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Online Resources

City of Melville Libraries provides access to a range of online information resources for library users:

  • Premium eResources provide reliable, high quality content and are often information databases that are not found on the Web. We provide access within our five libraries and most 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 Premium eResources in each subject area.

Browse online resources by category:

 

  • Biography
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  • Family history / genealogy
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  • Books and authors
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  • Health and medicine
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  • Business and law
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  • Homework Help
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  • Children's resources
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  • Languages
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  • Computers and the Internet
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  • Library catalogues
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  • Consumer information
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  • Magazines and newspapers
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  • Encyclopaedias and reference 


  • Science
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     Biography

    Articles detailing the lives of over 12,000 people who were significant in Australian history and who died before 1991. All the articles are taken from the print edition published between 1966 and 2007. From the Australian National University.

     

    Books and authors

      Good Reading

    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.

    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  [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    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.

    [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    A collection of over 10,000 selected books and films for young people arranged by subject/theme. Aimed at parents, teachers and librarians, ReadPlus allows you to search for books by theme, author, title, genre and age-range. It also provides many book reviews and for popular books there are similar authors or titles are listed. From Pledger Consulting.

    SpineOut

    SpineOut is an exciting online magazine for Young Adults, brought to you by the Good Reading team. It’s a special place for you to express your ideas and thoughts and to share your creativity in words, art, film or music. Be part of this fun online resource by submitting reviews of newly published YA books, book trailers, poems, short stories, music lyrics, videos and art work. Experience the thrill of being published!

    Designed to help fiction readers who have read all the books by their favourite authors and are seeking new names to try. It will help you make the most of the wealth of good reading available at your local public library and bookshop. If an author's name is followed by a bridge symbol it means that the author has written at least one "crossover title", suitable for young adult readers "crossing over" to tackle adult novels. From Loughborough University.

     

    Business and law

    An electronic version of the Building Code of Australia (the first two volumes of the National Construction Code) enhanced with over 3000 explanations and illustrations. BCA Illustrated provides the most current version of the code, but also gives access to earlier editions (2007 to 2011).

    To use BCA Illustrated, enter keywords in the search box or click on "BCA Index" (near top left of screen) and drill down through the index to find the section you want.
    Volume One: pertains primarily to Class 2 to 9 buildings;
    Volume Two: pertains primarily to Class 1 and 10 buildings (the Housing provisions).

    You can change the currently selected "BCA Edition" (near top right of screen) from the dropdown box located on the toolbar inside the website. This will change the edition for all searches, clauses and indexes until you change back to 2012 or log out of the website. From The Hendry Group.

    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.

    Read up-to-date copies of W.A. acts and regulations. From the State Law Publisher.

     

    Children's resources

    These online services for children - Busythings, Literacy Planet and Tumblebooks - have been provided through Better Beginnings supporting families in sharing a love of reading.

    Busythings
    • Busythings  [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    Busythings is an online resource for the early years that includes 115+ fun learning activities that help children learn important skills in the key learning areas of creative development, problem solving, reasoning, numeracy, communication, language and literacy and knowledge and understanding of the world.

    Literacy Planet

    A high-quality, play-based, Australian literacy resource with more than 10,000 activities online for children of all ages and ability. Children and parents can select from activities focusing on pre-reading skills, phonics, reading, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and comprehension in a fun, exciting and safe online environment. Literacy Planet was formerly known as Intrepica.

    Tumblebooks

    Introduce young children to the joys of reading with this delightful collection of animated talking picture books, educational games and puzzles.

     

    Computers and the Internet

    Self-paced, online computer skills tutorials aimed at beginner and intermediate level. Covers computer basics, email, internet, Microsoft Windows, Word, Excel, Publisher, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Facebook, YouTube, Skype and many other topics. The tutorials include step-by-step instructions along with exercises and activities to help learn. Login to the website using your library card barcode number. From thecomputerschool.net

    Provides activities, resources and practical advice to help young kids, kids, teens and parents safely enjoy the online world. Cybersmart also offers training and resources for schools and materials for library staff. Developed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, Cybersmart is part of the Australian Government’s cybersafety program.

    Provides information for Australian internet users on the simple steps they can take to protect their personal and financial information online. From the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy on behalf of the Australian Government.

     

    Consumer information

     Choice

    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.

    [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    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.

    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 Office of Energy (W.A. State Government).

    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.

    SCAMwatch provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams. Provided by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

    Your Home is a suite of consumer and technical guide materials and tools developed to encourage the design, construction or renovation of homes to be comfortable, healthy and more environmentally sustainable. Also includes a home buyer's guide. A collaborative project of the Australian Government and the building and design industry managed by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.

     

    Encyclopaedias and reference

    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 Library Edition

    [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    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 or Access from home

    Oxford’s modern English dictionary and language reference service contains over 350,000 entries updated quarterly with new words. This website also includes example sentences, tips to improve your writing skills and puzzle solvers for fans of crosswords and anagrams.

    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

    Ancestry provides access to thousands of information databases including U.K. census returns (1841-1901), Australian electoral rolls (1901-1954), 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. Please use the Microsoft Internet Explorer web browser when accessing Ancestry. On the library computers, Mozilla Firefox will not display Ancestry images.

    Book a one-hour session on a library computer to use Ancestry

    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.

    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.

    Find My Past UK

    Contains a large collection of UK records. Highlights include the 1911 census, passenger lists for departures from the UK 1890-1960 and British Army Service Records 1760-1913 "Chelsea Pensioners".

    Complete access to all sections of the Findmypast resource is only available from within our libraries on computers providing Internet and Microsoft Office applications.

