Online Resources A-Z

A full list of all of our digital resources.
Image of laptop computer, books, and a globe.

1,000 Books Before Kindergarten reading challenge: Enjoy reading 1,000 books with your little one! Log reading and earn badges and prizes all along the way.

ABCMouse: Award-winning online curriculum for children ages 2-8+ with both English and Spanish learning activities.

Access World News: Comprehensive news collection including print and online-only newspapers, blogs, journals, broadcast transcripts, and videos for local, regional, and national news.

Alexander Street Performing Arts Collections: Free access to thousands of music, dance, and theatre performances, covering hundreds of genres and content ranging from instruction to performance. Includes content from National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Qwest TV, Smithsonian, L.A. Theatre Works, Broadway On-Demand, and many more.

American Video in History: People who witness notable historical moments, either in real time or on film, remember forever how they felt at the time. Who can forget the shock of seeing the helicopter pushed off the USS Blue Ridge carrier at the Fall of Saigon in 1985, or the thrill of watching Neil Armstrong take the first step on to the moon's surface? Now you can experience these and tens of thousands of other historical moments in the same visceral way with American History in Video. 

Archives Unbound: Presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.

BeanStack Reading App: Sign up for one of our fun reading challenges! Beanstack is a website and app that serves as an interactive home for reading challenges and events. It’s your one-stop-shop to not only register for challenges, but to also track your reading habits and unlock badges!

Book Connections: Discover books for children and teens that match their interests. Then, learn more about the book with author interviews, audiobook performances, discussion questions, and more

Book Match: Get custom reading recommendations curated just for you by an HPL librarian. Fill out a short survey to get a customized list of books you'll love.

BrainFuse: VetNow: Tools for veterans, including live resume coaching, live interview coaching, and assistance completing unemployment benefits forms.

Britannica Escolar: El instrumento escencial de referencia para lost estudiantes PreK-8, ofreciendo contenidos educativos imersivos, ideal para estudiantes y educadores hispanoablantes. 

Britannica Fundamentals: Inspire emergent learners to create, play, and explore in this vibrant environment filled with interactive games, read-aloud books, and a fun digital art board for Pre-K learners. 

Britannica School: The ultimate learning destination for today's students. This multi-level, award-winning digital PreK-12 resource hub offers diverse, interactive content for students and educators. 

Broadway on Demand: The Broadway on Demand Collection provides an extensive range of content that goes beyond live performances. Along with musicals, plays, and dance performances, the collection includes unique behind-the-scenes series, documentaries, and masterclasses to help researchers gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the art of theater.

California Digital Newspaper Collection: Over 1,500,000 pages of significant historical California newspapers published from 1846-present, including the first California newspaper, the Californian, and the first daily California newspaper, the Daily Alta California.

California Practice Driving Tests: OGet on the road with a wide range of practice tests for cars, motorcyclists, and for the commercial driver's license (CDL). 

California DMV Education Materials - Free educational materials including the CA Driver's Handbook, Commercial Driver's Handbook, and Motorcycle Handbook, as well as fact sheets, how-to guides, and sample tests. 

Capstone Interactive eBooks: Interactive eBooks in English and Spanish featuring enhanced read-aloud audio, created for children. 

Chilton Library: Get the detailed information you need to tackle vehicle maintenance and repairs. 

Citizenship Resources: Check out the programs and classes we provide to help you prepare for the U.S. naturalization process.

Community Resource Guide: Discover local resources serving urgent needs such as food, shelter, showers, and support.

Coronavirus Research Database: Including coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak, this database includes thousands of open-access articles from the world's leading publishers as well as current research.  

CNN Video Collection: Available for the first time to the library market, CNN’s specials and feature programming on business, economics, technology, environmental studies, health, women’s studies, and human rights are some of the highest-quality video being produced today. To meet the needs of educational and public libraries worldwide, we are proud to present The CNN Video Collection, to spark classroom discussions, to support scholarly research, and to inform and engage students on the topics that impact today’s world.

CultureGrams: Concise cultural information on countries around the world. 

Craftsy: Your online resource for all creative makers, where you can find everything you need - from basic instruction to advanced techniques. 

