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Online resources by subject:
Ancestry
Ancestry Library Edition
Tracing your family history just got a lot easier! You can now access "Ancestry Library Edition" in our Libraries using our online access.
Family History
Website with useful links on how to trace your family history.
Biographical
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
An amazing collection of biographies of people who have shaped British society and history throughout the centuries
Who's Who and Who Was Who
A great database formed by the renowned publications which can help you not only find a famous person you know of but also ones who you don’t!.
Business information
Mint UK
A database of almost every UK company with a plethora of information including: sectors they’re involved in, contact details, directors, income, employees, and more. Only available in Central and Chelsea reference libraries – ask staff for help.
Cobra
A great resource for business research – especially with its Business Opportunity Profiles which can help you start up your own business.
General reference databases
Access to Research
Access to Research gives public library users free access to a wide-range of published academic research through their local library terminal.
Art and fashion
Bloomsbury Fashion Central provides all you need for researching or studying fashion. It contains three separate resources (listed below) which can be searched together or separately. These databases are available only in the library at present, please speak to a member of staff.
Berg Fashion Library
The Berg Fashion Library is the only resource to provide integrated text and image content on world dress and fashion throughout history.
Fairchild Books Library
Fairchild Books Library has everything you need to study for a career in fashion.
Fashion Photography Archive
Fashion Photography Archive showcases forty years of contemporary fashion history from runway and backstage to street-style fashion, and key designers’ shows.
Grove Art Online
The foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, updated regularly and covering global art and architecture from prehistory to present day.
Encyclopaedias
Encyclopaedia Britannica for students
Encyclopaedia Britannica for Children
Encyclopaedia Britannica for Adults
Perhaps the most well known and renowned of all encyclopedias, this resource allows you to find an article about almost anything.
Dictionaries
Oxford English Dictionary
600,000 words … 3 million quotations … over 1000 years of English
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.
Oxford Reference
Oxford Reference is the premier online reference product, spanning 25 different subject areas, bringing together 2 million digitized entries across Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias.
Oxford Dictionaries Premium
Oxford Dictionaries Premium is the home of Oxford Dictionaries' premium language resources for English, Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Oxford - Very Short Introductions
Full access to 10 titles in the Very Short Introductions series of digital eBooks. The perfect way to get ahead on theses topic quickly, help with revision, or consider study options.
Oxford Bibliographies
Developed cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.
Newspapers
Times Digital Archive
A fully searchable facsimile archive of The Times stretching all the way from 1785 to 1985.
Punch Historical Archive 1841-1992
From 1841 to 1992 Punch was the world’s most celebrated magazine of humour and satire. From its early years as a campaigner for social justice to its transformation into national icon, Punch played a central role in the formation of British identity – and how the rest of the world saw the British.
UKNewsstand: library access
UKNewsstand: home access
A useful backfile of British newspapers covering issues from the present day to several years previously.
Learning online
Theory Test Pro
A highly realistic online simulation of the UK's driving theory test.
Go Citizen
GoCitizen.co.uk is an online study resource for candidates preparing for the Life in the UK Test or British citizenship test.
The British Way of Life
The British Way of Life is an easy to use, comprehensive program to help new arrivals understand the British way of life. Some of the many topics covered by The British Way of Life are the different types of visa, finding a job, pre-school for children, further adult education, the communication network and so on.
Music
Naxos Music Library
With an unparalleled depth of classical music content, extensive background information, and improved search facilities that remain simple and effective, Naxos Music Library (NML) is a pleasure to use regardless of your prior music and/or technical knowledge.
Our libraries have extended opening hours, but sometimes you might need information and help 'out of hours', or wish to find information at a time more convenient to you. Here we have put together a list of online resources and websites by subject ('24 hour' services) that you can access from home or within the libraries.