Databases freely available to the public


Online Books Page

Provides author, title, and subject access to hundreds of thousands of non-copyrighted online books freely available on the Web.

Access: Freely available to the public
Data and Statistics About the U.S.

Gateway to U.S. government statistics from over 100 agencies. Find data about the U.S., such as demographic and economic data, population, maps, and information about the U.S. Census.

Access: Freely available to the public
Census Data (formerly available through American Factfinder)

Census.gov is the new government platform for delivering data through many individual tools (e.g., American FactFinder, OnTheMap, My Congressional District) to a model where those tools’ capabilities are integrated and served on a single platform. including the following data:

  • American Community Survey   
  • American Housing Survey  
  • Annual Economic Surveys   
  • Annual Surveys of Governments   
  • Census of Governments  
  • Decennial Census  
  • Economic Census 
  • Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Tabulation 
  • Population Estimates Program   
  • Puerto Rico Community Survey
Access: Freely available to the public
Guide to Law Online (LOC)

An annotated guide to national and international sources of government and legal information prepared by the Law Library of Congress; includes links to treaties, constitutions, and codes.

Access: Freely available to the public
National Archive of Criminal Justice Data

Data collections relating to criminal justice from federal and state agencies, and grant-funded projects. Provides documentation, and browsing and downloading access to most of the data.

Access: Freely available to the public
Library of Congress Digital Collections

Multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library of Congress' National Digital Library Program.

Access: Freely available to the public
Google Scholar

Crawls (indexes) the content of publishers' websites, scholarly journals, indexes, academic websites, institutional repositories, etc. to find information of a scholarly nature. Does not provide comprehensive coverage of any one field. Enter through the library's website so that you will be linked to the library's licensed resources. 

Access: Freely available to the public
Google Book Search

Google is in the process of scanning complete books from some of the world's great libraries. Books in the public domain can be read in their entirety. Some books will display in part.

Access: Freely available to the public
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; full-text is free for all; excellent source for international dissertations.

Access: Freely available to the public
VictimLaw

Information on victims rights and protections including Constitutional provisions, statutes, court rules, administrative code provisions, case summaries, and attorney general opinions. Includes overviews of the justice system and a glossary.

Access: Freely available to the public
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Entries are maintained and kept up to date by experts in the field. Access is unlimited and free to everyone.

Access: Freely available to the public
NCBI Bookshelf (NIH)

A growing collection of searchable biomedical books hosted by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, which advances science and health by providing access to biomedical and genomic information.

Access: Freely available to the public
Supreme Court Database (NSF)

Provides legal scholars with extensive data, like background issues, reasons for acceptance, chronology, outcome impacts, and judge's opinions, for Supreme Court Cases since 1953. Funded by the National Science Foundation.

Access: Freely available to the public
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (LOC)

Photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings from the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

Access: Freely available to the public
Public Library of Law

A collection of free law materials including case law, statutes, regulations, court rules, and federal and state constitutions.

Access: Freely available to the public
Directory of Open Access Books

A discovery service for peer reviewed books published under an Open Access license.

Access: Freely available to the public
govinfo (U.S. government information)

govinfo provides free public access to official publications from all three branches of the Federal Government (replaced FDsys).

Publications on govinfo include:

  • Legislative, Executive, and Judicial content:
    • Bills and Statutes, congressional committee materials, and proceedings of Congress
    • Presidential and regulatory materials
    • Opinions from more than 100 U.S. courts
  • New content daily- Congressional Record, Federal Register, House and Senate Calendars
  • Multiple file formats- PDF documents, audio, photos, XML
  • Curated collections- Nancy Reagan tribute, documents related to the sinking of the Titanic
  • Digitized historical content- oldest dates back to 1793
  • High-profile publications- 9-11 Report, Post JFK Assassination Audio, Warren Commission Report and Hearings, Financial Crisis Inquiry Report, Nixon’s Watergate Grand Jury Testimony, and landmark legislation: Civil Rights Act and Obamacare
Access: Freely available to the public
Flickr: the Commons

The project currently includes over 200,000 images from more than 50 international cultural heritage institutions.

Access: Freely available to the public
MetPublications

A portal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's comprehensive book and online publishing program with close to 700 titles published from 1964 to the present.

Access: Freely available to the public
Criminal Trial Transcripts Collection, Lloyd Sealy Library

An index to the Lloyd Sealy Library's Trial Transcripts of the County of New York 1883-1927. Several transcripts have been digitized and are available online.

Access: Freely available to the public