General/Multi-disciplinary Resources
A P Images (1844-) 
What Is It? Current and historical archive from the Associated Press. Includes over 1 million primary source photos, 24,000 maps, logos, and graphics, and more than 4,500 hours of audio files dating from the 1920's.
Why Use It? To find photographs; maps, sound bites.
AccessScience (Current) 
What Is It? Encyclopedia for the sciences; electronic equivalent of the 8th edition of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology with added content.
Why Use It? Read overviews of topics in the sciences. Look up definitions of general scientific terms. Find brief biographies of major scientists.
Annual Reviews (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Digitized archives of scholarly journals in the Social Sciences, Physical Sciences and Biomedical Sciences.
Why Use It? Search a full-text archive of multi-disciplinary scholarly journals.
ArchivesUSA (Coverage Varies) 
What Is It? Directory of 5,400 repositories and 132,000 manuscript collections of primary source materials. Repository entries contain contact information for the custodians of the collections.
Why Use It? Find primary source collections on a particular topic or to obtain contact information for an archival collection.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1975-Present) What Is It? One of three databases included in Web of Science. It indexes scholarly journal articles in the arts and humanities.
Why Use It? Find authors that cited a particular paper. Track research by moving backward and forward in time through a specified discipline.
Search Tutorial
Biography Index (1984-Present) What Is It? An index to biographical articles and essays published in periodicals and in collective or individual biographies. Also indexes incidental biographical material in otherwise non-biographical books. Subjects indexed range from antiquity to the present and represent all fields and nationalities.
Why Use It? Gather biographical information. Search through biographical dictionaries and Who's Who.
Biography Resource Center (1960-Present) What Is It? A database of biographical information. Covers all periods of history around the world. Indexes biographical reference sources as well as articles from periodicals.
Why Use It? Read quick summary or description of personal information on a particular individual. Find an in-depth overview of the subject's life and accomplishments.
Research the place of a subject in history or society, a particular field of endeavor, or the news.
Black Studies Center (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Black Studies Center comprises three resources: the Chicago Defender 1935-present (a highly influential African American newspaper) , the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience (containing video, commissioned essays, timelines and supported materials, and images), and the International Index to Black Periodicals (indexing the major Black journals, magazines, and newsletters in the Americas; fulltext for many articles from 1988+).
Why Use It? Find articles, video, manuscripts examining the Black experience in the Americas.
BLC Catalog What Is It? a catalog containing the holdings of the member libraries of the Boston Library Consortium: Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, MA State Library, Marine Biological Laboratory/Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution, MIT
Northeastern, Tufts, University of Connecticut, Umass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell, UMass Medical, University of New Hampshire, Wellesley, and Williams.
Why Use It? Search for and borrow materials that are not available at Williams.
Book Review Digest (1983-Present ) What Is It? Index to book reviews of English-language fiction and non-fiction books published in leading magazines and scholarly journals from the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Includes excerpts of reviews and an abstract of each book.
Why Use It? Find reviews about a particular book. Compile a list of reviews written by an author. Assess the significance of a book in a given time period.
Book Review Digest Retrospective (1905-1982) What Is It? Provides excerpts from and citations to reviews of over 300,000 fiction and non-fiction English-language books published in leading magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals as well as the library review media.
Why Use It? Find reviews about a particular book. Compile a list of reviews written by an author. Assess the significance of a book in a given time period.
Books in Print (Current) What Is It? List of titles that are in print, forthcoming, or declared out-of-print or out-of-stock. Many records contain excerpts from reviews.
Why Use It? Find out if a book is available for purchase. Get a list of books by an given author or on a given subject. Access brief book reviews (for more recent titles).
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance What Is It? CFDA is a database of all Federal programs available to state and local governments (including the District of Columbia); federally-recognized Indian tribal governments; Territories (and possessions) of the United States; domestic public, quasi-public, and private profit and nonprofit organizations and institutions; specialized groups; and individuals. After you find the program you want, contact the office that administers the program and find out how to apply. User Guide
Why Use It? Use CFDA to find information on available assistance, including how to write and submit your grant proposal.
Chicago Manual of Style 15th edition (Online edition) What Is It? Guide to writing research paper, citing, formulating footnotes, creating bibliographies in Chicago 15th edition format.
Why Use It? Find definitive answers to using the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition.