Dance in Video: Dance in Video provides access to performance and instruction to scholars, researchers, and students in the field of dance. With the extensive collection of performances, instructional materials, documentaries, and interviews, these collections offer a rich sourse of inspiration and knowledge whether you're conducting research on a specific dance style or choreographer, studying technical aspects of dance, or exploring the history and cultural significance of dance.

Discover and Go: Use your library card to get instant access to free and low-cost tickets to museums, science centers, zoos, and more. 

East Bay Times (2016-present): The leading source for local and national news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle and opinion.

Ebsco Explora - Articles and books for public libraries

Enciclopedia Estudiantil Hallagos: Este sitio interactivo ofrece contenido excepcional de World Book’s Kids en español a través de una interfaz hermosa diseñada para grados K–4 además de estudiantes mayores y adultos aprendiendo español como otro idioma.

Enki: A California ebook collection created by librarians where you will find popular indie fiction and nonfiction genres including romance, mysteries, graphic novels, crafts, encyclopedias, cookbooks, short stories, essays, study guides as well as classic literature. Indulge your curiosity! 

Gale Courses: You’re bound to find a class that piques your interest with Gale Courses. These classes are held entirely online, led by expert instructors and completely free with your library card!

Gale Primary Sources: The Gale Primary Sources program combines dozens of historical archives covering hundreds of years of history. In this exhaustive resource you will find monographs, manuscripts, newspapers, maps, and photographs. Gale continues to make additional primary source collections available through the Gale Primary Sources cross-search experience.

Gale Virtual Reference Library: Encyclopedias and other specialized reference sources, plus books on business, crafts, health, and more!

Hayward Daily Review (2001-Present): Hayward's local paper. The Daily Review merged with other local papers in 2016 to become the East Bay Times.

Heritage Hub: Explore your family history with this premier collection of U.S. obituaries and death notices for in-depth genealogical research from 1704-today. 

Hoopla: Easily borrow free books, audiobooks, and more with your library card.

HPL Staff Booklists: Our librarians regularly create lists of recommended books on a variety of topics. To see the latest, visit our catalog and take a look at Recent Staff Lists!

Job and Career Accelerator: Powerful tools and guidance to achieve your career goals. Build a resume, practice interview skills, learn how to network, and more.

Kanopy: Stream or download more than 30,000 of the world's best films, including award-winning documentaries, film festival favorites, and more!

LearningExpress Library features online tutorials, practice tests, and e-books to help patrons of all ages. It offers job search and workplace skills improvement, skill building in reading, writing, math, and basic science, career certification and licensure exam prep, college and grad school entrance test prep, GED test prep, and more.

Legal Information Reference Center: Navigate legal matters of all kinds with reliable “how-to” information and thousands of federal, multi-state and state-specific legal forms.

Library of Congress American Memory Project- American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity. These materials, from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that continue to shape America, serving the public as a resource for education and lifelong learning.

Libby/Overdrive: Borrow ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines to read on your phone, tablet, Kindle, or computer using the Libby app by OverDrive.

LOTE4Kids: Digital books in 50+ languages together with English translations. New books and languages are released each month.

MasterFile Premier: Full text magazines & newspaper articles, reference books & more

Music Online: Classical Music in Video: Music Online: Classical Music in Video, Volumes I, II & III deliver a rich collection of influential performances and documentaries spanning eras and demonstrating classical music’s dynamic evolution. From canonical masters of the past to modern composers, these volumes showcase the continuous evolution of classical music across time.

Music Online: Classical Performance in Video: The largest and most comprehensive video resource for the study of classical music, with 3,500 titles, including 200 full operas and 75 dance titles, as well as masterclasses, documentaries, and interviews. Video as a learning tool provides a rich experience for music students. All patrons use the multimedia tools in this collection to research, analyze, learn, and enjoy the classical music genre.

Music Online: Opera in Video: Features the most significant opera performances from around the world, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries. These selections, showcasing the world's top performers, conductors, and opera houses, are chosen based on their importance to the operatic canon, providing an unparalleled opportunity for students to study and analyze the work of some of the most renowned artists and ensembles in opera.

