LibGuides: Youth Literature: K-12 Databases

K-12 Databases and Text Collections

These websites are collections of texts and primary sources that are accessible for students and useful for teachers designing lessons and creating text sets.

These databases are great resources for K-12 students and for teachers looking for texts to use in their lessons. They include magazine articles, encyclopedia articles, images, historic documents and more. Most allow searching by reading/grade level. Content is primarily in English.

Explora Elementary This link opens in a new window
1990 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Designed specifically for elementary and middle school students. Combines a EBSCOhost search engine with a child-friendly, graphically-rich design. Automatically searches across all applicable databases simultaneously.
Some content may include Lexile reading levels in article citations. The Lexile level assigned to a result provides educators with an estimate of the reading difficulty of the result, and the approximate grade level reading ability required for comprehension. The grade level does not necessarily reflect a student's actual grade.
Also includes the content of EBSCO Animals, previously a stand-alone database.
Explora High School This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated monthly. Designed specifically for secondary school students, according to their needs and search abilities. Provides students in secondary schools with the most appropriate research tools for easily obtaining the information that they seek.
Some content may include Lexile reading levels in article citations. The Lexile level assigned to a result provides educators with an estimate of the reading difficulty of the result, and the approximate grade level reading ability required for comprehension. The grade level does not necessarily reflect a student's actual grade.
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
Most current edition. Unlimited users.
Updated annually. Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia database indexes over 25,000 records, covering an array of topics. Full text for each record may be easily accessed by double clicking on the topic from the display. The database contains images, offers brief biographies as well as information in a variety of subject areas.
Middle Search Plus This link opens in a new window
1990 - present. Unlimited users.
Updated daily. Contains full text for nearly 140 popular, middle school magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). Full text is also available for thousands of biographies, historical essays and student pamphlets. Also contains primary source documents including Essential Documents in American History and an Image Collection of 188,323 photos, maps and flags.
Also includes the content of EBSCO Animals, previously a stand-alone database.
Primary Search This link opens in a new window
Mid-1980's - present. Unlimited users.
Updated daily. Designed specifically for elementary school libraries and public library children's rooms, contains full text for nearly 70 popular, elementary school magazines. All full text articles are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles). In addition to the full text, offers indexing and abstracts for nearly 100 magazines. Full text is also available for over 100 student pamphlets. Full text backfiles go as far back as 1989, while indexing and abstract backfiles go as far back as 1984.
Also includes the content of EBSCO Animals, previously a stand-alone database.
TOPICsearch This link opens in a new window
Dates of coverage vary. Unlimited users.
Updated regularly. This current events database allows users to explore social, political and economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics discussed in today's classrooms. Students can use either the dropdown menus for Current Events or Topics to easily locate relevant articles. Contains full text for over 102,800 articles from 2,500 diverse sources including international and regional newspapers, EBSCO's periodicals collection, biographies, public opinion polls, book reviews, pamphlets, government information and EBSCO's Current Issues database. This database provides full text for more than 1,550 publications. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for more than 1,650 journals.