Libraries and Information East Midlands - Public Libraries, electronic resources ::

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Electronic Resources in Public Libraries

Public libraries in the East Midlands subscribe to a wide range of electronic and on-line resources and databases. As they are paid-for subscriptions access is normally restricted by the library service to their own library members.

Many of these databases can be accessed 24/7 remotely, although some are only available in the libraries, because of licensing restrictions. Each library authority will have its own method of registration for these services, but access is usually through the membership number on the library ticket, and possibly also an allocated PIN.

An alphabetical listing of the resources can be found below, with links through to the subscribing libraries using the keys below each description

ANCESTRY

This site contains UK census records from 1841 to 1901, as well as birth, marriage and death records from the UK and the rest of Europe and the United States. There are also record sheets to download and use to help record which resources have been used in genealogy research, and who has been traced.

ART ONLINE (OXFORD)

Information on artists, architects, designers, images, and the access point for the following Oxford art reference subscriptions and publications: Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopaedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art terms. Grove Art is the ultimate authority on all aspects of the visual arts worldwide. It contains over 45,000 articles on every aspect of visual arts from Palaeolithic cave and rock art to the work of Frida Kahlo and Damien Hirst.

BRITANNICA ONLINE

World-class encyclopaedia, in three versions:

Encyclopaedia Britannica (Adult)

Enjoy instant access to every topic imaginable in over 120,000 articles, a world atlas, thousands of images and videos, a dictionary and thesaurus, and a guide to the web's best sites.

Britannica Junior

The primary school pupil version of Britannica Online

Britannica Student

The secondary school pupil version of Britannica Online

BRITISH STANDARDS

Covers all British Standards Institute publications for British, European and International Standards. Updated daily, the site includes around 40,000 current, draft and historic British Standards in bibliographic, citation and full text databases which are organised into discipline related modules.

CLASSICAL MUSIC LIBRARY

The world’s largest multi-label collection of music recordings for libraries. The service allows listening and includes: over 35,000 classical music tracks (with over 2,000 tracks added monthly), thousands of programme notes and hundreds of play lists in a user-friendly interface.

COBRA - Complete Business Reference Advisor

A comprehensive and versatile resource for organisations advising or working with entrepreneurs or small business owners. It is aimed at business start-ups and SMEs (Small and Medium size Enterprises). Approximately 4,000 fact sheets, reports and guides can be accessed, for example: write a business or marketing plan; conduct research into a new market.

CREDO REFERENCE (Formerly Xreferplus)

An online reference library that provides access to 100 reference books that can be searched simultaneously. These include Who’s Who, Hutchinson and Macmillan Encyclopaedias and Black’s Medical Dictionary

CUSTOM UK (INFOTRAC)

Journals and newspapers full-test database, with archives from 1995, including: Express, Sunday Express, Financial Times, Guardian, Independent, Independent on Sunday, Observer, Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Times, Sunday Times.

EBSCO

Provides information access and management solutions through print and electronic journal subscription services, research database development and production, access to over 100 databases and thousands of e-journals, and e-commerce book procurement.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF GLOBAL CHANGE (OXFORD)

Encompassing tsunamis, elephant conservation, ocean pollution, mining regulation, and permafrost melt, the 300 authoritative articles in this unique and wide-ranging encyclopedia investigate all types of phenomena that change life on Earth.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC (OXFORD)

Popular music genres from 1900 onwards; details of artists, record labels, venues and music festivals, with key dates, biographies, discographies and release dates.

FIND MY PAST

Formerly ‘1837 online’, Findmypast.com contains millions of family history records online, with a variety of family history sources, including the General Registrar Offices Indexes of Births, Marriages & Deaths and selected Census records. Find My Past makes it easy to research UK ancestry and create a family tree.

GALE VIRTUAL REFERENCE LIBRARY

Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.

GROVE Encyclopaedia of Classical Art & Architecture

Comprehensive reference resource for the visual arts of the Classical period, featuring biographies of artists, rulers and philosophers and thematic entries on architecture, ceramics, metalwork, mosaics, painting, sculpture, renowned works of art, archaeological sites and stylistic developments.

GROVE Encyclopaedia of Decorative Arts

This covers thousands of years of decorative arts production throughout the world. Included are hundreds of entries on artists and craftsmen, the qualities and historic uses of materials, as well as concise definitions on art forms and style, plus a wealth of comprehensive articles discussing the history of armour, jewellery, textiles, and ceramics.

HUMANITIES FULLTEXT

This contains hundreds of magazines in the fields of art, history, literature and the performing arts can be searched and fulltext articles retrieved.

ICC PLUM

Provides information on 4.4 million UK and Irish companies and 2 million unincorporated businesses; also access to information and financial data on over 22 million European companies.

