NC Live (North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education) is the state's electronic collection of quality database resources that are often not available on the free web. It is great for finding and reading back issues of magazine, journal, and newspaper articles as well as other quality reference materials.

NC Live provides you free access to indexes for all sorts of magazines and academic journals in a variety of subject areas including general interest, business, education, health, history, and literary criticism. Many articles are available in full text and can be printed or emailed to an email address. Other resources include encyclopedias, primary source documents, and the NC Sanborn Map collection. It is an invaluable resource for students or anyone else seeking quality information in their day-to-day decision-making.

You can connect to NC Live on any library computer that has Internet access. Library staff will be happy to help you get started. You can also access NC Live from you home computer 24/7 if you have Internet service. You will need a password to access NC Live from your home computer. Valid Catawba County library cardholders can get a password by calling or visiting any of our branches If you do not yet have a library card, come by a Catawba County branch to sign up for one. Be sure to ask for the NC Live password when you register for the card. The password changes every six months so you will need to call us when the password changes.

The North Carolina State Library offers NC Live to libraries across the state. Many small and rural library systems would not be able to afford these resources on their own. NC Live gives everyone across the state equal access to these quality materials. Funds for the project come from the North Carolina General Assembly.

Take a guided tour of the NC Live web site:
http://www.nclive.org/guides/tour/tourindex.phtml

Magazines / Newspapers / Microforms

The Catawba County Library System subscribes to some 300 magazines and newspapers. The current year of these periodicals is retained in hardcopy. Back issues are kept in hardcopy, computer database (NC Live), or microform. NC Live is an electronic database collection available through your library that offers you online access to full-text articles from over 9,000 newspapers, journals, magazines, and encyclopedias. You will need a password and Internet service to use NC Live from your home computer. Get the password by calling or visiting one of our library branches.

Click here for a list of the periodicals at the Newton Library