Start your research with our collection of premium research databases and online resources to find valuable information on a variety of topics.

Find global information on business, education, the environment, health, jobs and careers, people, politics and government, social issues, sports, STEM and more including newspapers, videos and web-only content featuring Cumberland Times-News, Herald-Mail, The Sun, USA Today, international sources and more.

AtoZ Food America contains recipes in all course categories (appetizers, soups, salads, breads, main courses, side dishes, desserts, snacks, and beverages) for six US regions, all 50 states, and 33 ethnic cuisines.

AtoZ Food America also covers food culture for the above regions, states, and ethnic cuisines with articles such as Classic Dishes, State Foods, Top Agricultural Products, Special Occasion Foods, Ethnic and Geographic Influences, Special Ingredients, and Food Trivia.

AtoZ World food is the only food database that contains traditional recipes for international cuisine from 174 different countries! In addition to recipes and articles about unique ingredients, the database covers food culture in six different categories: National Cuisine, Regional Cuisine, Daily Meals, Dining Etiquette, Special Occasion Foods, and Food Trivia. Fully searchable by country, ingredient, or keyword, this database will answer all your international cuisine and culture questions. Happy cooking!

Beanstack is a free service provided by your local library to help families discover books and apps based on your child's age and interests. Our goal is help prepare your child for school and ensure that he or she is reading at or above grade level by third grade. Beanstack offers reading engagement for all ages during Summer Reading Club. All books recommended are available for free at your library.

Select primary source documents related to critical people and events in African American history.

Learn about the Washington County community's health and wellness. Compare indicators for your community against state averages, county values, and target goals. Discover areas of excellence and improvement in your community all in one convenient platform!

Find information on community issues and events, business, education, government and more from 2007 to present from the Cumberland Times News using the Newsbank portal. .

This website provides centralized, one-stop access to Maryland-related historical documents, images, audio, and video for Maryland's public libraries and cultural heritage institutions.

General OneFile provides access to more than 14,000 periodicals, newspapers, reference books, and multimedia sources, along with over 163,000 images, 6,400 audio files, and 1.3 million videos. The database is particularly useful to users conducting general reference queries, business searches, and current event research.

Gale OneFile Virtual Collections provides access to various magazines, academic journals and newspapers using a cross-reference search. 

Collections include:

• Gale OneFile: Agriculture
• Gale OneFile: Business
• Gale OneFile: Communications and Mass Media
• Gale OneFile: Criminal Justice
• Gale OneFile: Culinary Arts
• Gale OneFile: Diversity Studies
• Gale OneFile: Economics and Theory
• Gale OneFile: Entrepreneurship
• Gale OneFile: Environmental Studies and Policy
• Gale OneFile: Fine Arts 
• Gale OneFile: Gardening and Horticulture
• Gale OneFile: Gender Studies
• Gale OneFile: Home Improvement
• Gale OneFile: Hospitality and Tourism
• Gale OneFile: Information Science
• Gale OneFile: Insurance and Liability
• Gale OneFile: Leadership and Management
• Gale OneFile: Military and Intelligence
• Gale OneFile: News
• Gale OneFile: Nursing and Allied Health
• Gale OneFile: Physical Therapy and Sports Medicine
• Gale OneFile: Pop Culture Studies
• Gale OneFile: Popular Magazines
• Gale OneFile: Psychology
• Gale OneFile: Religion and Philosophy
• Gale OneFile: Science
• Gale OneFile: U.S. History
• Gale OneFile: Vocations and Careers
• Gale OneFile: War and Terrorism
• Gale OneFile: World History

Gale OneFile: News provides access to full-text newspapers and allows users to search articles instantly by title, headline, date, newspaper section, or other fields. The database offers a one-stop source for current news and searchable archives.

Find information on community issues and events, business, education, government and more from 1996 to present using from the Herald-Mail the Newsbank Portal. 

hoopla is a groundbreaking digital media service offered by your local public library that allows you to borrow movies, music, audiobooks, ebooks, comics and TV shows to enjoy on your computer, tablet, or phone – and even your TV! With no waiting, titles can be streamed immediately, or downloaded to phones or tablets for offline enjoyment later. We have hundreds of thousands of titles to choose from, with more being added daily. hoopla is like having your public library at your fingertips. Anytime. Anywhere. Checkout limit per user is 6 per month.

Effective September 2024: Access to hoopla is no longer available to Student RAIL cardholders. Hoopla access was granted during COVID-19, and we are adjusting our subscription access to return to prior use for regular Washington County Free Library cardholders only (cardholders that begin with 22395).

Checkout Availability note: 

The library highly values access to a wide range of resources for our community.  In order to continue to provide all the resources you have come to expect the library now needs to institute a daily cap on Hoopla checkouts effective October 1, 2023.  Budgetary constraints make this a necessary step.  This measure aims to ensure equitable access for all patrons while managing our resources responsibly.  We appreciate your understanding as we navigate these challenges together.  If while using Hoopla you receive a message that the daily cap has been reached for the day, simply come back the next day to complete your checkout.  

Provided under the Western Maryland Regional Library account

Access to more than 30,000 Films, for FREE! The popular on demand film streaming service Kanopy is now available for FREE at Washington County Free Library. Library card holders can access Kanopy and sign up to start streaming films on instantly. Films can be streamed from any computer, television, mobile device or platform by downloading the Kanopy app for iOS, Android, AppleTV or Chromecast.

Offering what the New York Times calls “a garden of cinematic delights,” Kanopy showcases more than 30,000 of the world’s best films, including award winning documentaries, rare and hard to find titles, film festival favorites, indie and classic films, and world cinema with collections from Umbrella Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, Under the Milky Way, SND Films and thousands of independent filmmakers. Kanopy is free for users with a library card.  30 tickets per month.  

* * Kanopy is provided under the Western Maryland Regional Library account so be sure to search for "Western Maryland Regional Library" if you are logging in from an application platform. * *

Browse hundreds of downloadable ebooks, audiobooks and magazines! Check out and download best-selling titles to your PC, then transfer to a supported device or burn many titles to CD to enjoy anytime, anywhere.

MedlinePlus brings together authoritative information from the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other government agencies and health-related organizations including journal articles, extensive information about drugs, an illustrated medical encyclopedia, interactive patient tutorials, and the latest health news.

This comprehensive news collection is ideal for exploring issues and events at the local, regional, national and international level. Its diverse source type includes print and online-only newspapers, blogs, newswires, journals, broadcast transcripts and videos. Use it to explore a specific event or to compare a wide variety of viewpoints on topics such as politics, business, health, sports, cultural activities and people.

600,000 words … 3 million quotations … over 1000 years of English.  The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

The Rural Heritage Museum's mission is to preserve the past and provide learning opportunities about the rural heritage in Washington County Maryland prior to 1940.

2-1-1 Maryland is partnership of four agencies working together to provide simple access to health and human services information. 2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that connects people with important community services. Call specialists answer calls 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The 2-1-1 database has information on nearly 5,000 agencies and programs across the state.

Allegany, Garrett, and Washington Counties in Western Maryland have a rich and diverse history. View images from the collections of the libraries, historical societies, and individuals in the three counties. There are photographs, newspaper articles, and indexes, rare books and more.