Online Resources are the Library’s digital offerings — from genealogical research to streaming movies to learning new skills. They are available for all to use inside the library and most can be accessed by Winchester residents 24/7 from anyplace in the world. Those resources with an asterisk (*) require a library card with Winchester residency for home access. Please note that some resources are indicated as in library use only.
Click here to browse Online Resources A-Z.
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Click on the tutorial (where available) for instructions on how to use the resource.
Still having trouble? Contact the Information Services staff at 781-721-7171 x320 or the Children’s Services staff at 781-721-7171 x326.
Online Resources by Subject
Creativebug has thousands of art & craft video classes on knitting, painting, jewelry-making, crocheting, and much more. There are videos for kids too!
Fine Arts (Gale)
This collection has hundreds searchable, full-text magazines and journals across the arts, includes drama, music, art history, and filmmaking.
JSTOR*
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in a wide range of disciplines.
LinkedIn Learning*
Choose from thousands of online courses in business, software, technology, and creative skills, taught by recognized industry experts.
Hoopla has an enormous selection of movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks, e-books and comics that can be viewed / streamed on computers, tablets, and smartphones.
Literature Research Center (Gale)
This collection contains a broad range of literary content, including literary criticism and reviews from journals, and primary materials. Includes multimedia content.
NoveList*
Looking for your next great read? NoveList Plus is a database of reading recommendations where you can find here to find fiction and non-fiction books and authors based on your reading preferences.
NoveList K-8*
Reading recommendations for kids and teens, covering fiction and non-fiction books for ages 0-8, 9-12, and teens.
OverDrive/Libby
OverDrive is the library's collection of e-books, audiobooks, and digital magazines. Titles can be viewd online, via the Libby app on smartphones and tablets, or on other e-reading devices.
WorldCat
The world's largest network of library content.
This collection provides access to full-text trade publications and journals in an array of business disciplines including accounting, economics, finance, marketing, management, and strategy.
Leadership & Management (Gale)
This collection has periodical content covering topics such organizational dynamics, leadership, career development, and continuing education, and more.
Morningstar Investment Reseach*
Morningstar offers comprehensive financial information on stocks, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and investment indexes. Morningstar also has newsletters with investment insights and ideas on mutual funds, stocks, exchange traded funds, and dividends.
Value Line Investment Survey*
Value Line publications cover stocks, mutual funds, options and convertible securities as well as special situation stocks.
A unique tutoring, homework help, and studying suite designed to assist students of all ages. Live tutors are available every day from 2:00 PM - 11:00 PM EDT.
LinkedIn Learning*
Choose from thousands of online courses in business, software, technology, and creative skills, taught by recognized industry experts.
Peterson's Career Prep
Award-winning educational content to help you reach your career goals. Get advice on resumes, cover letters, interviewing, and more!
Peterson's Test Prep
Award-winning educational content to help you reach your academic goals. Get online practice tests for high school, college prep, career and grad school, including the U.S. citizenship test.
Vocations & Careers (Gale)
This resource aids users in researching a vocation, finding an appropriate institution of learning, job searching, and maintaining a career.
The Boston Consumers’ Checkbook evaluates the quality and prices of local service firms and stores, such as auto repair shops, plumbers, dentists, veterinarians, banks, insurance companies, and many more.
Consumer Reports Online*
Get unbiased ratings and reviews for thousands of products and services, plus in-depth reporting, trusted buying advice, and more!
This article database includes full-text and abstracts of scholarly, trade, and general-interest periodicals covering topics in the areas of current events, general sciences and technology, social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Britannica
Search or browse the encyclopedia alphabetically or by subject to find in-depth articles, related websites, video clips, and more.
Britannica Moderna (Spanish)
Britannica Moderna is a Spanish-language encyclopedia. Created with older students in mind, Moderna contains 47,000 articles, 8,000 images, maps, audiovisual materials, and a complete dictionary and atlas.
General OneFile (Gale)
A searchable collection of general interest and scholarly publications on topics including Careers, Computers & Technology, Education, Health, History, Personal Finance, and Self-Help. Content includes reference books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and audio & video files.
