Online Resources for Philosophy at The New York Public Library: Introduction

This guide concentrates predominantly on online resources for philosophy, although print items are included. Much of what is listed in this guide comes from subscription databases and will not be found on the Internet. Some of these databases are available from home with a library card and are indicated as such with a house icon, while others are available only at the Library, indicated by a lion icon.      

One can access The New York Public Library's vast physical research collections in-person or remotely through Scan & Deliver, our electronic document delivery service. The Scan & Deliver service allows library cardholders to request specific pages or chapters from books -- or articles from journals -- directly from our catalog, and the selections will be scanned and emailed. But it's always a good idea to check to see if the book or journal has already been digitized before requesting and waiting for a scan.

When searching our catalog, it is important to know that the same book or journal can be held in a variety of formats. For example, the journal The Review of Metaphysics is available at the Library in print, on microfilm, and digitally, each with different years of coverage.

Online Resources in WorldCat

If a book or a journal is not available digitally or in a database subscribed to by the Library, try searching WorldCat, the world's largest bibliographic database. Through WorldCat, you can discover if a book or journal has been digitized, which institutions have it, and a link to it, if there is one. Sometimes the links are blocked, usually by the university that subscribes to the database and restricts access to all but their students. But a link can sometimes be found if you have the patience to check all of them, which can be as many as a dozen.