These remarkable electronic resources are available at designated stations in the Main Library.
Adult Literacy
Project Read – 2nd Floor
- Project Read
- Adult learners can improve their English-language reading, writing, spelling and phonics skills.
Book Arts & Special Collections
SF History Center – 6th Floor
- American Book Prices Current
- Annual auction sales record of books, manuscripts, autographs, maps and broadsides. This unique English-language tool is the standard and is essential to dealers, appraisers, scholars and tax authorities for evaluating these materials.
- Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura
- Digital reproduction of a copy of Mercator's Atlas in the Library of Congress. The original was published in Duisburg, Germany, in 1595. Searchable text.
- The Book of Kells
- Images of the entire manuscript with detailed reproductions of significant pages. Narrated history with descriptions of decorative and symbolic themes.
- Calligraphy: Calligraphic Art
- Images of Dennis Brown’s work in various media with notes by the artist, essays, articles, and video clips.
- Comedies, Histories & Tragedies: First Folio, London, 1623
- Electronic facsimile of the 1623 first Shakespeare folio, from a copy in the Folger Shakespeare Library. Searchable text.
- The Complete New Yorker
- Complete text and illustrations from the magazine, 1925 through 2005, in a searchable format.
- Horæ beatæ Mariæ ad usum Romanum: France, 1524
- Digitized version of the 1524 manuscript in the Library of Congress. Searchable text.
- Libro de arte Coquinaria
- Digital facsimile of the copy in the Library of Congress. English translation and commentary by Gillian Riley. Additional commentary by various authors.
- Turning the Pages: The Collection
- A selection of digitized pages from rare books in the British Library.
- The World of Alphabets by Hermann Zapf: A Kaleidoscope of Drawings and Letterforms
- Hundreds of color digital reproductions of typeface sketches, calligraphic exemplars, broadside layouts, and book designs representing Zapf's career.
Children
Children's Center–2nd Floor
- Electronic Discovery Center
- Internet and word processing resources to help develop 21st century skills in children under the age of 13.
Communication
Library for the Blind & Print Disabled–2nd Floor
- Braille Embosser
- Prints tactile braille onto paper.
- Braille Translation Software
- Translates print characters from electronic files into an electronic file that can then be emailed or printed out in tactile braille via an embosser.
- Refreshable Braille Display
- Turns onscreen text into tactile braille
Deaf Services Center–1st Floor
- Sorenson SVRS
- The Deaf Services' videophone allows sign-language users to communicate with each other directly or to communicate with hearing people with assistance from a sign language interpreter.
Film
Art, Music & Recreation Center–4th Floor
- Microsoft Cinemania
- Graphic, audio and textual information drawn from authoritative reference sources. Includes film reviews, biographies, award lists; excerpts, dialogue, theme music and songs; and stills.
Language Translation
International Center–3rd Floor
- Promt
- Machine translation software translates text from French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish into English, and vice-versa.
Library for the Blind & Print Disabled–2nd Floor
- Braille Embosser
- Prints tactile braille onto paper.
- Braille Translation Software
- Translates print characters from electronic files into an electronic file that can then be emailed or printed out in tactile braille via an embosser.
- Refreshable Braille Display
- Turns onscreen text into tactile braille.
Music
Art, Music & Rectreation Center–4th Floor
- Microsoft Musical Instruments
- Interactive program includes articles, sound samples and photographs of ancient and modern instruments from around the world.
Naturalization and Citizenship
International Center–3rd Floor and
Government Information Center–5th Floor
- Citizenship Toolkit
- Prepare for the USCIS naturalization interview with these helpful resources, including a guide to naturalization, detailed practice materials, and a list of local organizations.
Patents & Trademarks
Government Information Center–5th Floor
- CASSIS2
- Full-text patents from DVDs provided by the US Patent & Trademark Office.
- PubWest
- The public version of Web-based Examiner’s Search Tool (WEST), an internal database of the US Patent & Trademark Office used by patent examiners.
San Francisco History
SF History Center–6th Floor
- Index to Roster of California Pioneers
- Cumulative April 2008 update to the printed Index, previously updated in June 2002.
- Miwok Indians
- Archival information including photographs, sound recordings, and textual material. Searchable by author, title, periodical, series, keyword, and holdings.
- Pomo Indians
- Archival information including photographs, sound recordings, and textual material. Searchable by author, title, periodical, series, keyword, and holdings.
- The San Francisco Oracle: The Psychedelic Newspaper of the Haight Ashbury
- Includes all twelve original issues (September 1966-February 1968); historical commentary; Oracle Rising, a film by Claire Burch; and an interview with founder Allen Cohen.
- Shaping San Francisco: An Interactive Multimedia Excavation of the Lost History of San Francisco
- A social history of San Francisco in an interactive, multimedia computer program.
- WrindexIIa: Irish Societies in Early San Francisco: A Volunteerism Directory
- 194,000 entries concerning 1,300+ Irish Societies in early San Francisco. Searchable by name, society, year, or source.
Visual Arts
Art, Music and Recreation Center–4th Floor
- American Visions: 20th Century Art from the Roy R. Neuberger Collection
- Full-color images plus photographs and short videos about the works and the artists.
- Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker
- Every cartoon published through 2004, plus profiles of many cartoonists.
- Design and Applied Arts Index
- Periodicals index, periodicals database, education database, organizations database and museums/archives database.
- Great Paintings Renaissance to Impressionism: The Frick Collection
- Full-color images, each accompanied by descriptions as well as biographies of the artists by Joseph Goldyne.
- Microsoft Art Gallery: The Collection of the National Gallery, London
- Multimedia information on artists represented in the National Gallery, including thousands of color reproductions, information about the artists and their works, spoken names of artists and animations.
- A Passion for Art: Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse and Dr. Barnes
- Private collection of post-Impressionist paintings.
- Reed Design Registry, North America 2005
- Search architectural firms by name, location, and type.
- Robert Mapplethorpe: An Overview
- Supplements a critical overview with video interviews of the artist and his contemporaries.
- Voices and Images of California Art: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
- Interactive exploration of artworks, video and audio clips and a digital scrapbook spanning the careers of eight important artists connected to California.
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