Residents of Pella now have free access to a wealth of new online resources thanks to new a partnership among the State Library of Iowa, the Iowa Academic Library Alliance, and Gale.

Pella Library Director Wendy Street says there are now new resources that cover car repair, health information, small business resources, K–12 homework and assignment help, books and reading, gardening, history, and home improvement–all online. Street says the information in the databases is often more reliable than a typical online search, and allows users to find more specific information.

To start using the new resources visit the library or go to the Pella Library’s website and click on “Gale databases.”

Highlights of the new resources include:

Chilton Library: An online library of step-by-step repair instructions, troubleshooting guide, and more supplemented with images, illustrations, videos, and animations for most cars, trucks, and SUVs on the road today.

Books & Authors: Attention book lovers, book clubs, and summer readers – your next reading adventure awaits! Find book reviews, author biographies, and recommended reading suggestions for genres, topics, authors, and more.

Kids Infobits: A visually engaging resource with K–6 students in mind, it includes a wealth of age-appropriate reference content, full-text magazines and newspapers, maps, charts, graphs, and more than 13,000 searchable images and on a wide range of subjects.

Research in Context: Developed specifically for the research needs of middle school students, Research in Context includes reference, periodical, and multimedia content encompassing the middle school curriculum.