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