Online Research Databases
Mercy's online databases are for student, faculty, and staff use. To access these databases on campus the icons below will take you directly to the database. Instructional videos are available at the bottom of the page.
To access from home please view this document to find the appropriate password. If prompted, log in to your mercyhsb Google account to view this document.
To search all our Gale Databases use Power Search
To search our two new NewsBank databases - Access World News and America's Historical Newspapers, use the search box above.
Database access by subject
- General research
- English Literature
- Health and Wellness
- History and Government
- Religion
- Science
- Spanish
- Statistics
- Databases we are trialling
General research
General One File contains millions of articles from a variety of magazines and journals. Start here for most general searches.
Gale in Context High School provides contextual information on a wide range of subjects. Find research articles, including maps and statistics.
Gale Power search allows you to search all the databases we subscribe to through Gale. Beware of too many results though!
Academic One File is an essential set of scholarly journals and general interest titles supporting research across disciplines. (This was renamed from Expanded Academics)
Biography in Context contains biographies of over 400,000 significant individuals with details of their lives and times.
Global Issues in Context contains reference materials on a wide variety of international issues. This is a great place to start if you are seeking a topic that interests you.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context presents a wide variety of pressing issues, and discusses issues from both points of view. A great place to help you form your own opinions.
One File High school allows you to discover periodicals and reference book content supporting a wide range student research, from economics to science or literature.
NEW !!
Access World News from NewsBank Provides over 13,000 primary sources from 200 countries.
The Infobase Issues and Controversies databases provide detail of significant social issues raised both in the US, and worldwide. Great for History and English essay research. These databases focus on presenting both sides of each issue. Great for debate topics.
HeinOnline's social justice site include 5 collections of legal and historical documents on Slavery in the US and the world; Gun regulations and legislation; Civil Rights and Social justice; LGBTQ+ issues and the Open Society Justice Initiative.
We now subscribe to a fabulous selection of primary source collections through the Reference Shelf. If you are looking for speeches, articles by key decision makers and the like, on topics of current interest, use the search box above.
Jstor public content
Jstor's Open access books includes over 3000 books and detailed articles on a range of academic issues. These come from publishers including UC Press, Yale University Press, and around 200 others. Also available many publicly available Artstor images.
Britannica Academic databases
Encyclopedia Brittanica High School database - great for general research including history, science and Current affairs.
English Literature
Academic OneFile Select contains over 40 million academic articles from a wide variety of journals and magazines.
Gale Literary Resources contains articles, essays and reviews from over 390 literary journals and magazines.
GVRL is a collection of searchable ebooks, on the topics of History, Biography and Literary Criticism.
Literature Resource Center, Twaynes and Scibners provides information on individual authors and analysis of thousands of pieces of literature.
Teachingbooks is a new resource with author videos, book teasers, lesson plans and more.
Health and Wellness
Cameron's collection is a collection of ebooks focussed on navigating the emotional stresses and strains that sometimes accompany high school. Accessing these books is completely private. No-one is able to know who has accessed which books, or for how long. There is also no limit on the number of users per book, so they will never be unavailable to you. If you are accessing from home, the password is available on this document which you can access using your Mercy google account.
Health and Wellness resources for all enquiries about your health and well being.
History and Government
NEW!! Historical US Newspapers.
Primary source, historical U.S. papers dated 1690 to 2000.
NEW !!
Access World News from NewsBank Provides over 13,000 primary sources from 200 countries.
Gale US History
US History in Context contains articles, source material, and reference material on US History.
Gale World History in Context
World History in Context contains similar material to US H i C, but referencing world events.
Gale Global Issues
Global issues in Context is also very useful for history projects, and putting things in perspective!
The Black Freedom Struggle in the US.
A collection of documents and primary sources that document the tumultuous history, to the present day, of freedom for Black people to vote, live as they wish and be safe. Provided by Proquest.
Indigenous Digital Archive
This site has copies of over 300 original treaties made with indigenous Native American tribes in the early days of the US. Also available - maps from the 1890s which attempted to show the outlines of all the treaties in one place.
