Homework & Reading Help

Use ABCmouse at home or on the go with your library card.

A fun learning program for kids ages 2–8, with over 10,000 games, books, puzzles, and activities that help build reading, math, science, and school skills.

What to know before you start:

• Access link: Select Alameda County Library's access link and enter your library card number and PIN to set up your account.
• Account Setup: Create an account using your email and a strong password. Follow the prompts to finish setup.
• Renewals: Each session lasts 30 days—renew through our access link when needed.
• Kids per Account: One adult account supports up to 3 children.
• No Library Card or Account? You have two options: 
  • Visit Us: Visit any of our library locations to use ABCmouse without logging in or creating an account.
  • Get a Card: Get a free library card. Both eCards and physical cards work for ABCmouse.

Tip: Watch this short tutorial to learn how to setup your account.

Use ABCmouse while you're at the library—no account or library card needed.

A fun learning program for kids ages 2–8, with over 10,000 games, books, puzzles, and activities that help build reading, math, science, and school skills.

Just select the in-library link from any library computer or your own device while connected to our Wi-Fi.

Not at the library? Use ABCmouse at home or on the go with your library card.

Founded in 1934 in New York City, the Academy of American Poets is the nation's leading champion of American poets and poetry, with members in all fifty states. Its mission is to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry.  The Academy of American Poets launched National Poetry Month in April 1996.

Find current and archived articles on issues, events, people, government and more with the world's largest collection of full-text news sources. Includes local news, editorials, announcements and other sections from more than 10,000 sources.

Fremont-Newark, CA
Find full-text articles on local news, issues, events, people, and much more from current and archived issues of The Argus.
Covers 2001-Present.

A database of world, continent, country, and state maps. Included in the 4,000+ maps are: political maps, physical maps, outline maps, population maps, precipitation maps, climate maps, and other thematic maps.

Information is excellent for students. Find all those state animals, symbols, flags, etc. Maps, geography, food, and much more. Parents will be interested too!

Beanstack is a free service designed for families with young readers. Discover our favorite books, matched to your child's interests, and other tools for building literacy.

Covering a wide range of topics—including Literature, Philosophy, History, Geography, and Science—HistoryLab is BiblioBoard’s chief historical database. HistoryLab contains 400 Anthologies with over 14,000 full-text eBooks and over 24,000 pieces of primary source content. BiblioBoard Core Anthologies cover a range of topics from Abraham Lincoln and the Alamo to ballet, baking, chocolate, Mozart, Jack London, and Victorian Fashion.

This website, focused on Black Freedom, features select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history. its intention is to support a wide range of students, as well as independent researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the foundation of ongoing racial injustice in the U.S. – and the fights against it. 

The experience and impact of African Americans as recorded by the news media, 1704 to today. From Newsbank.

The Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection is a collaborative project to provide digital access to materials documenting the roles and experiences of Black Women in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and, more broadly, women’s rights, voting rights, and civic activism between the 1850s and 1960. From the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

BookBrowse is an online magazine for booklovers - including reviews, previews, "behind the book" backstories, author interviews, reading guides, and much more.

Free tutoring for students of all ages is now available 24/7! Brainfuse HelpNow offers assistance in Math, Language Arts, and other core K-12 subjects in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Tagalog. There’s no age limit to who can use the service. Adult learners can also access writing assistance, citizenship resources, and other tools.

Britannica School en Español.

Britannica School is a three-part encyclopedia with portals for elementary, middle, and high school students. This resource is provided courtesy of the California State Library.

Calisphere is the University of California’s free public gateway to a world of digitized primary sources. Easy to use! Calisphere contains more than 150,000 photographs, documents, and works of art.

Explore CalMatters explainers that provide the data-driven context you need to make sense of big issues confronting California. 

CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe, explain, and explore solutions to quality-of-life issues while holding our leaders accountable. 

Chronicling America is a Website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP)- a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress.

Concise cultural information on countries around the world. (Grades 3-12).  CultureGrams offers:

• World Edition: Experience the world with cultural information on more than 200 countries and territories.
• Kids Edition: Get a kid's-eye view of daily life in countries around the world.
• States Edition: Explore all the U.S. states in colorful, engaging reports.
• Provinces Edition: Tour all the Canadian provinces and territories in 13 image-filled reports.

Read classic novels, children’s books, textbooks, and non-English titles, all for free, with no login or library card needed. These books are also available to read via the SimplyE app - choose Digital Public Library of America from the list of libraries.

Explore current and archived issues of The East Bay Times with full-color newspaper pages and individual articles, as well as content only published online. Coverage from 2016 through current.

Comprehensive databases for finding articles on all topics; with the full text of more than 1,700 periodicals. Choose a specific subject collection in which to search or search all. Collections include business, children and teens, ethnic, health, home cooking and gardening, environment, science, sports, politics and more. Includes Consumer Reports magazine. 

