History, Biography, Genealogy

This collection Includes images related to the history of Albany, from the late 1800s to 2001. Notable aspects of the collection include images of homes and buildings (including school buildings, the public library, and the Peralta Park Hotel), street scenes, significant individuals, and historic events.

The Ancestry Library Edition collection has about 4,000 databases including key collections, such as:

• U.S. Federal Census images and indexes from 1790 to 1930
• The Map Center containing more than 1,000 historical maps
• Biographical index
• DAR information
• Social Security Index
• A strong Civil War collection.

Explore and gain a deeper understanding of the Asian American experience as recorded by the news media, from the 18^th century through today. From Newsbank.

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!

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)

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.

This subscription collection includes academic eBooks related to diversity, anti-racism, ethnic studies, disability studies, gerontology & age studies, migration studies, gender and sexuality studies, cultural studies, and religious studies. The collection utilizes outside resources and scholarship to ensure that the collection remains up to date and aligned with current research.

With its curated full-text materials, Ethnic Diversity Source is essential to support the study of African Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, Jewish Americans, Latinx Americans, Multiracial Americans, and Native Americans, among others, with respect to their cultures, traditions, social treatment, and lived experiences. Scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, historical documents, and biographies are complemented by primary sources, such as speeches and interviews. Complete with robust collections of videos and e-books, Ethnic Diversity Source creates a dynamic research experience for students and researchers.

Only Fold3 Library Edition by Ancestry combines official military records with deep first-person content, including bios, photos, letters, and more. More than 500 million searchable records span hundreds of years.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. That's 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

A unique fully-searchable collection that brings together approximately 1.5 million pages of primary sources on social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities around the world. Contains LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Parts I & II.

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

The Great Courses offers engaging and understandable lectures by esteemed professors, professionals, and experts in topics ranging from history, science, and much more.

Get a 7-day pass through this link or in the Libby app under "Extras." Check out our Quick Start Guide for information and help getting started.

Explore your family history with the premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for in-depth genealogical research from 1704 – today. HeritageHub helps you easily identify relatives, uncover new information and potentially unknown family members. Includes deep coverage from all 50 states, hard-to-find content from the mid 1900’s, and original obituary images. Access is available 24/7.

HeritageQuest Online provides a comprehensive collection of genealogical and local history resources. This database makes it convenient to explore billions of American and international genealogical records dating back to the 1700s, including unique primary sources, family and local histories, research guides, interactive census maps, and more. Combined with an easy-to-use search experience, it’s easier than ever for users to discover their ancestors and learn about local people and places from the past.

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+)

Check out a Curiosity Stream Bingepass and get a one-week pass to access an ever-growing collection of award-winning original and curated factual films, shows, and series covering science, nature, travel, history, technology, and more.  Checking out a pass will use one of your hoopla monthly checkouts.

After pressing play, you will be redirected to a new browser window to view Curiosity Stream videos.  You will not be required to create an account.
The Curiosity Stream app is not compatible with this offer.

The Great Courses Library Collection is the leading global media brand for lifelong learning and personal enrichment, with hundreds of courses spanning thousands of in-depth video lectures on subjects like Science, Health & Wellness, and much more.
This is part of hoopla's Bingepass collection.  7-day check out.

Access the Great Courses through the hoopla app from your favorite app store.  You can also access it using the hoopla site.

Explore he experience and impact of Immigrant Americans as recorded by the news media. From Newsbank.

Explore the experience and impact of Indigenous Americans as recorded by the news media, 1690 to today. From Newsbank.

The experience and impact of American workers as recorded by the news media. From Newsbank.

Explore the experience and impact of LGBTQ+ Americans as recorded by the news media.

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.

My China Roots is a genealogy resource for researching Chinese ancestry. Users can research ancestral villages, surname origins, and digitized zupus (documents compiled by families to record the names and details of ancestors).

MyHeritage is the place for discovering, sharing, and preserving family history.  It contains records from World Vital Records. 

NOTE: The MyHeritage app is not compatible with the library's subscription at this time.

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

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.

Newspapers.com Library Edition provides online access to nearly 20,000 historical newspapers. It offers full-page images with searchable full text for millions of pages of newspapers dating from the early 1700s into the early 2000s. Newspapers.com Library Edition contains full runs and portions of runs of known, regional, and state titles to small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.

See: Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints

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.

Learn about debated social and political issues from multiple viewpoints. Read background information and opposing perspectives together. Use the sources to support research, writing, or discussion. Includes resources for the National High School debate topic.