    Search family history records for Australia, New Zealand, Pacific Islands and Papua New Guinea.

    Complete access to all sections of the Findmypast resource is only available from within our libraries on computers providing Internet and Microsoft Office applications.

     

    Health and Medicine

    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.

    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.

    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.

    An Australian site containing up-to-date information about radiology (diagnostic imaging) tests and procedures that you or a family member may require.

    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

    Mango Languages

    Want to learn a language or improve your English speaking skills?

    Mango is an online program that makes language learning fun. Each lesson is focused on practical, common conversation skills and includes instruction on vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and culture. Travelling soon? Try Mango before you go!

    Tip: Once you click on the "Mango Languages" link above and reach the Mango start page you will see two options:
    - You can choose to begin learning immediately by clicking on the "start learning" button and then selecting a language;
    - Or alternatively, if you'd prefer to track your learning progress, register your details under "Create a Profile" so you can then sign in to a personalised version of Mango.

    Languages available: Arabic (Levantine), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, Farsi (Persian), Finnish, French, French (Canadian), German, Greek, Hatian Creole, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Pashto, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Slovak, Spanish (Latin America), Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese.

     ESL courses are available for speakers of: Arabic (Egyptian), Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Turkish and Vietnamese.

    Update: Mango now available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

     My Language

    Provides links to news, search engines, government websites in over sixty languages

    Road to IELTS
    • Road to IELTS - A preparation course [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    Get ready for the IELTS exam or just improve your English with this online practice course. Includes 120 hours of intensive work on vocabulary, reading, writing, listening and speaking. Designed by the British Council. From Clarity English.

    General Training module or Academic module
    Note: If you are using Road to IELTS within the library you will find earbuds helpful for listening to the audio component. If you haven't brought your own, earbuds can purchased at the library for $1.00.

    • Tense Buster  [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    Improve your grammar. Helps English language learners improve their understanding of 33 key grammar areas from Beginner to Advanced level. From Clarity English.

     

    Homework Help

    Your Tutor
    • Your Tutor  [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    Your Tutor is an Australian online service which connects you to expert tutors for assistance with homework, assignments, exam preparation and study questions. Aimed at students in years 4 to 12, the service provides real-time, interactive help with Mathematics, various Science subjects and English. Advice on research and study skills is also available. All tutor sessions are monitored to maintain quality control and service provision. The Your Tutor service is available Monday to Friday from 4pm to 8pm and is free to members of City of Melville Libraries. From Tutoring Australasia.

    Past WACE examinations papers for Stage 2 and Stage 3. The 2011 exam papers will be progressively added to the website during the first few months of 2012. Provided by the Curriculum Council (W.A. State Government).

     

    Library Catalogues

    • Local public libraries

    City of Canning Libraries (Branches in Bentley, Queens Park, Riverton and Willetton)

    City of Cockburn Libraries (Branches in Coolbellup, Spearwood and Success)

    City of Fremantle Library

    City of South Perth (Branches in Manning and South Perth)

    • Statewide

    Combined State Library of W.A. / public libraries catalogue

    • Nationwide

    Trove (includes Libraries Australia)

    • Worldwide

    Worldcat

     

    Magazines & newspapers

    [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    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.

    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 has so far digitised 5.8 million pages containing 57 million articles. This includes all issues of The West Australian up to 1954 along with its nineteenth-century predecessors, the Perth Gazette and the West Australian Times. Also, the Sunday Times up to 1954. Recently, all issues of the Australian Women's Weekly between 1933 and 1982 were added. Read more about the project and the newspapers currently included.

    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.

    Read an exact digital copy of the Melville City Herald or other local newspapers published each Saturday by the Herald Newspaper Group: Fremantle Herald, Cockburn City Herald, Perth Voice. The last four issues of each paper are available online.

    World's largest listing of newspaper websites, searchable by country and then by publication. Note that this website may display popup advertising windows.

       pop

    Contains the full text of articles from hundreds of popular magazines. From Gale Cengage Learning.

    Includes the full text of all articles (but no photos) in Choice magazine from October 1999 up to the present day.

    Limit search to Choice articles only

    Library PressDisplay
    • PressDisplay  [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    PressDisplay provides you with access to today's issue of 1700 newspapers from 92 countries in 48 languages. All newspapers include full text and images and look exactly the same as the printed version. You can also search up to sixty days of back issues (depending on the title) or get instant translations of articles. Includes The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Straits Times, The Guardian, The Scotsman and many more. From NewspaperDirect.

    Tip: After connecting to Library PressDisplay, you can find a particular newspaper by clicking on the Select title button at the top of the PressDisplay homepage or by using the Titles by Country list on the left side of the page.

    [premium eResource - access from home or within library]

    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.

    Tips: After connecting to The West Digital Archive, you can read through a past issue of the newspaper by clicking on Browse Archive and selecting a date. Alternatively, to do a keyword search, try Advanced Search where you can limit the results by time period and sort by date.

     

    Science

    Cosmos magazine

    Cosmos is Australia's number one popular science magazine and includes news, features, opinions and short fiction pieces. Full of ideas, science, society and the future; it is intelligent yet accessible, and explores the big questions of our age - from climate change to robotics, from how the brain works to why stars shine. You can now view the latest issue online or read any of the past issues in the digital archive back to 2005. A keyword search facility provides instant access to the thousands of articles. A great resource for students.

     

    More about premium eResources and selected websites

     

    Premium eResources 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: fifteen resources accessible to users of City of Melville Libraries
    • Western Australian State Government via the State Library: ten resources accessible to all 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.