Full text for more than 150 popular middle school magazines. All full-text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for thousands of biographies and historical essays.

Additionally, Middle Search Plus contains primary source documents including Essential Documents in American History, reference books including the Funk & Wagnall's New World Encyclopedia; New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition; Encyclopedia of Animals™; and thousands of relevant photos, maps, and flags.

Simple search that quickly delivers relevant results including articles, essays, and primary source documents.
Easy-to-browse categories organized by popular topic.  Includes topic overviews that provide a starting point for research.

The Folger Shakespeare brings you the complete works of one of the world’s greatest playwrights and poets. Whether you’re a Shakespeare lover, student, teacher, or scholar, the Folger Shakespeare is a trusted resource for Shakespeare’s plays and poems and for information about his life and world.

Funk & Wagnall's Encyclopedia provides over 25,000 encyclopedic entries covering a variety of subject areas.

Essays, articles, and websites provide extensive information on more than 220,000 noteworthy people from many countries and throughout history, including the present. In addition to searching by name, you can also search by occupation, nationality, ethnicity, or time period.

Understand environmental issues that affect people globally through topic overviews, journals, news, and multimedia content.

Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints is designed for high school students and draws on a variety of sources including the acclaimed social issues series published by Greenhaven Press, to offer pro and con articles, statistics, topic overviews, and primary documents related to controversial topics. Also included are resources for the National Debate topic. 

Manipulate and explore 3D interactive models to visualize and understand concepts in biology, chemistry, earth, and space science. Reference and periodical content provide additional context for further understanding.

This resource searches across the following Literary databases in Gale Literary Sources:
Gale Literature Resource Center
Gale Literature: Something about the Author

Find up-to-date biographies, overviews, full-text criticisms, audio interviews, and reviews on writers from all eras.

Something about the Author examines the lives and works of authors and illustrators for children and young adults.

Provides balanced coverage of this significant aspect of culture and society. This database includes topics related to gender studies, family and marital issues, and more.

Contains valuable content for library science students, information science students, technology professionals, and others. Information Science is updated daily with articles covering all aspects of managing and maintaining information and technology, including usability, cataloging, circulation, business information, and more.

Search across full-text Spanish- and Portuguese-language scholarly journals and magazines from and about Latin America.

Contains scholarly journals, magazines, and reports covering all aspects of past and present military affairs. Updated daily, content supports key subject areas, such as governmental policies, the socioeconomic effects of war, the structure of the armed forces, and more.

Contains full-text cover-to-cover coverage of over 100 national and international newspapers In addition, selected news and business stories are provided from another 165 Knight-Ridder/Tribune newspapers.

Gale OneFile: Pop Culture Studies analyzes and contributes to popular culture by offering useful information for researchers in social science, history, art, and liberal arts courses.

Covers topics of philosophies and religions in one comprehensive collection. Researchers will gain valuable insight into the impact religion has had on culture throughout history, including literature, arts, and language. Updated daily, Religion and Philosophy supports a broad range of topics from theological approaches to social issues.

Contains scholarly journals and magazines that can be used by novice historians as well as advanced academic researchers. Updated daily, U.S. History offers balanced coverage of events in U.S. history and scholarly work being established in the field.

Aids users in researching a vocation, finding an appropriate institution of learning, job searching, and maintaining a career. Vocations and Careers offers hundreds of current and applicable periodicals ranging from general career guides to highly specialized industry journals.

Gale OneFile: War and Terrorism contains millions of articles to help researchers gain valuable insight into conflicts and their causes, impact, and perception on a global scale. This definitive collection is intended for analysts, risk management professionals, and students of military science, history, and social science

Provides access to scholarly journals and magazines for use by novice historians and advanced academic researchers. World History offers balanced coverage of events in world history and scholarly work being established in the field.

Use Gale Power Search to search across all of our cross-searchable Gale resources at one time.

Explore amazing adventures in science, nature, culture, archaeology, and space. Best for children aged 6–14.

National Geographic magazine, the official journal of the National Geographic Society,  built its reputation delivering the highest-quality photojournalism and cartography in the world.

The iconic monthly publication provides unparalleled, in-depth coverage of cultures, nature, science, technology, and more -- making it an essential resource for educators and students as well as general readers. Enjoy unlimited access to the magazine from the first issue in 1888 through 2015 -- every article from every issue, each fully searchable.

Gale Primary Sources takes users beyond a simple search, allowing them to analyze content using frequency and term-relationship tools. Through intuitive subject-indexing users will discover new material even in the most familiar of content sets.

Searches: 

Gale Primary Sources: Archives of Sexuality & Gender
Gale Primary Sources: Archives Unbound

Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students.

