Open Access Databases: Home
This guide provides information on a variety of open access resources.
Open Access Databases
Here you will find links to Open Access Databases. These databases do not require log in information or credentials.
Research
- ArchiveGrid includes over 5 million records describing archival materials, bringing together information about historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more. With over 1,000 different archival institutions represented, ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies.
Digital Public Library of America
Discover 29,636,623 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.Directory of Open Access Journals
DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. Browse by subject or search by keyword and limit by peer review process, country of publisher or copyright policy.- Gapminder is an independent Swedish foundation with no political, religious or economic affiliations. Gapminder produces free teaching resources making the world understandable based on reliable statistics. Gapminder promotes a fact-based worldview everyone can understand.
- HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Established in 1972, the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) is a federally funded resource offering justice and drug-related information to support research, policy, and program development worldwide.Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
5,425,604 electronic theses and dissertations contained in the NDLTD archive.
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) is an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). We support electronic publishing and open access to scholarship in order to enhance the sharing of knowledge worldwide. Our website includes resources for university administrators, librarians, faculty, students, and the general public- PolicyArchive is an innovative, new digital archive of global, non-partisan public policy research. It makes use of the power, efficiency, and economy of modern Internet technology to collect and disseminate summaries and full texts, videos, reports, briefs, and multimedia material of think tank, university, government, and foundation-funded policy research. It offers a subject index, an internal search engine, useful abstracts, email notifications of newly added research, and will soon expand to offer information on researchers and funders, and even user-generated publication reviews.
Post-Reformation Digital Library
The Post-Reformation Digital Library (PRDL) is a select database of digital books relating to the development of theology and philosophy during the Reformation and Post-Reformation/Early Modern Era (late 15th-18th c.). Late medieval and patristic works printed and referenced in the early modern era are also included. The PRDL is a project of the Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research.- PQDT Open provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. The authors of these dissertations and theses have opted to publish as open access during their submission process to ProQuest.
- Project Gutenberg offers over 57,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online. You will find the world’s great literature here, with focus on older works for which copyright has expired. Thousands of volunteers digitized and diligently proofread the eBooks, for enjoyment and education.
- SSRN´s eLibrary provides 825,094 research papers from 403,257 researchers across 30 disciplines.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy organizes scholars from around the world in philosophy and related disciplines to create and maintain an up-to-date reference work.- WorldCat allows you to search the SRC collection, as well as the collections of other colleges and universities. You may be able to obtain resources not held by UVF through your local libraries.
- The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, and international organizations from around the world.
The WDL makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from all countries and cultures.
Medical Resources
- Global Index MedicusThe World Health Organization’s portal to databases generated by its regional health offices for Africa, Southeast Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Western Pacific Regions. This is local information meant to supplement PubMed, etc. Also included is WHOLIS, the database of WHO publications from 1948 onwards and articles from WHO-produced journals and technical documents from 1985 to the present.
- NLM Drug Information PortalInformation for over 55,000 drugs. Names, usage, and structures are displayed, as well as search links to key NLM and government sites.
- PubMedPubMed comprises more than 23 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.
- PubMed ClinicalResults of searches on this page are limited to specific clinical research areas found in the PubMed database.
Images
- PixabayOver 1.5 million high quality photos, illustrations, and vector graphics. Free for commercial use. No attribution required.
Theological Resources
- Interactively explore the most significant events and people in the history of American religion. ARDA’s Timelines of American Religion place a wealth of information–including text, pictures, graphs and more–at your fingertips and within its historical context.
Art in the Christian Tradition
The Art in the Christian Tradition (ACT) database is a regularly updated visual image internet resource. Designed for scholars, students, pastors, and religious educators, all of the images may be used for non-commercial purposes, with attribution. There are currently 4986 images in the collection.Association of Religion Data Archives
The ARDA allows you to interactively explore the highest quality data on American and international religion using online features for generating national profiles, maps, church membership overviews, denominational heritage trees, tables, charts, and other summary reports. Over 350 data files are available for online preview and most can be downloaded for additional research.- A free service for reading and researching scripture online– all in the language or translation of your choice! Bible Gateway provides advanced searching capabilities based on keywords or scripture references, and various tools to enhance your study of the Bible. Basic account is free.