JSTOR*
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in a wide range of disciplines.
Opposing Viewpoints (Gale)
Brings together all the information that's needed to fully understand an issue: pro and con viewpoint articles, reference articles that provide context, 140 full-text magazines, academic journals, and newspapers, primary source documents, government and organizational statistics, multimedia, including images and podcasts, and links to hand-selected Web sites.
Power Search (Gale)
This resource searches across all of the Gale databases to which WPL subscribes, including Academic One File, General One File, and Infotrac Newsstand.
Reference Solutions*
Reference Solutions, formerly known as Reference USA, provides addresses, sales information, executives, for over 16 million verified businesses, and now includes job listings.
Ancestry provides access to billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos and more. Search more than 7,000 databases – which include immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, and maps.
HeritageQuest Online*
HeritageQuest Online is a source for finding out more about your family’s history, the history of a local region, and genealogy research. It provides access to U.S. census records, books, periodicals, Revolutionary War service records, and Freedman’s Bank depositor records.
This database is geared toward students in kindergarten through grade 5. It features a visually graphic interface, a subject-based topic tree, and age-appropriate journal and newspaper articles.
Gale in Context (Middle School)
Gale In Context: Middle School integrates citable content from magazines, newspapers, videos, and primary sources into an easy-to-navigate database developed for middle schoolers.
GoGo Library (Grades 2-5)*
Bringing you the best nonfiction for young readers. With complete libraries from several publishers, GoGo Library has content appropriate for a range of ages and reading abilities.
NoveList K-8*
Reading recommendations for kids and teens, covering fiction and non-fiction books for ages 0-8, 9-12, and teens.
PebbleGo - Animals & Biographies (K-Grade 5)*
Packed with informational articles, ready-made activities, and literacy supports for students of all abilities, it boosts engagement and fosters independent learning.
Scholastic Go!*
Provides reliable content on almost every core-curricula subject through nonfiction texts, world newspapers, photographs, interactive maps (topographical, historical, and current), and videos.
Tumblebook Library (PreK-Grade 3)*
TumbleBooks are easy to use, and feature unlimited access from home! You can read as many books as you want, when you want, and on any device.
This database is the perfect resource for up-to-date information on a complete range of healthcare topics related to patient and consumer health information.
Health & Wellness (Gale)
Find information on hundreds of different areas of health. This includes serious disease, common physical conditions, and practices for improving your physical and mental wellness.
Nursing & Allied Health (Gale)
Provides access to academic journals and other reference content covering all aspects of the nursing profession, from direct patient care to health care administration.
Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine (Gale)
Journal and magazine articles, including content from popular sports magazines and coverage of physical fitness and outdoor recreation.
Gale In Context: Biography is an engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on the world's most influential people.
Black Freedom Database*
Black Freedom features select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
Criminal Justice (Gale)
Academic journals and magazines covering criminal justice and related fields; including law enforcement, paralegal topics, security, and terrorism.
Global Issues (Gale)
Offers international viewpoints on a broad spectrum of global issues, topics, and current events.
Infobase eBooks - Ancient & Medieval History*
A collection of eBooks on the topic of life in the ancient and medieval world.
Infobase eBooks - American History
A collection of eBooks covering American history.
JSTOR *
JSTOR provides access to scholarly journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in a wide range of disciplines.
US History (Gale)
Provide students extensive coverage of historical events. This collection contains millions of articles from periodicals and newspapers; hundreds of thousands of topic and event overviews; biographies; and rich multimedia, including images, videos, audio, and weblinks.
World History (Gale)
Access centuries worth of rare primary sources, reliable reference and multimedia content, and give students the tools to research and learn effectively.
Gale OneFile: Culinary Arts offers a smorgasbord of information—more than five million articles from more than 250 major cooking and nutrition magazines
Gardening & Horticulture (Gale)
Gardening and Horticulture provides access to academic journals and magazines focused on both the practical aspects as well as the scientific theory of horticulture studies.