HeinOnline Special Collections
HeinOnline's social justice site include 5 collections of legal and historical documents on Slavery in the US and the world; Gun regulations and legislation; Civil Rights and Social justice; LGBTQ+ issues and the Open Society Justice Initiative.
Presidents: a Reference History
This ebook provides detailed biographies of the lives of each president.
Issues and Controversies in History
The Infobase Issues and Controversies databases provide detail of significant social issues throughout US history. It focuses on providing both sides of any issue.
Gale Opposing Viewpoints
Opposing Viewpoints in Context presents a wide variety of pressing issues, and discusses issues from both points of view. A great place to help you form your own opinions, or find new ideas for topics for further investigation.
We now subscribe to a fabulous selection of primary source collections through the Reference Shelf. If you are looking for speeches, articles by key decision makers and the like, on topics of current interest, use the search box above. There are a few history related titles.
Congress.gov
California State legislation.
Cornell Legal Information Institute
Deep information on laws, court decisions, broad topics. Excellent for Gov projects.
Congressional Research Services provides reports on a wide variety of topics that are of interest to Congress. These include details of laws that are in place or being considered.
Calisphere provides online access to millions of items of digital content from California's great libraries, universities and museums.
Religion
Issues and Controversies presents current affairs topics from two points of view - a great place to look if you want an in depth view of an issue.
Global Issues in Context contains reference materials on a wide variety of international issues. This is a great place to start if you are seeking a topic that interests you.
Gale's General One File includes, among very many other magazines, National Catholic Reporter and America magazine - two well respected Catholic sources. We carry back issues dating back to at least 1997. The database also includes, US Catholic; Catholic Insight; Catholic New Times and The Catholic World.
The Vatican's website has full description of all the Pope's statements, encyclicals and pronouncements throughout the years.
The Conference of Catholic Bishops website includes the collection of the books of the bible, including explanatory descriptions, a wide variety of policy and position papers and background information on issues of importance to Catholics.
The Sisters of Mercy website includes a information on all the activities that the Sisters are involved in, including resources to support each of the Critical Concerns.
The Network Lobby has information on a variety of current social issues and a collection of position papers and responses to current affairs that are designed to influence policy makers.
The National Catholic Bioethics Center has back issues of their two magazines, from three years ago, as well as blogs and other resources in the discussion of bio-ethics.
Catholic Relief Services website includes a section with detailed research papers and publications on the various work that CRS and their partners have achieved around the world.
Patheos is a website where you can explore the global dialogue about religion and spirituality. It has a deep section devoted to the different religions around the world, with descriptions, and details of foundational beliefs and texts and more.
Science
Gale Science in Context gives access to over a million academic articles from science magazines and academic journals covering every area of science. Start here for any science related research.
Gale Interactive: Science provides engaging, interactive models that bring science to life. Gale Interactive: Science helps students better visualize and understand concepts in biology, chemistry, earth and space science. Students and instructors can manipulate and explore 3D models that are paired with reference and periodical content for further understanding.
Embark on a journey into environmental learning. Gale In Context: Environmental Studies integrates news, reference materials, academic journals, videos, and more.
General OneFile provides integrated searches of thousands of curated and reliable news sources, magazines, academic journals, videos and more on a wide range of topics including many science based topics.
Spanish
Statistics
Rand State Statistics is a collection of statistical tables with data from around the state and the country on over 500 different topics.
The US Census provides an easy means of searching their data and seeing the results on this very cool website.
Our World in Data is a website produced by Oxford University with extensive data available both as charts and as raw data illustrating many aspects of the world we live in.
Databases we are trialling
These Newsbank databases are available for Mercy to trial till Mar 7 2023. If needed, the passwords are on the DB passwords document - view this document and at the top of this page.
Access World News from NewsBank Provides over 13,000 primary sources from 200 countries.
Historical US Newspapers.
Primary source, historical U.S. papers dated 1690 to 2000.
Useful Videos
Accessing the databases from home
How to use Gale In Context Opposing Viewpoints database and tools.