Databases

Compare global economies, countries, and industries with in-depth analysis on over 400,000 companies.

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Over 40 volumes of actual business plans compiled by, and aimed at, entrepreneurs seeking funding for small businesses in North America. Includes business-plan templates, fictional business plans, and listings of organizations, agencies, and consultants, plus glossaries and bibliographies.

Learn how to start, finance, or manage your small business. Includes sample business plans, how to guides, articles, and more.

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Chilton DIY from Gale provides exclusive photographs, step-by-step repair procedures, wiring diagrams, recalls and Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) for automobiles and light trucks in one easy-to-use website. A vehicle Selector lets you search thousands of combinations of year, make and model covering the most popular vehicles of the past 30 years, as well as coverage of specialty models.

View a short video about this resource here.

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Library of Congress, Chronicling America

The World Factbook provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. Includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, a World Oceans map, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.

Access a wide array of multidisciplinary content by searching scholarly journals, newspapers, periodicals, images, and videos.

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Visit the online Calendar of Classes & Events to find and register for computer classes offered at FBCL library branches.

Cultural and geographical information on more than 200 countries including their history, statistics, maps, and flags. Select Kids' Edition for a kid's-eye view of daily life in countries around the world. Explore the United States and discover state flags, maps, sports teams, recipes, symbols, songs and more.

More than 41,700 links, categorized and cross-referenced, in more than 100 categories.

Data Axle: Reference Solutions (formerly known as ReferenceUSA) database is a national residential and business directory, perfect for finding new customers or researching an industry. The business listings are comprised of more than 94 million US business records, 379 million US Historical business records, and 2.2 million New Business records (a total of more than 356 million US business records). Also included are 257 million consumer records in Consumer Lifestyle, 2.4 million Canadian Business records, 2.3 million Healthcare records, and 10 million New Movers/Homeowners records.

The detailed company information includes company name, address, phone, executive contact name and title, employee size, sales volume, SIC codes, NAICS codes, credit ratings, business type, location type, news information, 10-Ks, and more. With 45 customized search options and downloading and printing capabilities, users can create lists for marketing, building a business plan, and much more.  Users have the ability to download and print the lists. 

Watch a brief video introduction here. 

Texas is the most disaster-prone state in the country with 372 federal disaster declarations since 1953.

Learn how to protect your home from natural disasters, safeguard your documents, prepare your emergency supplies, make an evacuation route, and stay prepared on this helpful website from the Texas General Land Office.

Free, ad-free and registration-free DMV practice tests for car, motorcycle, and CDL. Good for the permit test, driver-license test, and the senior citizens’ refresher test.

E-Read Texas for Kids includes a collection of more than 600 titles from Teacher Created Materials, including the TIME for Kids series. The majority of the titles comprise juvenile nonfiction, including science, mathematics, sports, history, and art, in both English and Spanish. The site also includes juvenile fiction and craft and hobby books for kids. 

Gain insight on issues in administration, funding, and policy. Best for educators, administrators, and education students.

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Designed for kids, Gale In Context: Elementary delivers trusted, age-appropriate digital content. Through newspaper and magazine articles, videos, images, graphics, and eBooks, elementary students can learn about everything from animals and outer space to famous artists and favorite athletes. The database is visual and intuitive, and rewards students’ efforts by developing comprehension and research skills to prepare them for middle school—and a lifetime of learning.

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The Encyclopedia of Life is a collaborative project for scientists and lay-people whose goal is to document the nearly 2,000,000 living species on the planet. Over the last eight years, some one million species have earned their own encyclopedia page featuring such information as a complete taxonomy, description, images, videos and sound files.

Understand environmental issues that affect people globally through topic overviews, journals, news, and multimedia content.

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