Online Subscription Databases

These online resources are available to you from any computer with internet access unless otherwise noted. If you're at home or school when you access these, you'll be asked to log in. Type the number underneath the barcode on the back of your library card to log in. If you have any trouble, call the Reference Department at 501.918.3000.

• African American Experience – A collection that taps a tremendous variety of sources to aid in understanding African American history and its relation to greater U.S. history.
• African-American History Online (Facts on File) – Provides information on more than 500 years of African-American history.
• American History Online (ABC-CLIO) – A comprehensive, accessible research collection covering American history from the first explorers through today's headlines.
• American Indian Experience – An online collection featuring reference content, hundreds of primary documents, and thousands of images, spanning from pre-contact to the colonial era into the 21st century, and from the Inuit of Alaska to the Seminole of Florida.
• Black Women in America – provides expanded coverage of the achievements and contributions of African American women.
• Civil War Newspapers – A collection of historical newspapers containing extensive local and national coverage of American culture, politics, and society from the Antebellum through the Reconstruction periods. Available at all CALS libraries.
• CultureGrams (ProQuest) – Provides concise, reliable, and up-to-date cultural information on the countries of the world and delivers an insider's perspective on daily life and culture, including the history, customs, and lifestyles of the world's people.
• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 – Documents the African American experience from the arrival of the first slave ship to the death of Frederick Douglass-and shows how American culture, history, and national identity have been influenced by the experience of African Americans.
• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present – Traces the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement, up to and including the 2008 election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.
• Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture – A free, authoritative source of information about the rich history, geography, and culture of Arkansas. The Encyclopedia contains more than 6,000 entries and pieces of media related to Arkansas with new material being added weekly.
• Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
• The Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
• Fold3 (formerly Footnote.com) – A collection of over 60 million pages of historical documents and personal histories, including millions of records available from the National Archives and other institutions. Please note: certain features of Fold3 require the use of an Adobe Flash plugin unavailable on some mobile and tablet browsers.
• Index Arkansas – an index to articles and other information published in county history journals as well as selected statewide magazines, newspapers and books. Check the CALS catalog to see which of the titles are available at CALS and submit an Interlibrary Loan request if the title is not available at CALS.
• Latino American Experience – Explores the rich heritage and current culture of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans, Cubans, Dominicans, Colombians, Ecuadorians, and other Hispanic cultures in the United States.
• The Oxford Companion to World Exploration
• The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
• The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Maritime History
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern World - Provides information about major world developments from 1750 to the present, with close attention to social, economic, cultural, and political topics.
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History
• World History: The Modern Era (ABC-CLIO) – Provides globe-spanning coverage of events from 1500 to the present.

Web Resources We Recommend

• Arkansas History Commission and State Archives – Official archives of the state, responsible for collecting and preserving the source materials of the history of Arkansas.
• Old State House Museum – Museum of Arkansas' history, people, and culture.
• Arkansas Historic Preservation Program – Identifies, evaluates, registers, and preserves the state's historic and cultural resources and seeks to instill a preservation ethic in Arkansas.
• BBC: On This Day – Highlights worldwide historical events using audio and video clips from the archives of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
• American Memory – Provides free access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience.
• U.S. Census Bureau Geography – Maps and cartographic resources.
• NationMaster – Allows users to graphically compare any combination of countries on a vast array of statistics drawn from the CIA World Factbook, the UN, and more.
• National Geographic Map Machine – Offers maps for just about every place on Earth, viewable by population, climate, conservation, and topography.