Home Improvement (Gale)
Home Improvement puts the research of hobbyists and professionals alike on a solid foundation with more than 4.5 million articles from more than 200 home improvement-focused titles, covering topics including architectural techniques, tool and material selection, zoning requirements, and others.
Mango Languages is an online language learning service that prepares learners for realistic conversations in over 70 world languages.
Transparent Language
Provides a fun, effective, and engaging experience for online language learners of all levels including ESL for speakers of over 26 languages, and 12+ Native American languages.
Access 150 journals on criminal justice and related fields. Key subjects covered in the database include law, law enforcement, security, and terrorism.
Massachusetts Legal Forms (Gale)
Access a wide selection of Massachusetts legal forms and resources across the most popular legal areas. Each form gives a full description to help anyone choose what they need.
OverDrive is the library's collection of e-books, audiobooks, and digital magazines. Titles can be viewd online, via the Libby app on smartphones and tablets, or on other e-reading devices.
Hoopla has an enormous selection of movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks, e-books and comics that can be viewed / streamed on computers, tablets, and smartphones.
Kanopy*
Kanopy is a video streaming service that offers over 30,000 movies, documentaries, and independent & foreign films.
Naxos Music Library*
Naxos Music Library is a streaming music service, available with your library card, that includes nearly 2.5 million tracks (over 150K discs) to listen to. Primarily "Western Art Music" from the 14th to 21st century, it also includes hundreds of film soundtracks and cast recordings of musicals, as well as content from around the world.
Now you can listen to Naxos on the go with their app. Here are the instructions for setting it up.
America's News (formerly Newsbank)*
The electronic editions of record for local, regional, and national U.S. newspapers as well as full-text content of key international sources. Includes the Winchester Star from 2005-present.
Boston Globe Historical (ProQuest) 1872 - 1991*
Searchable full-page and article reproductions back to the first issue on March 4, 1872.
Boston Globe (Proquest) 1981-Current*
Searchable text-only articles (not page reproductions). Does not contain all content found in the published version of the Globe, such as advertisements, charts, classified ads, graphs, most images, and non-staff written items.
Boston Herald (1991 - current)*
Searchable text-only articles (not page reproductions). Does not contain all content found in the published version of the Herlad, such as advertisements, charts, classified ads, graphs, most images, and non-staff written items.
Historical New York Times: 1851-1993 (ProQuest) 1851-2019*
New York Times (Gale)
Full-text coverage of the New York Times.
NYTimes.com (account required. Current and historical)*
Get 72-hour complimentary access to the digital edition of The New York Times.
News (Gale)
This innovative full-text newspaper resource allows users to search articles instantly by title, headline, date, author, newspaper section, or other fields.
US Newsstream (ProQuest)*
U.S. Newsstream enables users to search current and extensive backfiles of U.S. news content and features top newspapers, wires, broadcast transcripts, blogs, and news sites in full-text format.
Winchester Star (1901-1993)
Searchable full-page reproductions of the Winchester Star from January 1901-December 1993.
Winchester Star (2005-2022)*
Text only articles of the Winchester Star from 2005-2022.
A digital resource that answers inquiries about environmental concerns with coverage of more than 5.4 million articles from more than 300 journals.
Science (Gale Interactive)
Science comes to life as you zoom, rotate, and explore interactive 3D models. View related reference content and search Gale content to find more information.
Science Database (ProQuest)*
Features over 1,600 journal titles, with more than 1,250 available in full text, covering both the applied and general sciences.
Black Freedom features select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.
Diversity Studies (Gale)
Diversity Studies explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in the global community. This collection includes more than 2.7 million articles from 150 journals, updated daily.
Gender Studies (Gale)
Gender Studies provides balanced coverage of this significant aspect of culture and society. The database offers access to scholarly journals and magazines covering topics including gender studies, family and marital issues, and more.
Contains 175 country guides with 126 content modules each. Topics include culture & society, travel, education, history, holidays and festivals, language, media outlets, music, maps, money, national symbols, and religion.
Hospitality & Tourism (Gale)
Discover well-rounded coverage of both the historical and current state of affairs in the hospitality and tourism industries.