SPTHS Library

Explora

• ​Especially designed for high school students, Explora offers a variety of sources (books, academic journals, articles, etc.) across multiple subject areas. This would be a good tool for any students who are looking to complete a research project backed by reliable, peer-reviewed articles and/or primary sources.

• Key Features: User-friendly search engine, frequently updated list of timely topics and research ideas for high school class assignments.

Literary Reference Center Plus 

• ​LRC provides users with information about thousands of authors and their works across literary genres. 

• Key Features: author biographies, literary critiques, reviews, plot summaries, citation guides. 

Poetry & Short Story Reference Center 

• ​PSSR  provides users with a broad spectrum of information about poetry, short stories, and their authors. 

• Key Features: Full text pieces, author biographies, contextual essays, literary critques, poetry analyses.

Points of View Reference Center

• ​Provides multiple perspectives of a current issue or event. This would be especially useful for debate projects and/or persuasive essay assignments.

• Key Features: Comprehensive list of research topics about current, controversial subjects, paired with scholarly essays written from multiple points of view.

​ Biography Reference Center 

• Contains nearly half a million full-text biographies about a wide variety of influential people. 

• Key Features: User friendly search tools.

History Reference Center 

• Contains ​full text for hundreds of reference books, encyclopedias, photos, and primary sources provided by leading history research writers from all over the world.

• Key Features: curriculum standard guides, photos, and primary sources, citation and summary guides.

Science Reference Center 

• ​SRC contains full text for hundreds of science encylopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other sources.

• Key Features: references specifically designed for science classes, relevant experiments, research guides, etc.

Novelist Plus 

• Matches readers with books; especially good for recommending leisure reading.​

• Key Features: Let's you search for books by subject, genre, age, and reading level; you can also search for "read-alikes" based on other books or authors you may have enjoyed.

Academic Search Premier 

• ​College and professional-level research database offering resources from a wide variety of a subject areas and source types.

• Key Features: This is the same database offered at many universities so exposure to it could prepare students for what to expect for college-level research.