Open Access Digital Theological Library
The mission of Open Access Digital Theological Library (OADTL) is to curate high-quality content in religious studies and related disciplines from publisher websites, institutional repositories, scholarly societies, archives, and stable public domain collections. The OADTL uses the world’s most advanced integrated library system (ILS) for cataloging and discovery. This system, OCLC’s WorldShare, makes content easily discoverable and retrievable.- The Theological Commons is a digital library of over 120,000 resources on theology and religion. It consists mainly of public domain books and also includes periodicals, audio recordings, photographs, manuscript collections, and other formats
- More than 6,000 articles and chapters. Topics include Old and New Testament, Theology, Ethics, History and Sociology of Religion, Communication and Cultural Studies, Pastoral Care, Counseling, Homiletics, Worship, Missions and Religious Education.
- “Research in Ministry® (RIM®) indexes and abstracts projects and theses from over 100 Doctor of Ministry (DMin), Doctor of Missiology (DMiss) and Doctor of Educational Ministry (DEdMin) programs accredited by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS).”–ATLA.com.
- The Review of Biblical Literature (RBL), founded by the Society of Biblical Literature, presents reviews of books in biblical studies and related fields. Appearing in this digital form and in print, RBL is comprehensive, international, and timely. Free, online book reviews of scholarly literature in biblical studies. About 400 reviews per year.
Statistics
American FactFinder – Census Data
American FactFinder provides access to data about the United States, Puerto Rico and the Island Areas. The data in American FactFinder come from several censuses and surveys.American Statistical Association – Sports Data Resources
The mission of SIS has been to stimulate statistical research with an application to sports, promoting publications devoted to statistical theory and methodology and their application to statistics in sports, and to increase the availability of information concerning the science of statistics and its contribution to sports.- The Bureau of Justice Statistics collects, analyzes, publishes, and disseminate information on crime, criminal offenders, victims of crime, and the operation of justice systems at all levels of government. These data are critical to federal, state, and local policymakers in combating crime and ensuring that justice is both efficient and evenhanded.
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations. NCES is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.United Nations Statistics Division
The United Nations Statistics Division is committed to the advancement of the global statistical system. We compile and disseminate global statistical information, develop standards and norms for statistical activities, and support countries’ efforts to strengthen their national statistical systems. We facilitate the coordination of international statistical activities and support the functioning of the United Nations Statistical Commission as the apex entity of the global statistical system.- The WorldPop project was initiated in October 2013 to combine the AfriPop, AsiaPop and AmeriPop population mapping projects. It aims to provide an open access archive of spatial demographic datasets for Central and South America, Africa and Asia to support development, disaster response and health applications. The methods used are designed with full open access and operational application in mind, using transparent, fully documented and peer-reviewed methods to produce easily updatable maps with accompanying metadata and measures of uncertainty.
Environmental Resources
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
The successor to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and a credible, independent force for pragmatic climate action.
Named by the University of Pennsylvania the world’s top environmental think tank in 2011 and 2009, the nonpartisan Center was a valued source of information and analysis, an effective bridge between diverse interests, and an established leader in catalyzing constructive business engagement.- Welcome to EnviroMapper for Envirofacts, a single point of access to select U.S. EPA environmental data. This Web site provides access to several EPA databases to provide you with information about environmental activities that may affect air, water, and land anywhere in the United States. With Envirofacts, you can learn more about these environmental activities in your area or you can generate maps of environmental information.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency supports a network of research libraries. Search across all the libraries and for EPA publications.
Threatened and Endangered Plants
Includes both state and federally listed plants, their distribution, status and illustrations.