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Online Resources
City of Melville Libraries provides access to a range of online information resources for library users:
- Library resources provide reliable, premium content and are often information databases that are not found on the Web. We provide access within our five libraries and many can also be used from home – just login using your library card barcode number.
- Selected websites are accessible to all and have been chosen by library staff to complement the Library Resources in each subject area.
Browse online resources by category:
- Biography
- Books and authors
- Business and law
- Children's resources
- Consumer information
- Encyclopaedias and reference
- Family history / genealogy
- Health and medicine
- Languages other than English
- Library catalogues
- Magazines and newspapers
Biography
- Australian National Biography Online [Selected website]
Articles detailing the lives of over 11,000 people who were significant in Australian history and who died before 1981. All the articles are taken from the print edition published between 1966 and 2005. From the Australian National University.
Books and authors
- Good Reading magazine online [Library resource]
Read an exact digital copy of the monthly print edition with added online features. Contains quality reviews, author profiles and news about books. You can browse the pages or keyword search thousands of articles in current and past issues. A great resource for book clubs.
Access from library | Access from home
- Fantastic fiction [Selected website]
A useful site for readers of genre fiction particularly fantasy, science fiction and horror. Includes bibliographies for over 20,000 authors and makes it easy to find sequels or individual titles from a series.
- Novelist [Library resource]
A great guide for fiction readers. Find your favourite author, look for similar titles to the one you have just read, look for the next book in a series or find books for your young reader. From EBSCO Publishing.
Business and law
- Business Source Elite [Library resource]
Full text coverage from scholarly business management and economic journals, including peer-reviewed publications. Included in this database are company profiles and industry reports from Datamonitor. From EBSCO Publishing.
- Western Australian legislation [Selected website]
Read up-to-date copies of W.A. acts and regulations. From the State Law Publisher.
Children's resources
- TumbleBooks - eBooks for eKids [Library Resource]
Introduce young children to the joys of reading with this delightful collection of animated talking picture books, educational games and puzzles. This subscription service has been provided through Better Beginnings supporting families in sharing a love of reading.
Consumer information
- Choice Online [Selected website and Library resource]
This website provides Australian test reports from Choice Magazine on hundreds of consumer products and services. Articles may be available online up to one month before they appear in the print version of the magazine.
Many useful articles are free to read. Access to “members reports” is only available from within our libraries. Please ask staff to log you in to the website.
- Choice articles via Popular Magazines [Library resource]
Includes the full text of all articles (but no photos) in Choice magazine from October 1999 up to the present day. From Gale Cengage Learning.
- Energy smart homes [Selected website]
Information about saving energy in the home with a Western Australian focus. Topics covered include home cooling, heating, hot water, cooking, lighting, white goods and house design. From the Sustainable Energy Development Office.
- Product safety recalls [Selected website]
Based on publicly available announcements, newspaper advertisements, or recall notifications that have been submitted to the Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, by the supplier of the product. Provided by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.
Encyclopaedias and reference
- Country profiles [Selected website]
Information about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations of almost 240 countries. Provided by the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Library Edition [Library resource]
An excellent resource for students, parents and teachers. It can be searched according to the user’s particular age group ensuring results are suitable for all stages of learning.
Access from library | Access from home
- World Factbook [Selected website]
Compiled by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the World Factbook provides frequently updated information, maps, facts and statistics on more than 250 countries and other entities.
Family history / genealogy
- Ancestry Library Edition [Library resource]
Ancestry provides access to thousands of information databases including U.K. census returns (1841-1901), Australian electoral rolls (1901-1936), U.S. census returns and much more.
Complete access to all sections of the Ancestry resource is only available from within our libraries on computers providing Internet and Microsoft Office applications.
Book a one-hour session on a library computer to use Ancestry
- FamilySearch [Selected website]
Includes online genealogical resources developed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. The most well-known is the International Genealogical Index (IGI) which contains millions of entries (mainly baptisms and marriages) often transcribed from the church parish registers of various denominations in North America, the British Isles and Finland. Records span the years from 1500 to 1900. Individuals have also submitted entries. Inaccuracies are possible so the index information should be checked against the original source.
