Online Resources

 

ABC Mouse

In Library Only

With more than 4,000 interactive books, educational games, puzzles, and other learning activities, a comprehensive online educational resource for young learners (ages 2–7+).

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Categories: Early Learning
Tags: Kids

African American Heritage

Birth, Marriage, Death records from North Carolina and West Virginia, and Cohabitation records from North Carolina; U.S. Federal Census records; Records of the Freedman’s Bank; Military Records including U.S. Colored Troops Service Records; Slaves and Free(d) Persons of Color registers from Louisiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvannia

A ‘Special Online Edition’ of the indispensable reference book Black Genesis: A Resource Book for African American Genealogy. Included as a fully searchable Adobe Acrobat PDF, the book identifies resources in every U.S. state, Canada, and the West Indies. As you explore the book, you can easily visit suggested Internet resources by clicking the corresponding link.

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Apprenticeships

Apprenticeship programs provide an opportunity for individuals to learn and earn. These are on-the-job training programs in various in-demand industries such as pipe-fitting, carpentry, and electrical work.

Click on the button below to find apprenticeships available now, find apprentice and journeyman training centers, and information on getting and maintaining your trade license.

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Author Talks and Webinars

Watch and interact live with a wide range of bestselling authors in Fiction and Non-Fiction. If you can’t make it on the day, talks are also archived.

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Categories: Books
Tags: Readers

Beanstack

Beanstack is a fun, new way to track your reading! Beanstack will let you and your family sign up for any of the Library’s reading challenges so you can track your reading and earn badges and prizes. You can even compete with friends to see who ranks highest on your leaderboard.

Beanstack can be used online by clicking the “Use this Resource” button below and then bookmarking the webpage.

QR code for the beanstack app

Download the beanstack app here!

 

Or you can download the app by scanning this QR code with your smartphone camera and log your reading through the app.

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Categories: Books
Tags: Audiobooks Ebooks Kids Readers Teens

Career Pathways

Career pathways help young people and underemployed people figure our the classes to take and skills to build  for the jobs they want. Young people can begin this path as early as middle school. Underemployed workers can find the classes to take at community colleges or technical colleges. The career pathways show progressive, skill-building jobs and potential salaries on each career path.

Ohio Means Jobs, Ohio Department of Education, and Ohio Department of Higher Education provide sample career pathways that show how you can get to the job you want. The following are a few pathways that they have outlined:

Find more career pathways by clicking the button below.

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Chilton Library

Get the detailed information you need to tackle vehicle maintenance and repairs. Some of Chilton Library’s more popular features include:

  • Maintenance and specification tables that provide the unique data you need for each specific vehicle.
  • Step-by-step service and repair procedures, and labor estimating tool to help you confidently determine your next move.
  • Vacuum diagrams to simplify troubleshooting.
  • Wiring diagrams to help explain system operation.
  • Close-up photographs and illustrations for visual support.
  • ASE test prep quizzes for the most popular certification exams
  • A print button which allows you to easily print out what is needed.
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Consumer Health Complete

Full text journals, magazines, and reference books from EBSCOhost dealing with health, wellness, fitness, and nutrition – coverage includes a focus on the complementary, holistic and integrated approaches to health and wellness. See this 3-min. YouTube video by the Reference and Information Services Division (RISD) of the Ohio Library Council for a basic introduction.

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CultureGrams

CultureGrams® is your source for concise, reliable, and up-to-date cultural information on countries of the world. Beyond the facts and figures, find an insider’s perspective on the history, daily life, and customs. Also covers US states and Canadian provinces.

Watch the tutorial first, then try this CultureGrams Escape Room: Escape the Library! (with visual clues)

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Digital Public Library of America

Historic digital collections from libraries, museums, and archives across Ohio and more. The DPLA portal to photographs, maps, documents, and AV materials from across the country is a great starting place for your local history and genealogy reference.

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Categories: History and Genealogy
Tags: Ohio OPLIN

Driving Tests

The program is designed to prepare aspiring as well as more experienced drivers (teenagers, newcomers to Ohio, or senior citizens) to pass their BMV written exam. It includes unlimited access to the official state driver’s manuals, OH-specific BMV practice tests for car, motorcycle and commercial driver’s license (CDL), a BMV exam simulator, and a BMV-related FAQ. The program doesn’t collect any personal information from its users.

