Research

• Good Starting Points
• Academic
• Digital
• Genealogy
• Government
• Law
• Medical
• Public
• School and Education

Learn about Fairfax County Public Library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Service.

• Libraries.org
  A directory of libraries throughout the world.
• WorldCat
  Enables you to search through items in the collections of thousands of libraries worldwide. Locate items in libraries near you by narrowing your search results by zip code or state. Note: Fairfax County Public Library's online catalog is the most reliable source of information on its holdings.

Local Area College and University Libraries

• George Mason University Library
• Northern Virginia Community College Library
• VIVA: The Virtual Library of Virginia
  The consortium of nonprofit academic libraries within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
  An e-resource locator is available.
• Washington Research Library Consortium
  The member universities of the Consortium are American, Catholic, Gallaudet, George Mason, George Washington, Georgetown, Howard, Marymount and the University of the District of Columbia.
  An online catalog is available.

Explore online collections in digital formats.

• Digital Public Library of America
  Portal to the public digital collections of many American libraries, archives and museums.
• HathiTrust Digital Library
  Offers millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.
• International Children's Digital Library
  Provides digital access to children's books from around the world, in more than 59 languages.
• Internet Archive
  Archives websites and other digital media for future access; home of the WayBack Machine Web archive.
• Project Gutenberg
  Collects thousands of books in the public domain; open access digital formats are available for download.
• World Digital Library
  Collaboration of the U.S. Library of Congress and UNESCO; access to primary materials from many cultures in multiple languages.

• Federal Depository Libraries
  Federal government information is available for free use by the public at hundreds of federal depository libraries across the nation. A directory of federal depository libraries is provided.

• Local Area Government Libraries

  • Library of Congress — Washington, DC
  • Library of Virginia — Richmond, VA
  • Maryland State Archives — Annapolis, MD
  • National Agricultural Library — Beltsville, MD
  • National Archives and Records Administration — Washington, DC and College Park, MD
  • National Institute of Standards and Technology — Gaithersburg, MD
  • Smithsonian Institution Libraries — Washington, DC and Suitland, MD
  • Virginia State Agency Libraries and Resource Centers
    Provided by the Library of Virginia.
• National Libraries of the World
• Presidential Libraries
• State Archives

Law Libraries in Our Region:

• Fairfax Public Law Library
• George Mason University Law Library
• Law Library of Congress
  The world's largest law library. Contains primary and secondary sources for United States and international legal and legislative research.
• Virginia Public Law Libraries

Medical Libraries in Our Region

• Inova Fairfax Hospital/Inova Children's Hospital Health Sciences Library
• National Library of Medicine — Bethesda, MD

Local Area

• Alexandria Library
• Arlington Public Library
• District of Columbia Public Library
• City of Falls Church (Mary Riley Styles Library)
• Fauquier County Public Library
• Frederick County Public Libraries
• Loudoun County Public Library
• Montgomery County Public Libraries
• Prince George's County Memorial Library System
• Prince William Public Library System
• Takoma Park Maryland Library

Virginia

• Virginia Public Library Directory
  Provided by the Library of Virginia.

   

• Fairfax County Public Schools
  • Fairfax County Parent Resource Center Library
• National Library of Education
  The federal government's primary resource center for education information.