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Digital library ~ Online information

eBooks anytime, anywhere, on anything...

Your Digital Library includes a Download Library of eBooks and audiobooks plus lots of online information sources.

The new 'next generation' eBook Library offers many new features including:

Read a sample before you borrow ~ One click to Borrow ~ One click to Return ~ Read Anywhere, Online or Offline ~ No software or registration necessary.

You'll find a full step-by-step guide to using the 'read anywhere' eBook Library here: Enjoying eBooks:

We've paid so you don't have to...

Our Digital Library also includes online information sources.

The sites detailed below consist of high quality online information resources. Normally to access any of these, you would need to take out a paid subscription.
As part of Lancashire County Council's Digital Library, we have paid the subscription so you don't have to. These sites are available for free to anyone using a People's Network PC or the Wi-Fi network in any Lancashire library and, outside libraries*, to all Library members using your library card number (14 digits) to log in.

We also have a Good Web Guide, a selection of hundreds of the best websites chosen and checked by library professionals to answer your questions and provide reliable information on a wide range of subjects.

*Please note that a few of these resources can only be access for free within Lancashire Archives, Libraries and Museums: *in libary only. See our Digital Library FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) for more information.

Books
Family & local history
Newspapers old & new
Business & innovation
School & homework
Art & music
Information, facts & figures
More...

Books

Books & Media*

Book & Media is the essential online guide to books and authors in the media.Find out what are the most talked about and best reviewed books from the press, tv, radio and the social networks. Read review extracts from across the media and find detailed listings for author interviews, discussion and film & TV tie-ins. If you love reading and are looking for inspiration, you'll find Books & Media a treasure trove of information. *in library only

Who Else Writes Like?

First published as a book in 1993, Who else writes like? has been popular guide ever since and now it's available online is easy to use and constantly update. It is designed to help fiction readers who have read all the books by their favourite authors and are seeking new names to try. It includes genre lists, A-Z of authors and literary prizes.

Family & local history

Lancashire Archives on Ancestry*

NEW! You can now search and access images of Church of England baptism, marriage, and burial registers from parishes in Lancashire. Parish records are the best way of discovering births, marriages and deaths before the mid-19th century,and remain an important source after this. Lancashire Archives partnership with Ancestry lets us provide you with some of the most crucial family history records from the county of Lancashire. *in library only

Ancestry Institution*

NEW! You now have access to a new improved version of Ancestry, the largest online library of family history information, available free from the Peoples Network PCs in Lancashire Archives and Libraries. The collection includes Census Records, Birth Marriage and Death Indexes, Military records, Immigration and Emigration, and many more public records from the UK and around the world. It is constantly updated and enlarged. Ancestry create their own indexes, so you may be able to find records that were missing on other websites. *in library only

Find My Past*

Only available free in Libraries and Archives, Find My Past is an easy to use website with hundreds of sets of public records from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland going back to 1200 and they are constantly adding more. The collection includes Census records, Parish registers, Occupational records, Travel and migration, and many more. Find My Past do their own indexing, so you may be able to find records that were missing on other websites. *in library only

Lancashire Lantern

Our Lancashire Lantern site features an Image Archive of historic photos and the Local Resources index to local newspapers and other sources of historical information, as well as listings for local societies and events.

Dictionary of National Biography

The DNB tells the stories of people who have shaped all aspects of Britain's past, from the fourth century BC to the present day, from royalty to rock stars. You can search by place to find out who was born, lived or died where you are.

Who's Who and Who Was Who

This is the essential directory of the noteworthy and influential in all walks of life, in the UK and worldwide. This online version includes entries from the Who's Who Archives dating back to 1898.

Mario interactive maps

Lancashire County Council's mapping site containing local maps and aerial photographs for the whole county. Some historic maps for the region are also available. You can select a location and then overlay historic maps, photographs and information. This site also provides interactive information on administrative boundaries and local census and social statitistics.

Newspapers old & new

British Library 19th Century Newspapers

19th Century British Library Newspapers has been developed by Gale in partnership with the British Library and offers national, regional and local newspapers, taken directly from the holdings of the British Library. The whole collection is fully searchable and you can view digital copies of the original newspapers.

Burney Collection 17th-18th Century Newspapers

The largest single collection of 17th and 18th century English news media available from the British Library and includes more than 1,000 pamphlets, proclamations, newsbooks and newspapers from the period. The whole collection is fully searchable and you can view digital copies of the original documents.

Times Digital Archive

The complete digital edition of The Times (London) from 1785 to 1985. Every page of every issue includes headlines, articles, images, editorial, birth and death notices and classifieds. Search or browse through each issue.

Newsbank

Newsbank enables you search and read articles published in the UK newspapers in the last 5 to 25 years (varies with different papers). All the major national daily papers are included as well as many local and regional ones.

Business & innovation

Ask About Business

Ask About Business is a partnership between Lancashire Libraries and other authorities across the North West. Ask About Business provides information through libraries to support: Pre-start and new businesses, Existing businesses, Jobseekers, Consumers, Inventors and Business students. It includes free access for library members to Cobra Business Adviser.

Cobra Business Adviser

If you're running a business or planning a start-up, COBRA provides practical and continually updated information to help with start-up opportunities, employment, legal, finance, marketing, exporting, health & safety, as well as many useful links in the Local Area Profile.