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Categories: Continuing Education
Tags: Teens

FamilySearch

In Library Only

FamilySearch adds over 300 million free genealogical records and images online yearly from all over the world and manages the famous Family History Library in Salt Lake City. It has amassed billions of birth, marriage, death, census, land and court records from more than 130 countries to help you discover and make family connections.

For more information about FamilySearch or to locate other Affiliate Libraries, check out the FamilySearch wiki.

FamilySearch Terms of Use

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Find Ohio Colleges, Tech Centers, & Public Universities

This resource has an interactive map locating all of the public universities, community colleges, & technical centers in the state of Ohio. Each institution is listed below the map with a brief description of the school, its location, and its focus, as well as links to the school itself. Excellent tool for comparing schools.

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Fold3

Fold3 provides convenient access to military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served.

The records at Fold3 help you discover and share stories about these everyday heroes, forgotten soldiers, and the families that supported them. On Fold3, you can combine records found on the site with what you have in your own albums and shoeboxes to create an online memorial for someone who served.

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Google Tutorials

Google tutorials include tutorials for Googles free online suite of document creation tools that allow users users to create and edit documents online while collaborating with other users in real-time.

The links below will take you to that individual tutorial. Tutorials include:

Gmail

Google Drive

Google Docs

Google Sheets

Google Forms

Google Slides

Google Photos

The “Use this Resource ” button will take you to a page with all of the tutorials.

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Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center

Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center is a full text database accessible via a custom EBSCO interface designed primarily for use in public libraries. Content in the database includes a collection of core, proprietary articles covering over 140 topics, as well as licensed periodicals, books and video that focus on categories commonly referred to as hobbies and crafts and is available in high-quality PDF format. Features include the ability to search the Hobbies & Crafts interface by category, view all available topics and browse popular resources related to the area of Hobbies & Crafts.

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Home Improvement Reference Center

The Home Improvement Reference Center (HIRC) is a full text database accessible via a custom EBSCO interface. It is intended for use in public and academic libraries and is designed to assist homeowners in do-it-yourself home repair, maintenance, and remodeling projects. Step-by-step instructions for thousands of projects in the areas of plumbing, outdoor, woodworking, electrical, and decorating are provided in high-quality PDF files. Additionally, thousands of articles from magazines and reference books provide tips and suggestions to supplement the step-by-step project instructions.

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Kanopy

Kanopy is a video streaming platform for public and academic libraries delivering one of the finest and largest collections of films in the world.  Kanopy’s collection features over 30,000 films from over 1,000 top producers, such as the Criterion Collection, Great Courses, PBS, Media Education Foundation, Stanford Executive Briefings, and more.

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Linked In Learning for Libraries

Choose from thousands of online courses to learn in-demand skills from real-world industry experts. Get started with your library card.

There is a LinkedIn Learning app for iOs and for Android devices. It can be found in the app store by searching for LinkedIn Learning. If you want to use the app, you can sign in by entering the library code oh0117 and then entering your library barcode and PIN.

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My Next Move

Mynextmove.org is an excellent free tool for browsing jobs. For each career, it lists the job outlook, salary range, education requirements, where to find local training programs, and open positions in your area. It also has a free online service that will match you to potential careers based on your interests.

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Northstar Digital Literacy

Northstar Digital Literacy is a program to help the user assess their level of digital literacy and provides information and skill-building to improve online, digital literacy skills. Users can improve skills and take proctored assessments to earn certificates to share with prospective employers.

Areas of skill-building include:

  • Essential Computer Skills
  • Essential Software Skills
  • Using Technology in Daily Life
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Ohio Digital Library

Download free audiobooks and eBooks to your computer or portable device, including compatible MP3 players.  Uses Libby app on most mobile devices. Kindle app Can be used on non-Kindle devices.

To access books, magazines, Kanopy movies, and more, use this link in your browser as the Ohio Digital Library transitions to its Libby app: Libby – The Ohio Digital Library (libbyapp.com)

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Ohio History Connection

At Ohio History Connection, we don’t just tell the stories, we bring them to life. To your life.

