e-Library
- eBooks, eAudiobooks, & Streaming
- Museum Passes
- Readers’ Advisory
- Consumer Resources
- News & Information
- Research Tools
- Student & Teacher Tools
- Genealogy
- Learn a Language
- Get the PrairieCat App
- Recursos en español
- Government Resources
eBooks, Audiobooks, & Streaming
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E-Read Illinois featuring Boundless An extensive collection of ebooks, audio and digital media. Shorter wait times than Libby!
Hoopla provides an enormous selection of digital video (movies and TV shows), music, audiobooks, ebooks and comics to patrons.
Libby lets you access thousands of ebooks and audiobooks to borrow for free with your library card. Download and read or listen to ebooks and audiobooks from you phone for free with your library card.
Kanopy is an on-demand video streaming service which is free to library cardholders. It has over 30,000 titles to choose from, including documentaries, film festival favorites, classics, and more!
Museum Passes
Museum Adventure Pass lets you use your library card to receive admission or a special discount at participating Chicago area cultural destinations!
Explore More Illinois can help library cardholders get free passes, discounted admission, and other deals from a wide variety of Illinois cultural attractions.
Readers’ Advisory
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NoveList is a reader’s advisory service designed to give you great, custom book recommendations regardless of your age!
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books to engage, entertain, and deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Sign up for the newsletter.
Consumer Resources
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Weiss Financial Ratings provides powerful new tools to protect your finances, invest wisely, grow your wealth, and learn more about your finances.
Chilton Library provides automotive repair information on thousands of year, make, and model combinations covering the most popular vehicles of the past 30 years, plus additional coverage of specialty models.
Consumer Reports help you make better purchasing decisions. ConsumerReports.org® provides ratings, reviews, and buying advice for thousands of products and services.
Consumer Health Complete is the most comprehensive database for consumer-oriented health content.
Legal Information Source provides access to thousands of legal forms such as rental agreements, wills, patent applications, power of attorney forms and more.
News & Information
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Access World News Research Collection Explore and stay informed on local, national, and international topics, people, and events in areas such as business, health, education, jobs and careers, political and social issues and more. Features a wide variety of credible, vetted news sources from around the world to around the corner. Also available remotely 24/7 on any device.
Herald-News Collection Explore Joliet history through local news, events, and people with Herald News Collection. Search current and archived issues with full-color newspaper pages, full-text articles and content only published online. Also available remotely 24/7 on any device.
Hispanic Life in America The experience and impact of Hispanic Americans as recorded by the news media, 1704 to today.
Research Tools
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Explora provides an optimized search experience for a variety of EBSCO databases and database packages such as: TopicSearch, Professional Development Collection, MasterFILE, and eBook Collections (EBSCOhost).
EBSCO provides access to many categories of information including auto & small engine repair, reference, Hobbies & crafts, EBSCOhost research databases, job & career information, school & test prep, and business information. Click the EBSCO icon for a complete list.
Student & Teacher Tools
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Scholastic BookFlix pairs classic video storybooks with related nonfiction books to help build a love for reading and learning. (Grades PreK-3)
Scholastic Teachables provides instant access to thousands of high quality and ready-to-print worksheets, lesson plans, practice pages, and more that cover a wide variety of topics. (Grades PreK-8)
Tumble Book Library consists of animated talking picture books that include puzzles and games to make reading fun! (Grades K-6)
World Book Early Learning contains tools to reinforce early childhood learning via short videos, read-along stories, printable activities, fun games, and more! (Grades PreK-2)
World Book Kids features easy-to-read articles that can be read aloud or translated as well as fun games, science projects, and activities. (Grades 2-5)
World Book Student is a one-stop shop for learning a wide variety of topics! Contains a Biography Center, current events, and research guides. (Grades 5-8)
World Book Discover Assist differentiated learners and older adults with a research database that offers a practical Life Skills section.
World Book Advanced includes primary source documents, biographies, Back in Time articles, and Teaching with Documents that aid in more in-depth understanding within the classroom curriculum. (Grades 9-12)
World Book Timelines is a collection of 650+ unique Timelines, spanning the arts, science & technology, society & culture, sports, world history & geography and more. (Grades 3+)
Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos is the ideal Spanish-language reference tool for those learning Spanish and ELL students. Browse features provide visual prompts, and bilingual features allow students to toggle between Spanish and English text. The site includes concise articles, videos, maps and activities more.
Scholastic Go! contains more than 115,000 articles covering every core-curriculum subject. The articles and their illustrations are derived from the content of seven Scholastic encyclopedia databases.
Gale Elementary is an introduction to research on everything from animals and outer space to famous artists and athletes. (Grades 2-5)
Gale in Context Middle School combines Gale’s reference content with age appropriate videos, newspapers, magazines, primary sources, and much more. (Grades 5-8)
Genealogy
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Ancestry helps you understand your genealogy. A family tree takes you back generations—the world’s largest collection of online family history records makes it possible.
HeritageQuest Online combines digital, searchable images of U.S. federal census records with the digitized version of the popular ProQuest Genealogy & Local History collection and other valuable content.
HeritageHub Explore your family history with the premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for in-depth genealogical research from 1704 – today. Heritage Hub helps you easily identify relatives, uncover new information and potentially unknown family members. Includes deep coverage from all 50 states, hard-to-find content from the mid 1900’s, and original obituary images. Access is available 24/7.
Learn a Language
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Mango Languages contains over 70 world language courses! Lessons involve a mix of listening and reading activities that allow you to explore different topics in your target language. (Grades 6+)
Little Pim is the leading language teaching method designed just for children. The short 5-minute videos hold their focus so they can begin their language learning journey on their own. (Ages 1-5)
Get the PrairieCat App
With the PrairieCat App you can access a digital library card, search for materials, place holds, cancel holds, manage your account, renew items, get notifications for upcoming events and more.
Recursos en español
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Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallazgos es la herramienta de referencia en español ideal para quienes aprenden español y estudiantes ELL. Las funciones de exploración brindan indicaciones visuales y las funciones bilingües permiten a los estudiantes alternar entre texto en español e inglés. El sitio incluye artículos concisos, vídeos, mapas y actividades más.
Government Resources
Driving Tests Illinois lets you view practice tests for the DMV driving test to ensure you’re ready to get your license.
VLM is an online memorial that honors nearly 10 million Veterans interred in VA National Cemeteries, VA grant-funded cemeteries, DoD-managed cemeteries. Search for veterans using their database.
Medline Plus is an online health information resource for patients and their families and friends. It is a service of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world’s largest medical library, which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
USA.gov helps you locate and understand government benefits, programs, and information.
Willcounty.gov provides information for residents, jobseekers, visitors, and businesses, as well as information about county offices.