Learning Aids for High School

Find resources on core school subjects in our extensive online databases, which feature e-books, videos, lesson plans, and more. 

 

E-Books and Core Subject Resources

FreedomFlix
Bring history to life with video clips and e-books, with popup features such as maps, timelines, virtual tour clips, primary source videos, and audio clips. (Grades 4–9)

TeenBookCloud
A collection of videos and books in a variety of different categories including e-books, read-alongs, graphic novels, videos, and audiobooks. (Grades 6–12)

 

Research Assignments and Projects

Explora High School
Search a variety of subjects to access reports and academic journals, magazines, biographies, and encyclopedia entries. Includes features to listen along to the text and search by lexile level. (Grades 9–12)

 

Other Databases to Find Journal Articles and Primary Sources

Credo Reference
Provides full-text online access to hundreds of multidisciplinary reference book collections, bilingual dictionaries, and encyclopedias. Watch the Research Quick Tips for videos on research questions, finding relevant sources, avoiding bias, and more.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center
Offers material to support differing views and help students develop critical thinking skills on thousands of current social topics in the forms of primary source documents, images, audio, video, academic journals, statistics, and websites.

Britannica Academic
Offers Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, world atlas and country comparison, news and magazine articles, primary sources, images and video. Select School Edition for all grades (PreK–12) and all reading abilities. Select articles by reading level and listen along to the text. You can use Escolar Online for accurate and age-appropriate content in Spanish for native Spanish speakers, bilingual students, and students learning Spanish.

 

Social Studies

Through these AMC-CLIO databases, full text articles are available, and searchable by era. Explore the resources on research working with primary sources in the Academic Success Corner. Try the “Ask a Cybrarian” feature for help. Start with the video “How to Use the Database.”

African American Experience
Full-text digital resource exploring the history and culture of African Americans, as well as the greater Black diaspora.

American Indian Experience
Full-text digital resource exploring the history and culture of American Indians. Browsable by era, tribe, state, and region.

Latino American Experience
Covers history and culture from all the countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Iberian Peninsula, including content on modern-day Latin American countries, the history of the Hispanic diaspora, and indigenous peoples. Features peer-reviewed essays, reference sources, primary documents, media, newspapers, and magazines.

Pop Culture Universe: Icons, Idols, Ideas
Covers the arts, recreation, and everyday life from the 1900s to the present. Explore overviews of time periods and find political cartoons, posters, documents, and other primary sources for each era.

Understanding a Changing World
Find resources on geography, history and issues, society and culture, government and the economy and the impact of technology. Explore by region and country and find primary sources such as articles and speeches.

World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society
Coverage of major wars—including causes, effects, and involved parties—in Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas, from 2000 BCE to the present.  Material is divided into general overviews (Topics) and explorations of issues (Perspectives), supported with articles, images, speeches, and other documentation.

Through the Gale Databases, find overview articles, biographies, news and magazine articles, audio, video, images, and academic journals. Listen to an audio version of the text. Search through content level including lexile number.

Biography in Context
Provides biographical information on 650,000+ people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines.

U.S. History in Context
Coverage of the most-studied U.S. history topics, with overview articles, primary sources, biographies, audio, images, news and magazine articles, academic journals, and legal case overviews.

World History in Context
From antiquity to the present day, search a broad collection of scholarly analysis and full-text periodicals, reference works and primary documents that cover the events, movements, and individuals that have shaped world history.

 

News Sources and Periodicals

Flipster
Access over 100 popular magazines.

Infotrac Newsstand
Searchable text of more than 1000 newspapers, both national and international.

New York Daily News (1977 to Present)
Full-text articles from the New York tabloid.

New York State Newspapers
A collection of major New York state newspapers, available in full-text.

The New York Times (1980 to Present)
Full-text articles from the paper of record’s archives.

Newspaper Source (EBSCO)
Provides selected full-text for nearly 30 national U.S. newspapers, including USA Today, and 20 international newspapers. The database also contains selected full text for more than 200 regional U.S. newspapers, including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Miami Herald, The New York Daily News, The San Jose Mercury News, and more. In addition, full-text television and radio news transcripts are provided from CBS News, FOX News, and NPR.

PressReader
Provides access to current newspapers from around the world in full-color, full-page format. Includes over 2,000 U.S. and international titles.

 

Online Tools from NYPL

Digital Resources
Here’s how to access our digital resources, including e-books and databases like Mango Languages or The New York Times.

Lynda
The site features various free online courses to learn and develop skills, including programs like PowerPoint and Photoshop, and courses to help complete assignments.

Pixton (Free access with your library card!)
Pixton is a digital comic creation website for kids and teens. No drawing skills are required—just select from preset characters and backgrounds from a variety of pop culture, literary, scientific, and historical themes. Personalize the character appearances and costumes, choose poses and facial expressions, and write dialogue to tell a story. Comics are saved automatically to a user’s account and can be easily downloaded or printed from the Pixton site. Patrons will need a library card to sign in through the NYPL website and access their NYPL Pixton account.

 

Book Recommendations from NYPL

5 Comics (and one YA novel) featuring Trans and Gender-Non-Conforming Characters
LGBTQ+ characters have always existed in comics, from self-published zines of the past to mainstream comics of today. These titles span a variety of themes and genres.

