Exciting New Online Resources at the Library!

By Morgan Sohl, Librarian I

American Indian History Online is the premier source for Native American history and offers access to over 15,000 years of culture and history of Native Americans in North and South America. Students and adults alike will enjoy using this resource for papers, projects, research, and for information purposes and as a great starting point for research. This database includes event and topics entries, biographies, images, videos, maps and charts, legends, primary sources, and timeline entries. The Tribes and Culture Areas is a great starting place for research and has helpful tabbed lists of over 600 Native American groups and a browse by region. American Indian History Online is an exciting addition to Rapid City Public Library’s electronic resources as it offers patrons access to rare primary sources including treaties, charts, and photos. Whatever your research needs, this database will offer a unique historical perspective whether you need information on a specific tribe, event, region, or history or are just interested in learning more about Native American culture, traditions, and history. Another great feature of this resource is that you can print, copy, and save all content for your personal use.

Biography Resource Center is a one-stop resource for biographies on notable figures in literature, science, politics, history, government, business, art, gender, multicultural studies, religion, entertainment, world culture, sports, the arts, and much more. This resource offers over 435,000 full-text biographies on over 340,000 individuals from all around the world gathered from over 1,000 volumes of reference works as well as full-text articles from nearly 300 magazines. The biographies include links to websites and photos as well a detailed text. The Lives and Perspectives Collection is a seamless part of Biography Resource Center and includes more than 160,000 in-depth biographies which were taken from respected reference sources. Each biography features unique viewpoints and scholarly citations that people of all ages will find useful. This resource provides full-text coverage of the most cited reference sources all in one convenient access point. Some of the great features include: brief and extended biographies, brief updates on people in the news, over 27,000 images, and links to over 19,000 websites that that provide more content and context on an individual’s life and works, research guides. You can search for biographies by name, birth and death years, places, nationality, ethnicity, gender, occupation. One of the best features is that it is regularly updated to expand existing biographies and add new ones.

To access these online resources, visit the library’s resource page at www.rapidcitylibrary.org/services/resources.asp and use your library card. And remember that you can also contact us by phone (394-4171 Downtown, or 716-4098 at the North library), or visit in person at either of the library locations. RCPL is ready to help you explore these new databases as well as the rest of our electronic and print collections.