- FreeBMD [Selected website]
Provides search access to the Civil Registration Index of Births, Marriages and Deaths for England and Wales. FreeBMD is a volunteer project to transcribe the index for the period 1837-1983. Good coverage from 1837 until around 1920 although still not 100% complete. At present, the coverage after 1920 can be low. To check on progress, visit the site’s information pages and view the coverage charts for the years and registration events which interest you.
Health and Medicine
- Cochrane Library Online [Selected website]
The Cochrane Library consists of a regularly updated collection of evidence-based medicine databases featuring over 1,000 journals, major reference works, online books, Current Protocols laboratory manuals, and databases. From Wiley Interscience.
- Health and Wellness [Library resource]
Easy to use medical reference for all ages and levels. The database includes full text journals, medical encyclopaedias, an Alternative Health Module, and a Disease Profiler Module which compiles health statistics, charting prevalence rates, costs for treatment and drugs for various common diseases. From Gale Cengage Learning.
- HealthInsite: Health Information for Australians [Selected website]
Provides a wide range of up-to-date and quality assessed information on important health topics such as diabetes, cancer, mental health and asthma. From the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.
- Lab Tests Online Australasia [Selected website]
A site designed to help the patient better understand any one of the hundreds of lab tests used to screen, diagnose or monitor illness and disease.
Languages other than English
- MyLanguage [Selected website]
Provides links to news, search engines, government websites in over sixty languages
Library Catalogues
- Local public libraries
City of Canning Libraries (Bentley, Queens Park, Riverton and Willetton)
City of Cockburn Libraries (Coolbellup, Spearwood and Success)
City of South Perth (Manning and South Perth)
- Statewide
Combined State Library of W.A. / public libraries catalogue
- Nationwide
- Worldwide
Magazines & newspapers
- Australia / New Zealand Reference Centre [Library resource]
Content from international newspapers, magazines and reference books including many Australian and New Zealand titles, covering current events, business, sport, entertainment and much more. From EBSCO Publishing.
- Australian Newspapers : historic Australian newspapers, 1803 to 1954 [Selected website]
Try out this evolving website to search the full text of digitised Australian newspapers and view scans of each page. A great resource for history buffs and genealogists. The National Library’s Australian Newspapers Digitisation Program aims to digitise at least 4.4 million out of copyright pages over the next two years. At present over 800,000 pages are on the website. This includes all nineteenth-century issues of The West Australian and its predecessors, the Perth Gazette and the West Australian Times. Read more about the project and the newspapers currently included.
- Community Newspapers Digital Editions Archive [Selected website]
Read an exact digital copy of the Melville Times or any other weekly suburban newspaper published by the Community Newspapers Group since November 2006. You can also search the complete set of archived newspapers for your topic of interest in articles, advertisements or both.
- Popular magazines [Library resource]
Contains the full text of articles from hundreds of popular magazines. From Gale Cengage Learning.
This resource also includes the full text of all articles in Choice magazine from October 1999 up to the present day.
Limit search to Choice articles only
Read any issue of The West from July 2004 up until yesterday in "true to print" digital format - an exact copy of the printed version. You can browse through each page or search the entire archive for particular keywords in articles, pictures, advertisements and classifieds. Ideal for researching a topic or even tracking down a birth, marriage or death notice.
Only available from within our libraries on computers providing internet access.
Book a one-hour session on a library computer to use The West Archive Digital Editions
More about library resources and selected websites
Library resources are online sources of reliable information intended for library users to research topics of personal interest. In many cases, these e-resources are information databases, not found on the Web, which contain articles from thousands of newspapers, magazines and reference books. Most titles are “full-text” which means each article is included as it appeared word for word in the print version. Sometimes, you will only see the citation, which is a brief description of the article that includes the title, author, publication date and a summary (abstract).
Annual subscription costs for each library resource are paid from one of three sources:
- City of Melville: five resources accessible to users of City of Melville Libraries
- Western Australian State Government via the State Library: six resources accessible to W.A. public library users
- Australian Government: one resource (Cochrane) accessible to all Australians
Selected websites are chosen by library staff to complement the subscription e-resources. Listing links to resources on the Web does not mean City of Melville Libraries endorses the information provided.