April 27, 2026
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View the winning entries of the 2026 Black History Month Art Contest.
e-Resource Guide: Tips for Researching Without EBSCO
Rory Granger
Rory Granger is the digital circulation specialist for the New Orleans Public Library
In a response to uncertainties in federal funding, the Louisiana State Library ended its subscription to EBSCO information services on June 30, 2025. As a result, New Orleans Public Library cardholders no longer have access to the numerous research databases, learning and career preparation materials, health and wellness research databases, business and legal reference tools, and special interest reference centers.
With the increased volume of spurious sources and widely-shared misinformation, finding a reliable source of information has never been more important. While Library cardholders still have access to all of the e-resources listed here, we also want to share some tips and free online resources that may fill the gap left by the loss of EBSCO access.
Tips for researching:
- Look up LibGuides for your chosen category. They’re lists of reputable resources curated by libraries all over the country. Some contain links that you need to have a card for, but many contain some free and open-access databases. Searching ‘biography libguide’ and checking those results will take more time, but having solid sources of information can really make or break a research assignment. These databases may even help inspire you to pick a topic if you’re struggling.
- Diversify your sources of information. Websites are very convenient sources of information, but including published sources as well makes your research more trustworthy. (eBook versions still count!)
- Cite your sources! Not every source is reliable. If you can’t pinpoint or are embarrassed to say where you learned something, it might be time to double check that info.
General research:
- Digital Commons Network
- Free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide
- Digital Public Library of America
- Millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- Index of open access journals from around the world
- Google Scholar
- Search engine that indexes full text or metadata of scholarly literature
- List of Academic Databases and search engines – Wikipedia
- List of major databases and search engines for academic settings – you can sort by access cost
Instead of EBSCO’s Biography Reference Source, try:
- American Academy of Achievement
- Members of the American Academy of Achievement
- American National Biography
- Includes more than 19,000 men and women whose lives have shaped American history and culture
- Biography.com
- Current and historical figures, as well as athletes, actors, musicians, scientists, and innovators
- BlackPast
- Focuses on the history of Black people across the globe, especially in North America
- National Women’s History Museum
- Biographies of women in American history
- Who2
- Basic facts about famous people
Instead of EBSCO’s Consumer Health Complete, try:
- The Health & Wellness page on our website
- FamilyDoctor.org
- Trusted medical advice from the American Academy of Family Physicians
- Mental Health America
- A to Z list of mental health conditions, including information about symptoms, prevalence, and treatment
- Merck Manual – Consumer Version
- First published in 1899 as a small reference book; one of the most widely used comprehensive medical resources for professionals and consumers
- Plain Language Medical Dictionary
- Medical terminology in easy-to-understand terms; provided by the University of Michigan Library
Instead of EBSCO’s History Reference Source, try:
- American Presidency Project
- Presidential public documents
- Eurodocs
- European primary historical documents that are transcribed, scanned, or translated as well as video or sound files, maps, photographs, and other documentation
- Documenting the American South
- Texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture
- Internet History Sourcebooks Project
- Public domain and copy-permitted historical texts for educational use
- Native Northeast Portal
- Primary source materials by, on, or about Northeast Indians
Instead of EBSCO’s Legal Information Source, try:
- Law Library of Louisiana Online Resource Center
- Legal information and research assistance for legal professionals and public throughout the state
- Loyola University College of Law LibGuide
- Comprehensive collection of federal and state legal research sources (many are free and open to the public, but not all)
Instead of EBSCO’s Science Reference Source, try:
- Arxiv
- Open-access archive for nearly 2.4 million scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
- Public Library of Science
- Open-access journals in science, technology, and medicine
- PubMed Central
- Open access full-text scholarly articles from biomedical and life sciences journals
- SciEL0
- Scholarly literature in sciences, social sciences, arts & humanities published in open access journals from Latin American, Portugal, Spain and South Africa
- ScienceDirect
- Full texts of over 3.3 million free and open access scientific and medical articles
April 26, 2026
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Celebrate Free Comic Book Day, Saturday, May 3rd, with the New Orleans Public Library. Visit any Library location to get a free comic and check out our collection of graphic novels and manga. Plus, enter our raffle to win a selection of new graphic novels – winners announced on May 9.
April 15, 2026
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When you walk into the grocery store and buy a banana, you might not think about Tulane University, Lil Wayne, Honduran immigrants, or New Orleans’ cruise terminal. But you should.
1 thought on “Tips for Researching Without EBSCO Resources”
This is super amazing! Thank you for taking the time to compile this list of alternatives 🙂
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