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PPL Business Database Collection

    Click here to access Reference Solutions

Reference Solutions is a powerful business and consumer research database, offering business and residential listings useful in searching for people, executives, creating marketing plans, conducting competitive analysis, fundraising and sales.

Reference Solutions offers access to 65 million current businesses in the United States and Canada for market research and sales, as well as residential, consumer, and lifestyle listings to grow your business.

  • Powerful tool for building pragmatic marketing strategies and strengthening business plans 
  • Unlock key facts about companies nationwide 
  • Access business and residential contact listings 
  • Research trends and identify potential new markets
  • Research treands and identify pathways for professional developement
  • Conduct analysis of competitors 
  • Build customizable research reports with granular search capabilities 

If you aren’t sure how to use the database, you can sign up for one of PPL Database Workshops to help you get started, or contact our Reference Desk for immediate assistance.  Instructional webinars are also available through the managing company, Data Axle.


    Click here to access U.S. Census Data

US Census Bureau International Data Base is a global demographic product created by the United States Census Bureau. Access demographic, economic and population data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Explore census data with visualizations and view tutorials. The U.S. Census Bureau is the leading source of statistical information about the nation’s people, places, and economy, providing snapshots of the nation’s population size and growth, and detailed portraits of the changing characteristics of our communities.


          Click here to access American Fact Finder

For many purposes, there is no need to perform deep research using Census.gov.  As an alternative, you can explore Census data through their Community Profile data-sets, made available through the American Fact Finder portal.


   Click here to access the Digital Maine Library

Click here to access the DML Multi-database Search Tool

The Digital Maine Library is provided by the Maine State Library and is accessible throughout the entire State of Maine.  To access the Digital Maine Library, you either need an active library card or simply allow your computer or device to identify your location. You can either browse the Digital Maine Library collection or use the nifty Multi-database Search Tool.


    Click here to access ProQuest EconLit

This database is published by the American Economic Association and provides bibliographic coverage of a wide range of economics-related literature. An expanded version of the Journal of Economic Literature (JEL) indexes of journals, books, and dissertations, EconLit covers both economic theory and application. Also included are full-text of book reviews published in the Journal of Economic Literature since 1993.


       Click here to access Nonprofit Explorer

Research Tax-Exempt Organizations with ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explore, where you can view summaries of 3 million tax returns from tax-exempt organizations and see financial details such as their executive compensation and revenue and expenses. You can browse IRS data released since 2013 and access more than 14 million tax filing documents going back as far as 2001.


       Click here to access the Legal Information Source

Nolo legal information collection is designed to assist the public in understanding the complex world of law and legal matters of all kinds. It includes exclusive full text for many top consumer legal reference books, as well as thousands of legal forms.