Columbia Gazetteer of the World Online (Current) What Is It? Entries in the Gazetteer include basic information on many of the following: demography; physical geography; political boundaries; industry, trade, and service activities; agriculture; cultural, historical, and archeological points of interest; transportation lines; longitude, latitude, and elevations; distance to relevant places; pronunciations; official local government place-names and changed or variant names and spellings.Their length varies from a brief notation on a small village to an essay on a country or region
Why Use It? Look up Geographical information; check the spelling of a place name; gather basic socio-demographic information about cities, towns, regions worldwide.
Contemporary Authors (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Database providing biographical and bibliographical information for mostly 20th century U.S. and international authors.
Note: Contemporary Authors is included in the database Biography Resources Center.
Why Use It? Search for biographical information about an author.
Contemporary Fashion (Current) What Is It? A reference book covering individual designers and fashion houses that have been active throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Informative essays mirror the many facets of the fashion world.
Why Use It? To locate information about fashion and fashion designers from the 20th and 21st century.
Credo Reference (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Collection of electronic editions of reference dictionaries and handbooks.
Why Use It? Find overviews of topics in nearly all disciplines. Search for definitions. Find biographical information. Search for quotations. Check the meaning or spelling of a foreign language term.
Dictionary of American Biography (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Collection of biographical sketches of Americans who died in 1980 or earlier.
Available through the Biography Resource Center database.
Why Use It? Find a biography of an American figure who died in or before 1980. Group biographies of people by occupation, birthplace, birth year, or sex. Find a biography of someone if you know only their occupation, birthplace, birth year, or sex; search the full-text of the biographies using just a keyword.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (Current) What Is It? Williams College faculty, students, and staff enjoy unlimited use of Britannica Online, and may print and save for personal or educational use. Reproduction and distribution of Britannica or its contents off campus is prohibited.
Why Use It? Get basic information on a topic. Begin a research paper and find a topic.
Europa World (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Online version of the current edition of the Europa World Year Book and the nine-volume Europa Regional Surveys of the World series. Back issues of the Regional Surveys are available in print -- check FRANCIS for location information.
Why Use It? Find political and economic information in more than 250 countries and territories.
Expanded Academic Index (1980-Present) What Is It? Multi-disciplinary index to scholarly academic and general interest periodicals.
Why Use It? Search for articles on a wide variety of subjects. Get a sense of how much has been written on your topic. Gather background information. Good place to start most research projects.
General Reference Center (1980-Present) What Is It? A multidisciplinary index to general interest magazines, reference books, and newspaper articles covering a wide range of topics.
Why Use It? Find articles in popular or scholarly journals. Gather background information before starting a research project. Explore subjects and their subdivisions to help you pick or refine your topic.
General Science Abstracts (1984-Present ) What Is It? Abstracts for articles in the areas of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Geosciences, Health, Mathematics, Medicine, Nutrition and Physics.
Why Use It? Search popular science magazines and professional science journals. Search multidisciplinary scientific topics.
Global Development Finance (Coverage Varies) 
What Is It? Global Development Finance (GDF) includes analysis and commentary on recent developments in international finance for developing countries, with particular focus on the East Asian financial crisis. Summary statistical tables are included for selected regional and analytical groups comprising 150 developing countries. Country Tables contain statistical tables on the external debt of the 138 countries that report public and publicly guaranteed debt under the Debtor Reporting System (DRS).
Why Use It? Find analysis, commentary and statistics on recent developments in international finance for developing countries.
Historical Statistics of the United States: Millenium Edition (1790-2000) What Is It? Find statistics about almost any aspect of U.S. economics, population or infrastructure since the government began recording statistics. Compare statistics from colonial times to similar data in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Study the evolution of statistics collection in the U.S.
Why Use It? Find general (historical to 2000) U.S. Statistics on labor, population, education, etc.
Humanities Abstracts (1980-Present ) What Is It? Abstracts for scholarly journal articles in the humanities. Covers archaeology, art, architecture, literature, history, music, philosophy and religion.
Why Use It? Find articles on topics in the humanities, including archaeology, classical studies, folklore, history, journalism, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy and religion. Find literary and political criticism. Find book reviews.
IndiaStat.com (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Statistics from Indian Government agencies relating to all aspects of Indian life: population, health, economy, education, etc. Also includes general data about India, such as a list of newspapers by province.
Why Use It? Find statistics about India.
International Financial Statistics (1948-Present) What Is It? International Financial Statistics Database.
