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Teen and Young Adult Services Department: Researching for Teens and YA

Check out all of HPL's teen programming, books, and resources!

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Researching for Teens and YA


To schedule a research instruction or introduction to the library session for your class, contact:

- Mike Elder at (860) 695-6336 or melder@hplct.org OR

- Manuel Iglesias Fernández at (860) 930-4011 or mifernandez@hplct.org.


 

Accessible with Hartford Public Library card:

CultureGrams
Information on the countries of the world and all 50 states.

 

No library card needed to access in Hartford:

Biography Reference Bank 
Information on famous and noteworthy people.

History Reference Center
Covers U.S. and World history.

 

No library card needed:

Black Freedom Struggle in the United States
Documents covering African-American history.

Connecticut Genealogy Index
Basic index to birth, marriage, civil union, and death records from 1890s to 2010s (depending on the type of record). Once you confirm that a record exists, you can request a copy either from the municipality where the event took place or from the state directly.

Connecticut State Library Digital Collections
Includes links to collections of Connecticut newspapers from the 1800s, the State Archives, the State Library Collection, and the Museum of Connecticut History.

Hartford History Center:

Digital Collections: Thousands of images and media from the Hartford History Center collections, including Hartford-specific resources from 1639 to the present, preserved and made available in the Connecticut Digital Archive.

Hartford Changemakers: Black, Latine, and Indigenous leaders in Hartford History.

Exhibits: Online exhibits on Hartford history curated by the Hartford History Center team.

Subject Guides: Guides covering topics such as Caribbean Heritage, Indigenous Peoples, Women's History, etc.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps: Hartford
Sanborn Fire Insurance maps were published in the 19th and 20th centuries and provide detailed historical information on the property and buildings in a city. This link takes you to the Library of Congress’ Hartford County holdings including those that are available online.

No library card needed to access in Hartford:

Magill On Literature Plus
Critical analyses, character studies, and plot summaries for works of literature.

 

No library card needed:

Merriam-Webster 
Find definitions for over 300000 words from the most authoritative English dictionary. Continuously updated with new words and meanings.

WordReference
WordReference is an online translation dictionary for, among others, the language pairs English–French, English–Italian, English–Spanish, French–Spanish, Spanish–Portuguese and English–Portuguese.

Accessible with Hartford Public Library card:

Business Collection--ABI/INFORM 
Articles from the Economist and other business journals.

 

No library card needed to access in Hartford:

Small Business Reference Center 
Offers exclusive content from small business reference books. Also includes videos and details on how to create business plans.

Accessible with Hartford Public Library card:

Consumer Health Complete
Provides information on health and wellness topics and in-depth material on medical issues.

ScienceFlix
Designed to assist students from grades 4 through 9 to learn about all fields of science.

 

No library card needed to access in Hartford:

Science Reference Center
Student friendly source for science related information.

 

No library card needed/No es necesario tener una tarjeta de la biblioteca:

MedlinePlus
Find reliable information about drugs and supplement, medical tests, and over a thousand diseases and health conditions.

MedlinePlus en Español
Obtenga información confiable sobre medicamentos y suplementos, pruebas médicas y numerosas condiciones de salud y enfermedades.

Merck Manual
Current information on numerous health topics, information on healthy living, and the latest health related news.

Merck Manual en Español
Información de actualidad sobre numerosos temas médicos, información sobre vida saludable y las últimas noticias y comentarios relacionadas con la salud.

Accessible with Hartford Public Library card:

Chicago Tribune (1985-present) 
Includes the text of articles without photographs, etc.

Hartford Courant: (1764-present) 
Search the Hartford Courant databases for current and historical articles, including obituaries.

Los Angeles Times (1985-present)
Articles from the Los Angeles Times newspaper and website. 

New York Times (1985-present)
Includes content from the NYT Newspaper, Magazine, and Book Review as well as content from the NYT website.

Wall Street Journal (1984-present)
Articles from the Wall Street Journal newspaper and website. To access articles in chronological order starting with today’s issue click here.

Washington Post (1987--present)
Includes articles and videos from the newspaper and website. To access articles in chronological order starting with today’s issue click here.

 

No library card needed:

Newspaper Source Plus
Articles from a variety of world newspapers and other news sources.

Accessible with Hartford Public Library card:

World Book
An engaging, verified, and trustworthy digital resource for grades pre-K through high school.

 

No library card needed to access in Hartford:

Academic Search Premier
Recommended for high school, academic, and other advanced research.

ERIC
Features articles from education related periodicals and other publications.

General Research--Explora
Articles on a wide range of subjects.

High School Research--Explora
Age-level articles on a wide range of subjects.

MasterFILE Premier
Articles from general and popular magazines, as well as other resources.

Middle School Research--Explora
Age-level articles on a wide range of subjects.

Referencia Latina
Spanish-language database with content covering a broad array of subjects.

 

No library card needed:

Style guides

American Psychological Association (APA)

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)

 

Fact checking

FactCheck.Org

This nonprofit project checks if important U.S. political figures, like politicians and lobbyists, are telling the truth.

LeadStories

A fact-checking website that looks for popular stories, pictures, videos, and posts that spread false information and debunks them.

Media Bias/Fact Check

It has a searchable database of media sources and articles, ranked by bias from extreme left to extreme right, where bias means leaning unfairly for or against something based on opinions, not facts.

Snopes

It's an independent website that looks into urban legends, internet rumors, modern folklore, and other stories that might not be true.

TruthOrFiction.com

This independent myth-busting website focuses on suspicious stories that keep popping up year after year, rather than covering breaking news or current events.

No library card needed to access in Hartford:

Legal Information Reference Center
Legal information written for users without a legal background. 

 

No library card needed:

Caselaw Access Project
CAP includes all official, book-published state and federal United States case law — every volume or case designated as an official report of decisions by a court within the United States.


If using a Hartford Public School Id Number:
For six-digit student ids: 22520000 + student id (22520000######)
For five-digit student ids: 225200000 + student id (225200000#####)


Hartford Public Library 

Central Branch:  500 Main Street. Hartford, CT 06103 
Phone: 860-695-6300 | Text: 860-530-4376 | Email: contactus@hplct.org | Chat: www.hplct.org
For Branch locations and hours, click here