abstracts for 1867-1908. Subscription purchased with funds provided to Minnesota State Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) through the Institute of Museums and Library Services.
Historical New York Times (1851-2014)
Offers searchable full text and digital reproductions of every page from every available issue.
Funded by MELSA*
Minnesota News Sources
Provides full-text content of local and regional news from the St. Cloud Times (1999-present), St. Paul Pioneer Press (1988-present), Star Tribune (1986-present), and Duluth News-Tribune (1995-present, in-library only).
Funded by MELSA/DCL*
ProQuest US Newsstream
Enables users to search current U.S. news content as well as archives that stretch back into the 1980s. Features newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, blogs and news sites in full-text format, including
Star Tribune.
Funded by ELM*
RBdigital
A collection of downloadable audiobooks and magazines that can be downloaded and enjoyed on a personal device or desktop.
Science & Technology
General Science Collection
Composed of more than 200 journals – from highly specialized academic journals to general science-focused magazine – the General Science Collection provides coverage of all scientific endeavor, including such topics as particle physics and quantum theory, advanced mathematics, biotechnology, and many more.
Funded by ELM*
Lynda.com
Easy-to-use video tutorials to help you learn software, technical, creative and business skills — anytime, anywhere. Log in with your Dakota County Library card, create your profile and you are ready to start learning. The Library’s contract allows for 75 simultaneous users – if that number is reached, you may be asked to wait until a seat is free to use.
Funded by MELSA*
Science Reference Center
A comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full text science-oriented content.
Funded by ELM*