Guides & Help: Alumni Resources: Free Online Research Tools

Free Online Research Tools

PubMed – Scholarly index of life science and behavioral science journals for health professionals, produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Many articles are available for free through the PubMed Central archive or other open access sites.
Google Scholar – Google’s index of scholarly books and articles. Some content is open access, but beware exorbitant per-article access fees from major publishers. Use your local library’s interlibrary loan service (see below) to avoid pay-walls.

Internet Archive’s Books to Borrow / Open Libraries Initiative – Online library of digitized books, including many newer titles, that can be borrowed through Controlled Digital Lending.
Christian Classics Ethereal Library – Digital library of hundreds of classic Christian books selected for edification and education. Collection is fully searchable and can also be browsed by author, title, or subject. Also includes Scripture search. All texts are produced from works in the public domain.
Theological Commons – Digital library of over 76,000 books and journals on theology and religion. Hosted by Princeton Theological Seminary
Post-Reformation Digital Library – Collection of e-books pertaining to theology and philosophy during the Reformation, Post-Reformation, and Early Modern Era (late 15^th–18^th centuries).
Hathitrust Digital Library – A collection of digitized material from several large research universities. Full view available for public domain materials, uncopyrightable works, and works where permission has been granted. Limited preview available for others.

Covenant Library Catalog – Even if you don’t live close enough to the Covenant Seminary Library to visit us in person, our catalog is a powerful research tool for finding high quality books. Our collection is maintained by a staff of theological librarians and is designed to serve the diverse needs of students studying theology, Bible, counseling, and education.
WorldCat.org – If you want to broaden your search to a worldwide scale, search the world's largest library catalog—WorldCat. Combining the catalogs of nearly every library in the United States and many libraries around the world into one database, WorldCat.org will track down the book that you're looking for and find it in a library near you.
Research in Ministry (RIM) – Looking for dissertations specifically? RIM is a catalog of doctoral dissertations from seminaries and divinity schools in the United States and Canada, including Covenant. Covenant’s more recent dissertations are available online through our catalog. Similarly, for dissertations from other schools, check for access through the school’s catalog or digital repository. Otherwise, dissertations can be obtained through interlibrary loan (see below).