Highlights from the Library's Collection
Highlights from the IB Recommended Reading List
 
All Items by Source

Citation Tools

BCS Guide to Academic Honesty & Citation
A guide specifically designed to help you, the BCS student, to understand the requirements of citation and tools to help you create the correct citations.

eBooks

EBSCO eBook Collection Restricted Resource Some full text available
EBSCO's eBook Collection contains full text books, such as reference works, scientific monographs, literature and fiction. This eBook Collection contains more than 3,460 titles that are freely accessible and a small number of purchased titles.
EBSCO Reference eBook Collection Restricted Resource Some full text available
This ebook reference collection offers a rich selection of eBook titles covering a broad range of general reference subjects for high school students. Topics include biography, history, careers, language arts, literature, government, health, math, science, current events, and social-emotional health.
Onleihe Restricted Resource
Here you will find e-books for children, teenagers and adults as well as over 100 e-paper and e-magazine titles in many different langauges. Tip: Use the advanced search function to search by language.
note: VÖBB Resource: Requires valid Öffentlichen Bibliotheken Berlins library card (Access Instructions)
Overdrive Restricted Resource
OverDrive provides access to popular and bestselling eBooks and eAudiobooks. The collection includes thousands of titles for adults, teens, and children. Titles are also available in Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. Titles are automatically returned at the end of the loan period, and there are no late fees.
note: VÖBB Resource: Requires valid Öffentlichen Bibliotheken Berlins library card (Access Instructions)

Academic Search Engines

Google Scholar
Google Scholar searches for scholarly literature using Google's familiar interface. You can find articles, books, and content from academic publishers, professional societies, some academic web sites, and more. For more information see: Strengths and Weaknesses of Google Scholar.

A Word of Warning

In addition to many credible sources of academic material Google Scholar also indexes the open web for anything that looks like a academic paper; that is, anything with a title at the top, a list of authors, bibliography etc.

Some fringe groups have taken advantage of this in order to lend credibility and legitimacy to their ideas.


note: Google Scholar is primarily an index. For full-text versions of the books and articles returned by Google Scholar, you will need to take advantage of the university libraries listed to the right under 'Accessing Community Resources'.

Community Resources

Brill Journal Archive Online Restricted Resource
The archive data of 150 titles from the Brill Academic Publishers program are offered. The main focus is on the humanities and social sciences, international law and selected areas from the natural sciences. In the humanities, special emphasis is placed on the areas of Classical Studies, theology and the history of religion, as well as the culture and history of the Middle East.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Cambridge Core / Journals Restricted Resource
Cambridge University Press (CUP) publishes a wide range of renowned academic journals with a high degree of circulation.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Duden Schulwissen Resource contains images
"Here you will find the contents of important subjects (including German, mathematics, physics and English) visually processed and made understandable. For everyone from Grade 5 to Abitur."
note: German Language Resource
VÖBB Resource: Requires valid Öffentlichen Bibliotheken Berlins library card (Access Instructions)
English Language Women's Literature of the 18th & 19th Centuries Restricted Resource Some full text available
The database contains 1,830 books from the years 1790 - 1840. The collection is made up of mainly novels and short stories, but also drama, poetry and some travel literature and children's books. It is the most complete collection of English-language women's literature of romanticism.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
 
Immigrations, Migrations and Refugees Global Perspectives, 1941-1996 Restricted Resource
Translated and English-language radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, periodicals, government documents and books providing global insight on immigration in the mid-to-late 20th century
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Oxford Journals Collection Restricted Resource
The Oxford Journals Collection is part of Oxford University Press, the world's largest university publisher, and includes titles from the following sub-areas: Humanities, Science, Medicine, Law, Social Sciences.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Sage Journals Online Restricted Resource
There are over 850 electronic journals from Sage Publications that cover a wide range of subjects including: archeology, geosciences, history, media and communication studies, medicine, education, philosophy, political science, psychology, law, linguistics and literary studies, sociology, technology and computer science, theology and religious studies, and economics.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
The First World War Restricted Resource
The "The First World War" portal contains a large number of primary sources on the First World War from international archives and libraries, supplemented by a number of other offers such as timelines, interactive maps and case studies. These allow the digitized sources to be placed in a wider context. Four modules are currently available:
  • Personal Experiences
    • Diaries, Letters, Experience Reports, Photos, Postcards, Field Newspapers, Personal Items
  • Propaganda and Recruitment
    • Government and military files, leaflets, photographs, ephemera, propaganda posters
  • Visual Perspectives and Narratives
    • Official and personal photographs, manuscripts, rare printed matter, art of war, caricatures, objects and films
  • A Global Conflict
    • Self-testimonies, bequests and files on the expansion of the conflict on various continents

note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
The Gerritsen Collection - Women's History Online Restricted Resource
The digitized collection of the physicist and women's rights activist Aletta H. Jacobs is the world's largest full-text database on the history of women and feminism. Consisting of books, magazines and pamphlets, it reflects the development of feminist awareness and the women's rights movement. It spans four centuries.

It contains around 2 million pages of publications from Europe, North America and New Zealand in 15 different languages.

The collection includes the two segments:
  • Periodical Series (256 journals with 471,875 articles, around 95,000 of them in German)
  • Monograph Language Series (4,291 monographs and pamphlets) 2,336 English titles 929 German titles 734 French titles 472 titles in 12 other languages.

note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902 - 2005 Restricted Resource
The TLS Historical Archive contains the full text of all issues of the Times Literary Supplement from the first issue from 1902 to 2005 and presents a panorama of the works of important writers and thinkers during this period. It also contains reviews from the fields of theater, Cinema, music and exhibitions. The database is completely full-text searchable, including the search for anonymous contributions, and contains simple and advanced search accesses.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Twentieth Century North American Drama Restricted Resource
Twentieth Century North American Drama contains 2000 full-text plays from the United States and Canada. In addition to the actual texts, images, information about the staging, posters, flyers, biographical information about the author, etc. are also made available.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
World Biographical Information System / WBIS Restricted Resource
The World Biographical Information System Online (WBIS Online) comprises several million short biographies from numerous reference works that appeared from the 16th to the beginning of the 21st century. The biographical archives contained in each take into account different language and cultural areas.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)

Journals/Magazines

Directory of Open Access Journals
DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.

