Statewide Reference Resource Center @ Providence Public Library
150 Empire Street
Providence, RI 02903
Phone: (401) 455-8005

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Office of Library and Information ServicesFunding for these services is provided by the State of Rhode Island through the Office of Library and Information Services.

Chat & Phone hours:

  • Monday & Thursday
    9:00 am - 8:00 pm
  • Tuesday & Wednesday
    9:00 am - 6:00 pm
  • Friday & Saturday
    9:00 am - 5:30 pm
  • Sunday
    1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Sept-May)

Library open hours:

  • Monday & Thursday
    12 noon - 8:00 pm
  • Tuesday & Wednesday
    10:00 am - 6:00 pm
  • Friday & Saturday
    9:00 am - 5:30 pm
  • Sunday
    1:00 pm - 5:00 pm (Sept-May)

EBSCO Databases

AskRI provides a variety of dateabases from EBSCO Publishing. You can search them all or find one that suits your needs. Resources available for adults and children. Enter your library card or zip code when prompted.

General Resources

academic search premier

Scholarly resource provides indexing and abstacts for more than 8,300 journals, wsith full text for more than 4,500 of those titles. PDF backfilest to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals.

ERIC (Educational Resource Information Center): Offers access to education literature and resources. Database contains more than 1,243,000 records and links to more than 224,000 full-text documents.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia: Features over 25,000 informative segments of the encyclopedia, with alphabetically arranged articles, illustrations and maps. Updated annually.

GreenfileIncludes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments. Topics covered include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling and more.

History Reference Center World’s most comprehensive full-text history reference database, featuring full text for more than 2,400 reference books, encyclopedias and nonfiction books from leading history publishers. Also includes full text for more than 130 leading history periodicals, and contains more than 61,100 historical documents; more than 66,000 historical biographies; more than 110,200 photos and maps; and more than 80 hours of historical video.

Library, Information Science Technology & Technology Abstracts (LISTA): Contains information pertinent to library and information sciences, indexes more than 600 journals, and includes books, research reports and proceedings.

MasterFILE Premier: Contains full text for nearly 1,750 periodicals covering general reference, business, health, education, general science, multicultural issues and much more. Also includes full text for nearly 500 reference books, 86,017 biographies, 105,786 primary source documents, and an image collection of 341,655 photo, maps and flags.

MEDLINE: Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical science and much more. This resource uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals.

Teacher Reference Center: Provides indexing and abstracts for more than 270 periodicals. Topics include assessment, continuing education, current pedagogical research, curriculum development, elementary education, higher education, language arts, literacy standards, school administration, teacher education and much more.

TOPICSearch: Current events database allows researchers to explore social, political & economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics discussed in today’s classrooms.

Resources for the Younger Crowd

EBSCO Animals: Provides students with thousands of easy-to-read detailed entries about mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. Many entries include colorful images.

SearchasaurusSearchasaurus (Primary Search): Designed for elementary school students. Contains full text for more than 70 popular elementary school magazines and provides students with encyclopedic entries written specifically for kids. Includes the American Heritage, Children’s Dictionary, 3rd Edition from Houghton Mifflin and an extensive image collection.

Middle Search Plus: Contains full text for more than 140 popular middle school magazines, as well as thousands of biographies and historical essays. Also includes primary source documents, reference books and an image collection of 341,655 photo, maps and flags.

Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia: Features over 25,000 informative segments of the encyclopedia, with alphabetically arranged articles, illustrations and maps. Updated annually.

Helpful Hints

Looking for more resources? Visit your public library and find more resources available with your Ocean State Libraries card. If you are associated with a college, university or health sciences library, use your HELIN card to find specialized reasarch databases.

Overwhelmed? Confused? Can't decide which tool to use? Search multiple resources at EBSCOHost.

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