Build skills for classroom and homework success. The Grades 4-8 Educator Resources Center helps elementary and middle school educators prepare students for important tests, get extra help with assignments, and boost their skills in important subjects. From LearningExpress Library

You will be required to create a LearningExpress Library account to use this resource.

The experience and impact of Hispanic Americans as recorded by the news media, 1704 to today. From Newsbank.

Homework Central gives student researchers access to five resources: 

• CultureGrams: Offers unique, concise cultural information, multimedia, and vital statistics on the countries of the world, US states, and Canadian provinces. (Grades 3-12)
• eLibrary: Offers a collection of multidisciplinary periodical and digital media content, designed for beginning and intermediate researchers. (Grades 6+)
• ProQuest Research Companion: eLearning platform offering multimedia-based lessons on information literacy principles including finding, evaluating, and using information. (Grades 8+)
• SIRS Discoverer: Selected content for novice researchers, especially elementary and middle school students and educators. (Grades 3-9)
• SIRS Issues Researcher: Curriculum-aligned database of content organized by complex issues, ideally for middle and high school students and educators. (Grades 6+)

hoopla BingePass lets you, well, binge! Entire collections of streaming content are at your fingertips with just one borrow. Each borrow allows you to consume as much content as you want for 7 days. Not done? Check out another pass!

Each Kids' BingePass offers eBooks, eAudiobooks, and/or Streaming video focused on fun subjects, popular publishers, and more.  Check them out!

Current BingePass Options:

• Reading Corner
• Kids' Books in Action
• Hellosaurus
• Highlights Collection
• KidzVidz
• STEAM Powered Kids
• Cuentos para niños en español
• Growing Up: Social-Emotional Learning
• Read-Along to Learn
• Learn About the World

Incredibly engaging, interactive, and educational, Hellosaurus puts kids ages 2 to 8 in their favorite shows. Featuring popular titles like The Wiggles and Love, Diana, children develop life skills independently and safely by having fun. One borrow gets them all the Hellosaurus they want for 7 days.

You must download the Hellosaurus iOS or Android app to your mobile device to play this content. No signup is needed. 

Take advantage of all the Library of Congress offers - from home! Digital Collections features thousands of items in hundreds of subject areas.

This ground-breaking project, launched in celebration of Native American Heritage Month, is an interactive online map that features audio recordings of 47 contemporary Native American poets, including Louise Erdrich, Natalie Diaz, and Ray Young Bear, among many others.  The project was conceived by US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.

With LOTE4Kids, kids can now enjoy 3000+ read-along eBooks in over 65+ languages, including American (ASL), British (BSL), New Zealand (NZSL), and Australian Sign Language (AUSLAN), together with English translations. Check out our Quick Start Guide.

This ebook reference collection offers a rich selection of eBook titles covering a broad range of general reference subjects for high school students. Topics include biography, history, careers, language arts, literature, government, health, math, science, current events, and social-emotional health.

This multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 2,000 general reference publications with full-text information dating as far back as 1922. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Complete also contains full text for more than 1,000 reference books and over 164,400 primary source documents, as well as an Image Collection of over 502,000 photos, maps & flags. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost.

This ebook reference collection offers a rich selection of eBook titles covering a broad range of general reference subjects. Topics include biography, history, careers, cooking, literature, genealogy, health, parenting, personal finance, politics, architecture, science, current events, social-emotional health, sports, and travel.

Formerly: Genetics Home Reference. Offered by the National Library of Medicine, providing summaries of genetic conditions and their molecular basis in an easy-to-understand language. Browse the site by specific disorder or condition, by gene, or by chromosome.

Middle Search Plus provides full text for more than 140 popular, middle school magazines. All full-text articles included in the database are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for thousands of biographies and historical essays. Middle Search Plus also contains 84,774 biographies, 105,786 primary source documents, and a School Image Collection of photos, maps, and flags.

This eBook reference collection offers a rich selection of eBook titles covering a broad range of general reference subjects for middle school students. Topics include social studies, math, history, language arts, technology, geography, culture, and science.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept by us forever.

Those valuable records are preserved and are available to you, whether you want to see if they contain clues about your family’s history, need to prove a veteran’s military service, or are researching a historical topic that interests you

Native Land offers an interactive map of the territories of Indigenous nations and includes territories, language maps, and maps of treaties. The site also includes teaching guides, resources, a guide to territory acknowledgment, and morel

This link is for users who are outside of the library.  To get started, take a look at the instructions in our Quick Start Guide.

This resource is provided courtesy of the California State Library.

This link is for use inside the library.  For offsite/remote access, check out New York Times Online - At Home and On The Move.

For more information, take a look at our New York TImes FAQ.

This resource is provided courtesy of the California State Library.