Newspapers

Historical Newspapers Online Restricted Resource
The range includes 8 newspapers:
  • The Guardian (1821-1900)
  • The Observer (1791-1900)
  • The New York Times (1851-1922)
  • Boston Globe (1872-1922)
  • The Wall Street Journal (1889-1922)
  • Washington Post (1877-1922)
  • Chicago Tribune (1849-1922)
  • Los Angeles Times (1881-1922)

note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
PressReader Restricted Resource Some full text available
'All-you-can-read digital newsstand with thousands of the world's most popular newspapers and magazines.'
note: VÖBB Resource: Requires valid Öffentlichen Bibliotheken Berlins library card (Access Instructions)

 

Online Resources

Europeana
Europeana works with thousands of European archives, libraries and museums to share cultural heritage for enjoyment, education and research. This website gives you access to millions of books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools to help you find what you’re looking for. Register for a Europeana account today so that you can save liked items and create your own galleries.
IXL - Maths and English Practice Restricted Resource
Great resource for questions related to grammar, spelling or punctuation.
note: Please ask your teacher for username and password.
Lexile Framework for Reading
'Find Just Right Books' section allows students/parents to find books specific to the student's reading level or to search by grade level. Then the students can choose a genre of book they want and boom!, appropriate books suggested. - Mr. Miwa (Grade 6 English Teacher)
Newspaper Templates Restricted Resource
Here you will find a number of newspaper templates created by the English department teachers.
NoodleTools Restricted Resource
It is a 'one stop shop' to help students formulate research questions, collection research, take notes and create citations.

Databases

Britannica Online Restricted Resource Some full text available Resource contains images Resource contains video Resource contains audio
Provides access to thousands of high-quality encyclopedia articles in addition to images, video and audio collections. Some full-text magazine/journal articles from EBSCO are also available.
note: Click here for login credentials
EBSCO - MAS Complete Restricted Resource Some full text available Resource contains images
Designed specifically for high school libraries, this database contains full text for more than 540 popular, high school magazines. MAS Complete also provides more than 440 full text reference books, 85,670 biographies, 105,786 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of over 502,000 photos, maps & flags, color PDFs and expanded full text backfiles (back to 1975) for key magazines.

Primary Sources

Corvey Digital Collection: Literature of the 18th and 19th Centuries Restricted Resource Some full text available
The database contains German, English and French-language literary primary texts from the 18th and 19th centuries from the Corvey library and thus provides the fully preserved holdings of an aristocratic library. Almost all text genres are served, the focus of content is on the Romantic era between 1790 and 1840 or 1870.
note: Requires valid DFG Login (Access Instructions)
Key to Icons

Restricted Resource = Restricted resource
Some full text available = Some full text
openURL = OpenURL enabled

Resource contains images = Images
Resource contains video = Video files
Resource contains audio = Audio files

Accessing Community Resources
Berlin Public Libraries (VÖBB)
Notice: You can now register online for a library card  and instantly access online resource. Simply click on Mein Konto --> Nicht Registriert.

Students and faculty can obtain a library card free of charge by submitting an application form and the documents below to any public library branch in Berlin.
  • Proof of Residence in Germany (Anmeldebescheinigung)
  • Identity card or passport
  • Student Card (Schülerausweis)
  • Signature (on the form) of the parent or legal guardian (for children and adolescents under 18)
 
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Residents of Germany have access to around 150 academic databases through the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim is to enable scientists, students and scientifically interested individuals access to databases, digital text collections, electronic journals and e-books. These databases are made available through the universities below, but individuals can also register to access them from home. To register, users must select the databases they would like access to and create an account on the DFG's website. Upon registration the DFG will send the login credentials to the user's home address. Usually this takes a day or two.

Still having trouble?

Click here for a visual walk-through.
 
Freie Universität
Users officially registered in Berlin or in Brandenburg can obtain user cards at no charge on presentation of identification (Personalausweis; or passport in combination with official proof of residence (Meldebescheinigung)). Adolescents (age 16 through 17) must submit a special form for requesting a user card; this form has to be signed by a parent or legal guardian. More information can be found on their website.
 
Humboldt Universität
Any resident of the Germany who is at least 16 years of age may register to use the libraries of Humboldt University free of charge. You must submit your ID card or your passport with official proof of residency (Anmeldungbescheinigung) at one of their service desks (for instance at the Grimm Zentrum near Friedrichstr. Bhf). In a few minutes, you will be issued with a user ID that is valid for one year. For more information see their FAQ section (German only). If you are 16 or 17 years old, you must provide your parents' consent along with your passport and proof of residency. Please print the following form and take it with you when you register: Parental Consent Form (PDF). When you register you will be able to borrow books and access hundreds of online databases from computers located in any of Humboldt University's libraries.
 
Technische Universität Berlin
Secondary students can register to use the libraries of the TU at the central library (Zentralbibliothek) for 5.00 EUR/year. Required documents include passport, proof of residency (Meldebescheinigung) and student card (Schülerausweis). In addition, students under 18 will need to submit a form signed by their legal guardian. Upon registration students can borrow books and take advantage of electronic resources. Click here for more information.
 
Universität der Künste Berlin
A Technische Universität Berlin library card (see above) is valid at the libraries of the UdK Berlin.