Why Use It? Find financial statistics, e.g., GDP, M2, employment, national reserves, etc, for over 200 countries. Data Provided by the International Monetary Fund.
International Index to Black Periodicals (1998-present) What Is It? Citations and abstracts from scholarly journals and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean, and full-text coverage of core Black Studies periodicals. Coverage is international and multidisciplinary in scope.
Why Use It? Find articles on the African American experience in the United States as seen through periodicals that focus on the Black community.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism (Current) What Is It? Encyclopedia providing an overview of twentieth-century Western literary theory.
Why Use It? Learn about a literary critic or theorist. Research literary ideas, history or theories.
JSTOR (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Digital archive of core scholarly journals in arts, humanities, general science and social sciences. Historical collection covering complete run of each journal from its inception to 1-5 years ago.
Why Use It? Search a full-text archive of multi-disciplinary scholarly journals.
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe - News (Coverage varies) What Is It? Provides access to full-text articles from U.S. national and regional news sources, English language newspapers and newswires from around the world.
Why Use It? Search for recent articles in the national and regional U.S. newspapers and magazines and in the English language foreign press.
Library of Congress Classification Outline (Current) What Is It? The Subject Classification (Call Number) Scheme used to organize books in most academic libraries
Why Use It? To understand the arrangement of books in the library using the Library of Congress Subject Classification Scheme.
Library, Information Science and Technology Abstract (LISTA) (1965-) What Is It? Library, Information Science & Technology Abstract (LISTA) indexes more than 600 periodicals, plus books, research reports and proceedings. Subject coverage includes librarianship, classification, cataloging, bibliometrics, online information retrieval, information management and more. Coverage in the database extends back as far as the mid-1960s.
Why Use It? Identify journal articles and book chapters focused on librarianship and information retrieval
New York Review of Books (1963-Present) What Is It? Electronic edition of the New York Review of Books.
Why Use It? Find reviews about a particular book. Assess the significance of a book in a given time period.
NExpress Catalog What Is It? Catalog of the NExpress libraries: Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Northeastern, Wellesley, Williams.
Why Use It? To search for and borrow materials not available at Williams.
Oxford English Dictionary Online (Current) What Is It? Complete text of the Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Considered the premier work documenting the history of English word usage.
Why Use It? Determine the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of English words. Find the derivation, or origin, of English words; learn about the evolution of English words.
Oxford Reference Online (Current) What Is It? Collection of electronic editions of Oxford University Press Dictionaries and Handbooks
Why Use It? Find overviews of topics in nearly all disciplines. Search for definitions. Find biographical information. Search for quotations. Check the meaning or spelling of a foreign language term.
Project MUSE (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Collection of electronic journals published by major university presses, especially journals in the humanities and social sciences.
Why Use It? Search a selection of current humanities and social sciences ejournals.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers (US) (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Searchable full-text articles and images from:
Atlanta Constitution (1868-1939)
Chicago Defender (1921-1975)
Chicago Tribune (1849-1986)
Christian Science Monitor (1908-1993)
Hartford Courant (1764-1984)
Los Angeles Times (1881-1986)
New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)
New York Times (1851-2004)
Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002)
Wall Street Journal (1889-1990)
Washington Post (1877-1991)
Why Use It? Find articles, images, classifieds, advertisements in historical US newspapers.
ProQuest International Newsstand (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Searchable fulltext (some citations) from over 170 English and non-English Language newspapers and newswire sources worldwide. Coverage for most sources begins in the late 1990s.
Why Use It? Find articles in major English language newspapers and newswires from around the world.
ProQuest National Newspapers (Current News) (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Full-text of articles from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other highly circulated US newspapers.
Articles only - does not include graphics, photos, advertisement or classifieds. New York Times Magazine and Book Reviews are available as PDFs with graphics included.
Why Use It? Search for current articles in leading U.S. newspapers; research a national or international news story; see how a national story is covered by a variety of papers. Find editorials on a topic.
PsycArticles (1894-Present) What Is It? Full-text coverage of American Psychological Association journal articles (approximately 55).
Why Use It? Look for the full-text of a specific journal article published by the American Psychological Association.
Readers' Guide Abstracts (1983-Present ) What Is It? Index to articles in popular, general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.
Why Use It? Research contemporary writings on general news areas as current events, business, fashion, politics, crafts, education, history, sports, food, and science.
Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982) What Is It? Index to articles in popular, general interest magazines published in the United States and Canada.
Why Use It? Research contemporary writings on general news areas as current events, business, fashion, politics, crafts, education, history, sports, food, and science.
