Access online resources with your library account
Our libraries offer many free online resources to members. Browse through our collection of 24/7 resources that can be accessed anywhere you can reach the internet - just log in with your library card number and pin.
If you're not a member, join a library now.
Want to know how to use an eResource? Visit our Niche Academy page where there are tutorials for some of our eResources.
If you can't see a specific database in this guide, try Online Resources in London Public Libraries.
Art
Oxford Grove Art, the foremost scholarly art encyclopedia, updated regularly and covering global art and architecture from prehistory to present day.
Biography
Remember to use the HF prefix with your library card number when you log in on the homepage for any of these resources, for example HF28***********.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
An amazing collection of biographies of people who have shaped British society and history throughout the centuries.
The essential directory of the noteworthy and influential in every area of public life, published worldwide, and written by the entrants themselves. Over 100,000 people, now deceased, who were included in previous editions of Who's Who creating the definitive roll-call of British history.
Books and comics
eBooks, eAudiobooks and eComics
Oxford Bibliographies is an authoritative research guide contains the best features of an annotated bibliography with an encyclopaedia.
Remember to use the HF prefix with your library card number when you log in on the homepage of this resource, for example HF28***********.
Business
Complete business reference adviser including opportunities, markets, financial and legal information.Cobra is a continually updated information resource for anyone who is running a small business or thinking of setting up a business. You will find practical information and advice such as:
- start up business ideas and profiles
- guides to business support in different areas of the UK
- business legal library covers laws and regulations applicable to small businesses
- help to write a business or marketing plan and information on conducting research into new markets
- market synopses provide guides to trends and opportunities in a number of market sectors.
Family history
Ancestry Library Edition represents the most powerful online genealogical tool available. It includes 5 billion names in over 4,000 collections with coverage dating from 1300. Tracing your family history just got a lot easier. Ancestry Library Edition can only be accessed on a computer in one of our libraries.
Ancestry Library Edition can only be accessed on a computer in one of our libraries.
Languages
LOTE4Kids for Kids is an online database of audio-picture books, with over 3000+ digital picture books in 65+ World Languages, with English translations. New digital books and languages are released each month to help libraries provide a more diverse and inclusive library service for kids through multilingual storytime-on-demand!
LOTE4Kids is now available as an app.
Download the FREE LOTE4Kids app to access thousands of engaging picture books in 65+ languages in a more convenient way on mobile phones and tablets.
Available on both iOS and Android for your mobile devices, the LOTE4Kids app is easy-to-use, ad-free, and secure, enabling parents and guardians to conveniently and safely provide children with picture books on the go.
Easy access, in just three simple steps!
- Download the app from the LOTE4Kids website.
- Find your library authority.
- Enter your library card number and enjoy a story!
Researched-based and experience-driven, Transparent Language Online is a language-learning program for library members which provides an effective, fun, and engaging experience for language learners of all levels. It offers unlimited access to courses in over 100+ languages.
Learning and careers
Online study resource for candidates preparing for the Life in the UK test or British citizenship test. It 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.
IXL maths and English practice
This is an online learning experience that provides comprehensive, curriculum-based maths and English for children in reception and up to year 13. The website is designed to keep children engaged with their learning by providing fun awards. It also provides parents/guardians with detailed reports on their children’s progress.
What you will find on IXL:
- unlimited unique questions - to make practising engaging
- adaptable skill levels - to support and encourage children
- fun awards - to keep children motivated
- detailed parent reports - so they can stay in the know.
Parents and guardians will need to sign up at your local Hammersmith & Fulham library and you will be provided with usernames and passwords in order to be able access the site.
Theory Test Pro has everything you need to get ready for your driving theory and hazard perception tests. Take practice tests using official questions from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA), the people who set the tests.
Music
Oxford Grove Music, the authoritative resource for music research with over 57,000 articles written by over 6,000 scholars charting the diverse history, theory and cultures of music around the globe.
Newspapers and magazines
With over 6,000 publications from over 100 countries in over 60 languages, PressReader is the leading digital newspaper and magazine provider for premium content. Library members can access 1000s of magazines and newspapers in libraries and on personal devices.
Read titles like the National Post, The Guardian, Washington Post, Vogue, Forbes and much more from all over the world. The new PressReader platform lets you customise your reading experience, gain international perspectives and engage with topics of interest, often online before the print edition.
- Go to the PressReader website or download the PressReader app from your smartphone or tablet’s app store.
- Select your library from the dropdown list.
- Sign in with your library membership barcode and pin.
- Library members can access user guides, video tips and more on the PressReader Help Center website.
Note: Every 30 days, go to your account, sign out and then back in again with your library card number to reactivate complimentary access for another 30 days. You may reactivate as many times as you wish. If you are asked to pay for PressReader, do not proceed, but go to your account and sign out and then sign back in by selecting your library name and entering your card number.
A fully searchable facsimile archive of The Times stretching all the way from 1785 to 2010.
Online resources for children
eBooks, eMagazines, eNewspapers eAudiobooks and eComics
Britannica Library Junior contains comprehensive content for primary school children aged 5-11. Whether it is frogs or physics, gardening or geography, Britannica Online Library Edition covers it all.
Issues Online provide personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) resources for teachers, students and parents. They use images, graphs, infographics, videos and glossaries to help students and teachers understand information covering a wide range of PSHE subjects, KS4 topics, lessons and social issues.
Login via 'Public Library' with your library membership barcode.
IXL maths and English practice
This is an online learning experience that provides comprehensive, curriculum-based maths and English for children in reception and up to year 13. The website is designed to keep children engaged with their learning by providing fun awards. It also provides parents/guardians with detailed reports on their children’s progress.
What you will find on IXL:
- unlimited unique questions - to make practising engaging
- adaptable skill levels - to support and encourage children
- fun awards - to keep children motivated
- detailed parent reports - so they can stay in the know.
Parents and guardians will need to sign up at your local Hammersmith & Fulham library and you will be provided with usernames andpasswords in order to be able access the site.
Quick reference and encyclopedias
Britannica Library series
Britannica Online series contains comprehensive content for everyone, from primary to secondary school students, from business professionals to curious enquirers. It offers 75,000 articles, including 23,000 biographies.
Britannica Library Adult delivers trusted information wherever you want it, wherever you need it, in new and enjoyable ways.
Britannica Library Junior contains comprehensive content for primary school children aged 5 to 11. Whether it is frogs or physics, gardening or geography, Britannica Online Library Edition covers it all.
Britannica Library Student contains comprehensive content for secondary school students aged 12 to 18. Whether it is badminton or biology, heraldry or history, Britannica Online Library Edition covers it all.
Oxford online series
Remember to use the HF prefix with your library card number when you log in on the homepage for any of these resources, for example HF28***********.
The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium.
Oxford Reference Online brings together 215 language and subject reference works from one of the world's biggest and most trusted reference publishers into a single cross-searchable resource.
Research
Oxford Research Encyclopedias provides current, peer-reviewed trustworthy research, read in 30 minutes or less across 25 encyclopedias. Includes the Encyclopedia of Social Work and the Oxford Classical Dictionary.
Access to Research gives public library users free access to a wide range of published academic research through their local library.
Some of the best known UK publishers have made the journal content of 8,400 academic and scientific journals (or over 1.5 million articles) available for free to public library users. Subjects span art, architecture, business, engineering, history, languages, medicine, politics, philosophy, film, religion, mathematics and the sciences. The content is ideal for students, researches and small businesses, amongst others.
Note: this resource can only be accessed from the library.