Through preserving and sharing stories, we provide a way for people to connect meaningfully with Ohio’s past—the places and people who came before us—through historic sites and museums, preservation, interactive exhibits and events, and dynamic resources and research. This experience develops a deep sense of both individual and community identity connecting us to one another then, now, and forever.

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Ohio Means Jobs

OhioMeansJobs.com is a comprehensive resource for students and jobseekers throughout Ohio. It includes interest surveys, information on in-demand careers, links to training resources, and much more.

Anyone aged 14 and above can also access educational workshops, career coaching and job leads in “one-stop” Ohio Means Jobs Centers located across the state. To find the location serving your area Services are free for those who qualify and include:

  • Preparation and testing for the High School Equivalent (e.g., GED)
  • Funding career technical training for skills that are in demand
  • Career counseling, resume development, job readiness training, skills assessment
  • Recruitment of talent for businesses that are hiring
  • Special services for those aged 14-24
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Ohio Revised Code (ORC)

This website publishes the Revised Code without annotations. Sections that are repealed are removed from publication and the repeals are not noted. Sections that are renumbered are published under their new section number without noting the numbering change. This includes instances when a section number is changed by a legislative act itself, and instances when the LSC Director has codified or recodified a statute post-enactment under authority of R.C. 103.131.

This website does not account for court actions. Actions by a court to enjoin or invalidate a section are not noted.

When multiple acts of the General Assembly amend the same Revised Code section without referencing each other, LSC prepares a composite of the amended section harmonizing the various acts’ amendments if substantively possible. The harmonized versions are presented and noted on this website. This presentation recognizes the principle stated in R.C. 1.52(B) that amendments are to be harmonized if reasonably capable of simultaneous operation.

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Oxford Research Encyclopedias

With today’s overabundance of information, and misinformation, students and researchers alike can be overwhelmed in identifying what’s trustworthy, what’s up-to-date, and what’s accurate. Oxford University Press has invested in the Oxford Research Encyclopedias to meet this challenge. Working with international communities of scholars across all fields of study, we are developing new comprehensive collections of in-depth, peer-reviewed summaries on an ever-growing range of topics.

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Small Business Reference Center

Small Business Reference Center™ provides up to date information on relevant topics from starting a company, operations management and sales to growing or rescuing a business. The database contains nearly 400 full-text periodicals and over 450 full-text reference books.

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Transparent Language

Online program helps you learn a new language. Over 80 language courses available.

NOTE: We were able to offer this resource through a state-wide account. The state-wide account was closed July 25, 2023. The Library sees value in providing this resource. We have a new subscription for Transparent Language. Users will need to set up a new account to use this resource.

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Twitter Tutorial

For People Who Have Never Tweeted – Twitter is a social media site that lets you to interact with other Twitter accounts via “tweets”. For the latest information, follow news outlets, politicians, chefs, athletes, artists, or even your local weather service.

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Typing Club

Typing Club is web based, and highly effective. Create a login to keep track of your progress or drop in to work on what you want. Keep practicing each lesson until you get all five stars. It really doesn’t take much to learn, a few minutes a day for one to two weeks and you will be a pro!

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Categories: Continuing Education Job Skills
Tags:

Valueline

Whether you’re a beginning investor or a veteran looking for high-impact ideas, Value Line can position you for financial success. With sophisticated tools and ranks to expert analysis and guidance, Value Line gives you the power to evaluate investments with confidence.

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World Book Online

Information resources for pre-school through college. Click on the “Use this Resource” button to see everything at once or select the age-appropriate resource below.

World Book Early Learning (Pre-K) – Pre-readers play and discover visual worlds of information

World Book Kids (K-4th Grade) – Image-driven content for curious kids to explore

World Book Student (Grades 5th – 8th) – Foundational research tool for curriculum reinforcement

World Book Advanced (Grades 9th – 12th) – Expanded topics and world resources for advanced understanding

World Book Timelines (Grades 5 and up) – A highly visual representation of history

Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos (K – 5th Grade) – Spanish-language resource for kids

Banco do Contienidos aulaPlaneta (Grades 5 and up) – Advanced Spanish-language resource

L’Encyclopedie Decouverte (K – 5th Grade) – French-language resource for kids

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