With an extensive list of publications from around the globe, NewspaperArchive.com includes billions of newspaper articles dating back to 1607 and extends to the present day. Immerse yourself in rich historical content, as every newspaper within this archive is fully searchable by keyword and date. Whether you're exploring major cities or discovering the hidden stories of small towns, NewspaperArchive.com offers an unparalleled experience for everyone. 

Novelist K-8 will help you find a new book or old favorite; read-alikes and award-winning titles.

So many books! Find books by author, title, subject, genre, location, type of character, and much more. Novelist plus

O’Reilly for Public Libraries offers unlimited access to 50K+ titles (including O’Reilly books in early release), 30K+ hours of video, case studies from top companies, learning paths, expert playlists, and more—with nearly 1,000 topics to explore in technology and business.

O'Reilly for Public Libraries replaces Safari Books Online.

See: Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints

Oxford Dictionaries Premium is the home of our premium language resources for English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. 

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.

The OED started life more than 150 years ago. Today, the dictionary is in the process of its first major revision. Updates revise and extend the OED at regular intervals, each time subtly adjusting our image of the English language.

The Palace Project app gives Alameda County Library members one way to browse, borrow, and read eBooks and eAudiobooks.  With one login and as few as three clicks, you can start discovering and reading our entire collection of nearly 300,000 eBooks and eAudiobooks. Read OverDrive titles, exclusive titles from Audible and Amazon, and much more!

The Poetry Foundation, the publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. 

Primary Search provides full text for more than 70 popular, magazines for elementary school research. All full-text articles included in the database are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles), and full-text information dates as far back as 1990.

This ebook reference collection offers a rich selection of eBook titles covering a broad range of general reference subjects for primary school students. Topics include social studies, history, language arts, geography, culture, math, and science.

Search across all of the ProQuest resources we have available to find eBooks, articles, audio and video, dissertations and theses, and more.

The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection with high-definition recordings of The Bard's dramatic canon, featuring the world's finest Shakespearean actors and directors, along with supplementary teaching materials, the Royal Shakespeare Company Collection helps bring Shakespeare to life in the modern age. From Alexander Street.

Science.gov searches over 60 databases and over 2,200 scientific websites to provide users with access to more than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information including research and development results.

NOTE:  SimplyE will no longer be available as of April 1, 2024.  If you have not switched to The Palace Project, please do so before that date.  The Palace Project offers OverDrive eBooks and eAudiobook, special collections, and enki titles. Check out our Quick Start Guide to Palace and get started now!

TeachingBooks for Libraries adds a multimedia dimension to the reading experiences of children's and young adult books. This online database is developed and maintained to include thousands of resources about fiction and nonfiction books for youth, with every resource selected to encourage the integration of multimedia author and book materials into reading and library activities.

This resource was formerly called Book Connections.

Theatre in Video offers access to hundreds of the world's most important plays, documentaries, and instructional materials, as well as interviews with prominent directors, designers, writers, and actors, providing an authentic behind-the-scenes look at various productions. From Alexander Street.

The Census Bureau's mission is to serve as the nation's leading provider of quality data about its people and economy.

The US Copyright Office offers services and support to creators and users of creative works. Use the site to research, register a copyright, or record a document.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks.

Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Division of Adult Education and Literacy (DAEL) promotes programs that help American adults get the basic skills they need to be productive workers, family members, and citizens. The major areas of support are Adult Basic Education, Adult Secondary Education, and English Language Acquisition. These programs emphasize basic skills such as reading, writing, math, English language competency and problem-so

No Library Card Needed.
Use The Washington Post for free while visiting the library–no login or card required.

What you'll get:

• Full access to reporting, opinion, and investigative coverage
• Real-time Q&As and behind-the-scenes insights
• Live-streams from Washington Post Live events
• Newsletters and more

This version is only available on library Wi-Fi or library computers.

Want to access from home?

Check out our At-Home and On-the-Go Access option.

Enjoy free, full access to The Washington Post with your library card—anytime, anywhere.

What you get:

• Expert reporting and award-winning investigations
• Real-time Q&A discussions and behind-the-scenes insights
• Live streams of Washington Post Live events
• Newsletters and more

What to know before you start:

• Access Link: Use Alameda County Library's access link to check out a 7-day pass in your browser.
• Account Setup: Create or sign in to your Washington Post account.
• Enjoy! After activating the pass, read in your browser or log in through the app.
• Renew: When the pass expires, renew through our access link on our website.
• No Library Card or Account? You have two options: 
  • Visit Us: Visit any of our library locations to use our Washington Post (in-library use option).
  • Get a Card: Get a free library card. Both eCards and physical cards work for Washington Post access.

Need help?

Review this Quick Start Guide. If access still isn't working, try signing in at washingtonpost.com and check your pass status: Account Settings > My Subscriptions. You may already have an active pass.

This reference resource, produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), offers almanac-style information about the countries of the world.