British Standards - Access in Libraries

Updated daily, this is the authoritative site for all BSI publications, more than 16,000 of which are BSI-adopted European and International standards. You can request up to a maximum of 10% of any standard to be printed by library staff for personal, non-commercial use.

British Standards - Access outside Libraries

The same BSI standards and publications are available to view outside Libraries, but cannot be printed or saved. Please note, however, that it may not be possible to view Standards with the Google Chrome browser or on some mobile devices.

Kompass - Access in Libraries

The web site of Kompass, the company that provides commercial information. Search a global database of 2.2 million industrial and commercial companies in 70 countries. Search by product, trade name, executive names, location and turnover. Access is possible at any Lancashire Library People's Network PC.

Kompass - Access outside Libraries

This is a service that Lancashire Library subscribes to and access is also possible outside libraries by using this link and logging in using your Lancashire Library card.

More Useful Websites

for Business in our Good Web Guide (on Diigo)

School & homework

Britannica Junior

This is a special edition of the famous Encyclopaedia Britannica especially for children aged 5 to 11. It includes shortened versions of articles, images and videos on thousands of topics which you can search or explore for school work or just for fun.

Britannica Student

This edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica online is especially tailored to the needs older children in secondary and further education. It provides more information than the Junior version but is not as comprehensive of the full Britannica (also available).

Issues online

The site that almost does your homework for you. If you need info or facts, figures and arguments about contemporary issues facing our society and the world, this is the place to look. Topics include: Crime, Environmental and Global Issues, Citizenship, The Media, Rights and Discrimination, Science and Health.

Literati by Credo

Literati is a custom website where digital content from Lancashire's library service and Credo Reference can be easily searched and cross referenced. Literati provides users with a multitude of resources, from non-fiction eBooks, images, and easily accessible Topic Pages on a large range of subjects.

Learning Place

Endorsed by the Lancashire Grid for Learning and teachers throughout Lancashire, all these sites in the Learning Place are chosen and validated by library staff to help in your learning and fit in with the National Curriculum. Click the link to see a full list of all the sites or choose from list of Learning Place subjects on the right >>

Art & music

Grove Art online

Grove Art Online will tell you all you need to know about any aspect of the visual arts. It brings together a digital version of the 34 volume Dictionary of Art and The Oxford Companion to Western Art.

Grove Music online

Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians has been used by music lovers and musicians as a favourite source of information for over 100 years. This up to date online edition, now part of the Oxford Online, also includes The Dictionary of Opera, Dictionary of Jazz and Encyclopaedia of Popular music.

Information, facts & figures

Encyclopaedia Britannica online

Britannica online is the full version of the renowned encyclopaedia. The online edition also includes multimedia database with thousands of photographs, illustrations, and sound files, as well as a world atlas, notable quotations, year in review, timelines, world data and the full-text versions of classic texts.

Introducing the new Literati by Credo

For nearly ten years, Lancashire has worked with Credo Reference to offer members of our libraries free access to some of the best quality information sources on the internet. We are now introducing a whole new way of accessing all this information. Literati is a custom website where digital content from Lancashire's library service and Credo Reference can be easily searched and cross referenced. Literati provides users with a multitude of resources, from non-fiction eBooks, images, and easily accessible Topic Pages on a large range of subjects. Literati offers the best path for Lancashire library's members to access information that is both reliable and high in quality. It also gives tips on how to get the best out of your web searching.

Oxford English Dictionary

The "OED", Oxford English Dictionary is the ultimate dictionary of English. In 'paper form', it has over 25,000 pages covering 600,000 words, 3 million quotations, over 1000 years of English. It includes the Historical Thesuarus traces the development of the language. This online subscription version is constantly updated.

Oxford Dictionaries Pro

With up-to-date online dictionaries, thesauruses, and language reference content based on the largest language research programme in the world, Oxford Dictionaries Pro is an extensive, integrated, smart-linked English language resource. It offers quick search access to definitions of words, phrases, and idioms, with expert guidance on style and usage, grammar, and spelling; plus specialist guides for legal and technical writing.

Oxford Reference Online

Oxford Reference Online brings together over 2 million entries from their dictionaries, encyclopaedias and companions to, it one fully searchable resource, including Oxford Quick Reference: Quickly check a fact, or find out key information and Oxford Reference Library: Research in-depth with articles and essays.

More...

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 service includes an online version of the latest official study materials licensed from the Home Office, the people who write the handbook, plus hundreds of practice test questions in the same format as the official test. This site requires registration using a valid email address.

19th Century British Pamphlets*

This collection contains the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries. Pamphlets were an important means of public debate, covering the key political, social, technological, and environmental issues of their day. Previously difficult to access, digitised copies are now available online for private study and non-commercial use only. Please note: this is the only part of the JSTOR collection available in our Library. *in library only

Public Information Online

Public Information Online is the only resource which will allow you to view UK and Great Britain Parliamentary publications in PDF format online. These include all Parliamentary material (House of Commons and the Lords papers, bills and amendments, Daily Hansard, etc. from the 2006/07 Session onwards) as soon as they are published, the site is updated daily.

Theory Test Pro

Theory Test Pro is a highly realistic online simulation of the UK's driving theory test. It contains the entire official test question bank, hazard perception video clips and an online version of the Highway Code. All this material is licensed from the Driving Standards Agency (DSA), the people who set the tests.