11 Books for Bronx Week
Start here with some great reads celebrating the Boogie Down.

13 Witchy Fiction Books for Teens
Witchy reads are always in season.

17 Read Alikes for To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
The sequel to Jenny Han’s teen romance hit, P.S. I Still Love You just aired on Netflix. Here are 17 similar titles that will have your heart racing.

157 Titles to Celebrate the Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Literary Landscape
Whether you are looking for stories you can relate to or books to help you learn more about trans and gender non-conforming friends and family, we have something for you!

A Beginner’s Guide to LGBTQ+ Manga
To celebrate LGBTQ+ identity, here are some wonderful manga to begin with.

Books to Ring in the Year of the Mouse/Rat
Want to celebrate the Lunar New Year we are celebrating? Here’s books for all ages.

Get Your Head in the Game! Game-Based Manga Recommendations
Whether you’re playing card games on motorcycles or serving it on the court, there’s no denying the rush that comes from the thrill of a high-intensity battle. We’ve gathered a collection of our favorite game-based manga for you to enjoy!

Love & Resistance: LGBTQ Memoirs
These adult books about the LGBTQ+ experience have appeal for teens as well.

 

Read Alouds

FreedomFlix
Social Studies and History e-books. Try the Read to Me feature. (Grades 4–9)

 

Book and Podcast Recommendations from Our Partners and Other Organizations

11 Suggested Podcasts for Teens
Need something fresh to listen to? Here’s some podcasts you might like.

Book Riot Young Adult Literature Page
Here are a ton of great, curated, YA book lists to keep you going.

 

Self Care & Community Care

The world can be a stressful place and it is important to take care of yourself and those around you if you can. Community care is extending compassion to those in your community, whether in person or digitally. Here are some helpful ways to stay mindful.

Self Care Tips from Teen Vogue
Take it from the experts and be gentle with yourself.

Bujo Book Tracking Ideas from BookRiot
Want to track your reading? BookRiot has you covered with these lovely spreads.

Selections from BeWell’s Resources:

  • Nutrition Tips for Teens
    Staying healthy doesn’t have to feel like a challenge, even in challenging times.

  • Nutrition Tips for College Students
    You don’t need to be in college to be mindful about your eating habits! The experts at BeWell have you covered.

  • Blue Light and Sleep
    Ever wondered what being on your phone can do to your sleep habits? Find out how to be more thoughtful about screen time.

 

More Activities with NYPL

Explore engaging resources for supplemental learning on core subjects such as math, science, and reading that include activities like games and puzzles.

Adobe Spark
A graphic design platform from the creators of Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator. Use it for creative projects like designing posters, social media posts, slide shows, and short videos. There are both web and app versions of Adobe Spark.

Advance Power Searching on Google
Take your search game to the next level with these videos (text available as well).

BeWell Self Care, Nutrition, and Health
BeWell, a program developed by Columbia University’s Harlem Health Promotion Center, have some helpful links.

BBC iReporter
Take on the role of a BBC social media reporter breaking the story of a hacking crisis in this choose-your-own adventure game with live-action video. Touches on digital literacy issues such as sources, fake news, and sharing on social media.

Canva
A graphic design platform with a wide selection of free templates and clip art. Use it to design everything from bookmarks to infographics. There are both web and app versions of Canva.

Code Club
Get started learning programming languages like Scratch, HTML/CSS, or Python with these fun tutorials and creative projects!

Community Oral History Project
Not only can you explore the oral histories from folks in your community, you can also help us by transcribing interviews!

Hour of Code
Fun, themed coding tutorials that are great for beginners as well as coders who are comfortable with the basics, but want to practice or tackle a fun challenge.

Incredibox
Build an animated beatboxing crew using drag-and-drop musical samples. Play around and make your own beats or complete challenge combos to unlock music choruses.

Microsoft MakeCode Arcade
Design, remix, and play games while learning the code that powers them. Start with a tutorial game before building your own game or taking a deeper dive into a coding course.

Mouse Open Projects
Find resources and tutorials for creative technology projects using 3D modeling, 8-bit pixel art, coding, and more.

OldNYC—Mapping Historical Photos from NYPL
Ever wondered what your neighborhood looked like way back when? See New York City through the ages in these archival photographs.

PBS Above the Noise
Each short episode in this series takes on a current event or controversial topic, giving you facts and figures to cut through the hype and rise above the noise.

The New York Times Learning Network
The New York Times education hub featuring learning resources paired with the newspaper's content. Access to articles, etc is free through this site. Features writing prompts, quizzes, and more.  

Time for Payback
An online game that prepares you for the financial responsibilities of college and beyond.

Scratch
A programming language developed by MIT especially for beginning coders. Use the Scratch website or download the free software to create, remix, and share coding projects like games and animations in a safe online community.

Sketchpad
An online platform for making digital art. Paint and draw with a wide range of tools and special effects or add clip art and text. Sketchpad’s website can be used on a computer or a tablet.

Soundtrap
Create and remix your own songs. Combine pre-recorded loops and samples or even record yourself singing or playing an instrument.

Stereogranimator
Create weird, old-timey gifs with the New York Public Library’s own stereography site.