What is VIVA

(the Virtual Library of Virginia)?  

The Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) Project is a cooperative venture among Virginia's publicly supported academic libraries and was originally funded in the 1994 legislative session. It provides Internet access to a number of electronic resources, including:

• African-American Poetry Full Text Database: over 2,500 poems from 1760 to 1900
• American Poetry: from the Colonial period to the early 20th century
• Britannica Online 
• Cambridge Scientific Abstracts: over 70 databases 
• Factiva
• English Poetry Database: over 4,000 works by 1,350 poets from 600 A.D. to 1900 
• English Verse Drama: over 1,500 works from the 12th century to the 19th century 
• FirstSearch: nearly 50 databases 
• GaleNet databases, including Contemporary Authors 
• InfoTrac (Gale): Computer Database, Expanded Academic, General Business, Health Reference, etc  
• MathSciNet: Mathematical Reviews and Current Mathematical Publications, 1940-present 
• Oxford English Dictionary 
• Project Muse: full-text to over 40 journals published by The Johns Hopkins University Press 
• STAT-USA: over 300,000 statistical reports produced by the U.S. government. Includes the NTDB, Economic Bulletin Board, and GLOBUS. 

Because VIVA exists for higher education in Virginia, many of the resources funded by VIVA are IP-dependent, meaning the Internet address of the computer accessing the services must be linked to an institution of higher education in Virginia (e.g., ODU addresses end in .odu.edu). Off-campus users may be denied access.  Ask a Reference Librarian for more information about VIVA resources, or visit the VIVA Web site.