Free Access to Databases This Week (And Forever!)

This week is National Library Week for our American friends.

Many commercial database vendors and aggregators are marking the occasion by providing temporary free access to many of their products.

For example:

• Greenwood Publishing is providing free access to database products as diverse as Praeger Security International Online, Reader's Advisor Online and ARBAOnline (thousand of reviews of reference works). You have to register first.
• Gale is allowing free access to a long list of popular and academic collections like Literature Criticism Online, Science Resource Center, Sources in U.S. History Online: Slavery in America, and the Gale Virtual Reference Library (more than 1,700 e-books from major scientific and humanities publishers)

Now, here is an easy trick to have year-round free access to many high-quality database collections outside the legal field: get a local public library card.

Here, in Ottawa, the public library system provides members remote access via their library card number to dozens of databases across a whole range of interest areas.

[Source: WisBlawg - University of Wisconsin]