Resources » Adult

Explore recipes and food culture from 174 countries. Additional features include food glossaries, food history timelines, and ingredient searches.

Focused on African-American and Black literature from around the world, this site has book reviews and bestseller lists, author profiles, and information about upcoming books and events.

This web site is devoted to the advancement of the science of African American Genealogy and genealogical study of other Ethnic Studies by Dr. James M. Rose, alias Dr. Roots.

Hundreds of periodicals published between 1740 and 1940, including labor publications, women and children’s magazines, and scientific, professional, and literary journals.

Search U.S. Census records from 1790-1930; Evanston city directories from 1890-93; immigration records; birth, marriage, and death records; and old telephone directories from around the country. Normally, only available in the library.    Remote access link during COVID-19 crisis.  Access to this resource has been temporarily expanded to library cardholders working remotely, courtesy of ProQuest and its partner Ancestry.

Evanston Public Library partners with Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) as a Legal Self-Help Center. Now, patrons can make a free, online appointment with our legal self-help navigator! Learn about the law, your legal rights, and how to go to court.  Our trained ILAO Navigator will help you:

• Search online for answers to your legal questions,
• Refer you to free and low cost legal providers, and
• Show you how to find and prepare court forms

Half-hour appointments are available, via video chat or phone, on Tuesdays 12-2 PM and Thursdays 4-6 PM.  Contact the Reference Desk at 847-448-8630 to book an appointment.

Charity Navigator helps charitable givers make intelligent giving decisions by providing information on over thirty-four hundred charities and by evaluating the financial health of each . Includes article and blog on wise and effective charitable giving.

Planning major or minor repairs to your house this summer and need to find someone to do the work?  Looking for a reliable Air Condtiioning contractor?  Need your basement waterproofed? For information about Chicago-area service providers, without the expense of subscribing to Angie’s List, use your Evanston Public Library card to access Chicago Consumers’ Checkbook, and find ratings, comments and advice on services from Accountants to Window Washers and everything in between.  (You can even find ratings on physicians, dentists, acupuncturists, and other health care practitioners.)  Do you want to rate a firm or leave your own comment?  You can do that, too.  Consumers’ CHECKBOOK/The Center for the Study of Services is an independent, nonprofit consumer organization founded in 1974 with the help of funding from the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs.  Their purpose is to provide consumers information to help them get high quality services and products at the best possible prices.

This newspaper chronicles events and stories about and relevant to Chicago and Evanston’s Black communities. Also included are obituaries, photos, and advertisements. 1989 to the present.

Newspaper issues from 1910 to 1975, chronicling events and stories about and relevant to Chicago and Evanston’s Black communities. Also included are obituaries, photos, and advertisements.

Watch a YouTube tutorial: English | Spanish