ISSUES ONLINE

Web-site of Independence Educational Publishers, providing information on a broad range of topics relating to our changing society. Useful for teachers and students alike. Access is provided to: factsheets, newspaper reports and features, magazine articles, journal and book extracts, extracts from Government reports and statistics, pressure-group literature, statistics, including tables and graphs, cartoons and illustrations.

KnowUK

A directory giving information about the people, institutions and organisations of the UK from over 100 key reference titles such as Whitakers Almanac, Ask Hollis, Who's Who, and Which Guides. Information about the local area can be searched for. Areas covered include arts, media, biography, education and government.

KOMPASS UK

Kompass provides privately collected business information that may be used for sales, marketing, procurement and research. Information in directories, mailing lists, CDs, online or via an internet feed can help find suppliers of products or services, generate sales leads and create marketing lists.

MUSIC ONLINE (OXFORD)

Oxford Music online, as well as incorporating Grove Music Online, now has in addition the Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Oxford Companion to Music. Grove Music is the ultimate authority on all aspects of music world-wide – from classical to hip hop and baroque to blues. Over 45,000 specially commissioned articles by 6,000 contributors on people and places, instruments and techniques, genres and style.

NAXOS Music Online

Access to over 332,000 tracks (more than 23,400 CDs) including classical, jazz, folk, world, Chinese music. Whilst listening, notes can be read on the work being played, as well as biographical information about the composers / artists.

NEWS UK

Enables users to keep up-to-date with day-to-day information, providing access to a range of established newspapers and magazines for a range of views on any story or subject.

OXFORD DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY

The lives of over 55,000 people who have shaped the British past over 2,500 years – from Julius Caesar and Boudicea to Princess Diana and Sid Vicious.

OXFORD ENCYCLOPAEDIA of BRITISH LITERATURE

The Encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of literature from the Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill, covering the entire history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin).

OXFORD ENCYCLOPAEDIA of CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Comprehensive coverage of children’s literature from the medieval chapbooks of moral instruction to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter books; including 3,200 A-Z articles by over 800 distinguished contributors from around the world.

OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY

A definitive guide to the meaning, history and pronunciations of English words, widely acknowledged as the most authoritative and comprehensive dictionary of English in the world. It also traces the evolution of more that 600,000 words over the last 1,500 years through 2.5 million quotations from a wide variety of sources – from classical literature and periodicals to film scripts and pop songs.

OXFORD LANGUAGE DICTIONARIES ONLINE

Oxford Language Dictionaries online provides fully searchable, completely comprehensive bilingual dictionaries, and unique study materials that provide extra help with learning in French, Spanish, German and Italian.

OXFORD REFERENCE ONLINE

A vast online reference library available 24/7. It combines in depth content offered by titles in the acclaimed Oxford Companions series with authoritative, quick reference coverage of the full subject spectrum. It is possible to search over one million entries across 25 subject areas. There is also a 'Timelines' link to events in 20^th century.

SEARCHMUZE ONLINE

Search by artist, title, music genre, composers, films, stage shows, soundtracks.

SMITHSONIAN GLOBAL SOUND MUSIC LIBRARY

This is an encyclopedia of the world’s musical and aural traditions, featuring: American Folk, Blues, Bluegrass, Old Time Country, American Indian, World, Jazz, Classical & Broadway, Spoken Word & Sounds, & Children’s songs.

TIMES DIGITAL ARCHIVE

Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper (1785 – 1985) is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to facilitate searching.

WHICH? ONLINE

This provides full access to all Which? Magazines – Gardening, Computing, Holiday, Good Food Guide, and additional features including Product Picker and consumer forums.

WHO’S WHO & WHO WAS WHO

Search for information about famous and influential people of today and from the past, going back to 1898. This was the first biographical book of its kind and is among the world’s most recognised and respected works of reference with over 33,000 short biographies of living noteworthy and influential individuals, from all walks of life, worldwide. Approximately one thousand new entries are added every year.

WILSON PLAY INDEX

Search for plays by title, author, subject (e.g. culture conflict, marriage), style (symbolism, experimental theatre), genre (comedy, melodrama, musical), cast type; limit your results to plays with a specific number of male and/or female roles, or size of total cast.

WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPAEDIA

World Book contains over 25,000 articles and 27,500 illustrations, photos and charts, as well as a dictionary and interactive atlas. Especially useful for children and teenagers with articles supporting the National Curriculum.

19th CENTURY BRITISH NEWSPAPERS

19th Century British Library Newspapers contains full runs of 48 influential national and regional newspapers representing different political and cultural segments of the 19th century British society.

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Last Modified: 13 Oct 2008