Roper Poll (Coverage Varies) What Is It? A computer-based library of survey research and public opinion data produced by the Roper Center. Includes data from Gallup polls, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, General Social Surveys and many other major polling organizations.
Why Use It? Search for data from public opinion surveys 1935 - current.
Science Citation Index (1900-Present) What Is It? One of three databases included in Web of Science that indexes scholarly journal articles. Covers the pure sciences
Why Use It? Find authors that cite a particular paper. Track research by moving backward and forward in time through a specified discipline. Search an interdisciplinary topic.
Search Tutorial
ScienceDirect (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Full-text electronic access to over 1000 peer-reviewed journals published by Elsevier and its subsidiaries. Covers disciplines in the sciences, business, economics, and medicine.
Why Use It? Search for full-text articles on a topic. Browse tables of contents. Set up an email alert that notifies you when new issues of journals are available.
Social Sciences Abstracts (1983-Present ) What Is It? Multidisciplinary abstracts to articles in English language social sciences journals.
Why Use It? Search for scholarly articles in any of the social sciences fields. Find what an author has published recently. See how a topic is covered in various disciplines.
Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-Present) What Is It? One of three databases included in Web of Science. Multidisciplinary database covering the journal literature of the social sciences. Disciplines covered include: Anthropology, History, Law, Linguistics, Political Science, Sociology, Psychology, Women's Studies
Why Use It? Find who cited a particular paper. Track progress of research by moving backward and forward in time through a specified discipline.
Search Tutorial
STAT-USA (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Database of economic, business, and international trade information. Contains data from the National Trade Data Bank and the Economic Bulletin Board. Produced by STAT-USA, an agency in the Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.
Why Use It? Conduct market research and other types of economic analyses from current and historical economic, financial, trade and statistical data produced by the U.S. Government
Statistical Universe (1973/1983 - present) What Is It? A multidisciplinary index to statistics covering a wide range of topics.
Why Use It? Find statistics on popular or scholarly topics. Gather background statistics before starting a research project.
Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (Current) What Is It? Directory providing information on serials published throughout the world. Covers all subjects. Includes irregular and free of charge publications.
Why Use It? Find the publisher's address for periodicals. Gather a list of periodicals for a discipline. Find editors' names and contact information. Find circulation figures and advertisment rates for a publication.
United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) (1946-current) What Is It? A collection of treaties and international agreements registered or filed and recorded with and published by the Secretariat since 1946. The UNTS includes the texts of treaties in their authentic language(s), along with translations into English and French, as appropriate.
Why Use It? Obtain text of treaties to which U.N. member nations are party.
USA Trade® Online (Coverage Varies) What Is It? A database providing access to U.S. merchandise trade data. Includes current and cumulative export and import data on more than 18,000 export commodities and 24,000 import commodities worldwide. Produced by STAT-USA and the Foreign Trade Division of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Why Use It? Search for U.S. import/export data on specific products and create custom reports.
Vanderbilt Television News Archive (1968-Present) What Is It? The collection holds individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and special news-related programming including ABC's Nightline. Special reports cover presidential press conferences and political campaign coverage, and major national and international events.
Why Use It? Search major U.S. network television evening news broadcasts and special news programs.
Web of Science (1900-Present) What Is It? Multi-disciplinary index to academic and general interest journals. Includes Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present) and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present ).
Why Use It? Search for articles on a wide variety of subjects. Get a sense of how much has been written on your topic. Gather background information. Good place to start most research projects. Indexes more scholarly journals than the Expanded Academic Index.
Search Tutorial
Who's Who (Current) What Is It? Biographical Essays from Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who was Who and 17 companion publications.
Why Use It? Find biographical information on people in the Arts, the Media, Education, Science, Politics, the Military, etc.
Wiley Interscience (Coverage Varies) What Is It? Electronic database of journals published by Wiley, focuses on the sciences and social sciences.
Why Use It? Search for the full-text journal articles.
World Development Indicators (Coverage Varies) What Is It? A World Bank collection of data about countries throughout the world.
Why Use It? Find data on a wide range of topics about individual countries. Compare countries by combining data on a spreadsheet. Find summaries of the condition of individual countries. Locate countries on an electronic map.
WorldCat (Current) What Is It? Catalog of library catalogs. It contains records from over 9,000 libraries from around the world.
Why Use It? Verify accuracy of bibliographic information. Find out which library an item is located.