Music Online: The Qwest TV Collection: Music Online: The Qwest TV Collection preserves diverse live performances, covering the evolution of jazz and beyond — representing funk, soul, hip-hop, folk, indie, electronic, blues, and other eclectic world genres. Co-created by Quincy Jones & Reza Ackbaraly, this unique collection of highly curated 150 titles makes timeless concerts and global music accessible for research, teaching and learning.

National Geographic Kids: National Geographic Kids includes the complete run of the magazine from 2009 to the present as well as videos, books, and images. 

Newspaper Archive: Over 3 billion articles from thousands of newspapers around the world. 

National Theatre Collection: National Theatre Collection brings the stage to life through access to high definition streaming video of world-class productions offering significant insight into theatre and performance studies. Through a collaboration with the U.K.'s National Theatre, this collection offers a range of digital performance resources never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive. 

The New York Times: Breaking news, opinion, and more from the nation's newspaper of record. 

Novelist Plus: Ready for something new? Novelist Plus has your covered! Whether you're hungry for a weird western, book club best bet or royal romance, our recommended reads lists will keep your to-be-read pile filled. 

Niche Academy: Online tutorials will teach you how to download our eBooks, use our research databases, set up social media accounts, and more.

PebbleGo Science: Designed for K-2 students, PebbleGo Science engages young children with narrated text, easy-to-understand articles, games, and educational videos to teach students about math, engineering, technology, and life, earth, and space science as students learn to read. Available in English and Spanish. 

Pronunciator: Learn conversational skills and grammar for over 80 languages through live, teacher-led classes or self-directed courses. Also featuring ProCitizen, with practice tests and over 100 videos with interactive exercises to prepare new citizens for the Naturalization Test. 

ProQuest eBook Central: Thousands of authoritative, full-text ebooks in a wide range of subject areas. 

ProQuest eLibrary:  A massive database of digital media content, with guidance for new researchers, designed for students and educators at high schools and community colleges. 

Rosetta Stone: Rosetta Stone offers libraries and their patrons the proven immersion method. The award-winning interactive approach has been used by millions of learners around the world and now is accessible in the library or anywhere, anytime.

Royal Shakespeare Company Collection: Modern recordings help you bring Shakespeare to life. The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection offers high-definition recordings of The Bard’s dramatic canon, featuring the world’s best Shakespearean actors and directors, along with supplemental teaching materials

SIRS Discoverer: Selected content for novice researchers, especially elementary and middle school students.  

SIRS Issues Researcher: Curriculum-aligned database organized by complex issues, ideal for middle and high school students and educators.

San Francisco Chronicle (1985-Present): News and events from the largest newspaper in Northern California. 

SORA:  For HUSD Students! Get eBooks and eAudio books using your school ID - no library card required.

Theatre in Video: The collaborative elements of theatre in performance—the work of the actors, directors, and designers—have tremendous scholarly and educational value long after a production closes. Now, faculty, scholars, and patrons of the performing arts will be able to revisit great performances again and again, and these landmark events can become a permanent part of the curriculum.

Tumble Books: A curated collection of animated, talking picture books, read-along chapter books, National Geographic videos, non-fiction books, comics, and more, available in English, Spanish, and French.

Tumblemath: Math skills for students in grades K-6.

Tutor.com: Free live homework help, practice tests, resume building, and career assistance.

Universal Class: 24/7 access to over 500 self-paced courses in 30 different subject areas, ranging from computer coding to yoga. Get feedback from certified instructors, connect with other students, and get Continuing Education Units on select courses.

Veteran's Resource Center: California public libraries, in partnership with the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet), are working to connect veterans and their families to benefits and services for which they are eligible.

Wowbrary: Discover the newest books, movies, and music available with your Hayward Public Library card. While you're exploring, you can sign up for a weekly email letting you know about all of our latest items!

World Book Online: The encyclopedia you know and trust. 

World Book Online for Kids: The premier reference website developed especially for younger students, featuring thousands of easy-to-read article as well as games and activities.

World Book Student is packed with features and tools developed for homework and research projects, making it perfect for students in elementary or middle school.

World Book Timelines: Explore 425 unique timelines spanning the arts, science and technology, world history, and more, or build your own timelines for school projects or research.