Britannica Library Databases

Whether you have been homeschooling for a while or are suddenly required to teach your kids at home, here's some good news: WPL offers four editions of the trusted online encyclopedia Britannica, as well as a Spanish Reference Center, to aid you in remote learning. To access, go to mywpl.org, hover the mouse over “Resources,” and select “Online Databases.” Unless you are in the library, select the house icon, which will prompt you to enter your library card number and PIN...and you're in!

Public Library Edition, Public Library Edition for Kids,  Learning Zone, School Edition and the Spanish Reference Center are excellent resources for children in all grade levels. You can select a database by topic or click on the “By Subject,” at the top. Once “By Subject” is chosen, the entire list of databases will appear. Scroll down to “Encyclopedias and Reference Titles,” in order to see the five different Britannica databases. Besides Learning Zone, all of the databases have a “Research Tools and Materials” link that will take the user to options such as “articles,” “media,” “animal kingdom,” and more. Public Library Edition and Spanish Reference Center both allow the user to choose the age range of the child the user is looking for information, while School Edition takes it one step further and allows the user to search for topic by elementary, middle and high school.

The layout of each database is very similar with only a few small differences between each database, depending on the age of the user. For example, Learning Zone is geared for much younger children, and is simpler to use; its home screen has four choices of “read,” “explore,” “play,” and “create.” No time like the present to explore...and a librarian is just a phone call or email away if you need help!