Homework, Education, & Testing

With 9,000+ (English/Spanish) interactive books, educational games, puzzles, and other learning activities, ABCmouse.com’s award-winning online curriculum is an invaluable resource for young learners ages 2 to 8.

How to Checkout a 4-Week License

An ABCmouse license can be checked out for 4-weeks of home use. Follow these steps, and your child/children will be having fun and learning in no time!

• Fill out the online Home Checkout formopens a new window. You'll need an email address, your library card number and PIN.
• Create a password for your ABCmouse profile and save your login information. If a license is not available, you’ll be asked if you want to be added to a waiting list. You will receive an email when a license is available.
• Build a profile for you and your child/children by answering a series of questions. You can add up to three children to your account.
• At the end of the profile set up, you will be given the choice to do an assessment for your child/children. It is recommended that you do so. This will help you to determine what your child needs to work on in ABCmouse. You will have an opportunity to do another assessment at the end of the four weeks to track progress.
• When the assessment is complete, your child is all set to explore the various games, activities, and features of ABCmouse from the home dashboard.

After Your 4-Week Checkout

When your 4-weeks are up, you will have an opportunity to sign up for another 4-week check out if there are licenses available. If not, you will be give an option to get on the waiting list. Your child's profile and progress will be saved.

You can also use ABCmouse from within the libraryopens a new window. It is accessible from the public computers or from your own computer or device when it is connected to the library WiFi. All of your progress will be saved.

Please note: An ABCmouse license for East Palo Alto patrons can only be checked out with an ABCmouse Learning Kit. Please check out a kit at the East Palo Alto Library first.

With 9,000+ (English/Spanish) interactive books, educational games, puzzles, and other learning activities, ABCmouse.com’s award-winning online curriculum is an invaluable resource for young learners ages 2 to 8.

Academic and research articles from scholarly journals in physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature , etc.

Your source for population, housing, economic, and geographic data.

Biographical information on over 220,000 people from throughout history and around the world.

CA Driver Permit Practice Tests are free to access and require no registration. They include the following:

• 10 car practice tests
• 6 motorcycle practice tests
• 3 CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) practice tests
• 3 online driver’s manuals (car, motorcycle, CDL)
• An FAQ section with detailed answers to 100+ DMV-related questions

Need a Driver License Handbook? You can get them in different languages from CA.govopens a new window.

California missions eBooks that can be read online for free.

When asked for a Username and Password please enter Username: missions Password: missions.

• Mission La Purísima Concepciónopens a new window
• Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledadopens a new window
• Mission San Antonio de Paduaopens a new window
• Mission San Buenaventuraopens a new window
• Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmeloopens a new window
• Mission San Diego de Alcaláopens a new window
• Mission San Fernando, Rey de Españaopens a new window
• Mission San Francisco de Asísopens a new window
• Mission San Francisco de Solanoopens a new window
• Mission San Gabriel Arcángelopens a new window
• Mission San Joséopens a new window
• Mission San Juan Bautistaopens a new window
• Mission San Juan Capistranoopens a new window
• Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosaopens a new window
• Mission San Luis Rey de Franciaopens a new window
• Mission San Miguel Arcángelopens a new window
• Mission San Rafael Arcángel opens a new window
• Mission Santa Bárbaraopens a new window
• Mission Santa Clara de Asísopens a new window
• Mission Santa Cruzopens a new window
• Mission Santa Inésopens a new window

Need to find out about California Mission or California Indians? How about California Governors or Explorers? California Social Studies Fact Cards will help you out with facts at your fingertips for California Indians, Explorers, Missions and Mission life, Ranchos, Datelines and more.

Summaries and commentary for hundreds of literary classics.

Gale Literary Sources integrates full-text literary content with metadata and subject indexing and provides workflow tools to analyze information. You can research authors and their works, literary movements and genres. Search across your library's Literature databases to find full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism, reviews, biographical information and overviews.

A one-stop source for news, magazine, and periodical articles across a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature, art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics.. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text.

San Mateo County Libraries now offers a fully accredited online high school diploma and career certification program through Career Online High School (COHS). COHS is available via the internet, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. A limited number of scholarships are available to card holders who are California residents and 19 years of age or older.

Connect live with an expert tutor for homework help in English & Spanish, seven days a week
from 1 PM – 10 PM PST. Kindergarten - Adult. Requires "29041" library card.

Homework help resources for beginning elementary school; also includes 75 popular kids magazines like Highlights and Sports Illustrated for Kids.

Find up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews on more than 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods and from around the world.

Provides a vast library of streaming online instructional videos covering business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Taught by accomplished teachers and recognized industry experts, lynda.com is a high-quality resource for anyone looking to learn new skills in a wide range of subjects including photography, animation, music, web development, software, and project management. You can take an unlimited number of courses with 24/7 access on your computer or smartphone. Create an account with your library card number & PIN and learn at your own pace.

For Mobile Users:

• Download the Lynda app
• Open the app
• Select Already a member?
• From top of the screen select Organization
• Under Web Portal type - smcl.org and click on Log in
• Use your library card and PIN to Log in

Mango is an online language-learning system that can help you learn languages like Spanish, French, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Mandarin, Cantonese, Greek, Italian, Korean & more. Mango can also help second language learners learn English and is available for those speaking Chinese and Spanish. Requires "29041" library card.

An engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information and opinions on hundreds of today's hottest social issues. Drawing on the acclaimed Greenhaven Press series, the solution features continuously updated viewpoints, topic overviews, full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, statistics, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

The best IT and technology eBooks from the best authors and publishers.

Researching science topics has never been easier -- with Science In Context, thousands of topic overviews, experiments, biographies, pictures and illustrations are just a few clicks away and the latest scientific developments are covered in articles from over 200 magazines and academic journals and links to quality web sites.

Guided homework help with biographies, literature, history, health, science, and multicultural studies.

Provides multimedia content to complement children's and young adult books. Resources include audiobook readings, author videos, book discussion guides and lesson plans for over 40,000 books in English and Spanish.

Find lesson plans, discussion questions, novel units, reader's theater scripts, and other instructional support for the books you're reading in any K–12 classroom.

• Ready-to-use and vetted for quality to save you time
• Stimulate discussions about the books you're teaching
• Use for book clubs and to prompt conversation about books at home
• Choose from thousands of guides for both fiction and nonfiction
• Great for new educators and teachers-in-training

Compile, organize, analyze, and share instructional materials associated with the books in your curriculum.

• Create your own booklists
• Manage text sets
• Analyze text complexity differentiation
• Seamlessly edit, sequence, and annotate lists
• Immediately have instructional materials
• Distribute lists with QR codes, emails, or permanent links

Have the author reveal, anytime, the author's purpose, writing, and research processes with these TeachingBooks.net exclusively created primary source materials.

Have ready-to-use vocabulary lists — often organized by chapter — for the books that you're teaching. Vocabulary lists include:

• Definitions
• Example sentences pulled from each book
• Audio pronunciations

Get to know the latest award-winning books with exclusive primary source recordings that introduce students to authentic writing and research processes.

Include diverse cultural experiences in your instruction as reflected in quality fiction and nonfiction books.

• Identify exceptional multicultural books for all content areas
• Bring culture and race to the forefront of literary conversations with authentic, primary source instructional materials

Taking a college entrance or licensing exam? Looking for a college or graduate school? Need help finding scholarships? Use this database to search thousands of college and graduate school entries. Identify scholarships that meet their financial needs. Take on-line practice tests and use test prep eBooks to obtain your education goals. Create your own account to track your progress. Free electronic study guides / prep books (SAT, MCAT, ASVAB, etc.). Requires "29041" library card.

On-Demand Tutorials

• Career Tools (3:50)opens a new window
• College Tools (5:10)opens a new window
• Grad School Tools (3:20)opens a new window
• High School Tools (4:28)opens a new window
• International Tools (2:50)opens a new window

An engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History. Merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.

Provides live help with VA benefits and resources. Also includes support tools, college skills tools (including free tutoring), and job-hunting help for veterans transitioning from the military to civilian life. Requires "29041" library card.

An engaging online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in World History. Merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.