Online services

Search for your ancestors on the library edition of Ancestry.com. All the UK censuses from 1841 to 1901, plus births, marriages and deaths. Available in all Lewisham Libraries only.

For 18+. This is the online version of the famous encyclopaedia. With a world atlas, timelines, comparative country data, international news feeds, and much more.

Britannica for ages 5 - 11, with everything you need to help you with your homework.

Britannica for ages 12 - 18. Homework support for the older student.

Formerly Xreferplus, Credo is a giant online reference library that provides you with access to a selection of 298 reference books. It includes encyclopaedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, not to mention a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy and literature to law. Credo is also an officially-accredited digital learning resource for Curriculum Online.

Enquire instantly connects you to library staff trained to help you find answers to your questions. Best of all the service is free and anyone can use it at any time!

A comprehensive reference source addressing contemporary social issues. With sixty topics to choose from, Issues Online provides a wide range of information including: articles with news and views on each topic, key facts, key statistics, lobby group links, newspaper archives, reference sites, research guides plus assignment/debate suggestions. There are a variety of opinions available on each topic.

KnowUK is the ultimate online library of UK information, with over 130 reference books and information resources

Business information database containing 2.2M companies in 70 countries referenced by 54.000 product and service keywords, 822.000 trade names and 4.2M executive names.

Use this link to access Kompass with your library card.

DBIC provides information on 10,000 companies, 2,000 industries and 50 countries. You also have access to a two-year archive of leading news and comment stories.

An online service developed to provide national and regional news, combining the most popular British newspaper titles in one database. It contains 115 newspapers and magazines falling under three categories national newspapers, regional newspapers and magazines. NewsUK is easy to use and you can search across the 115 news titles for information on a person, a headline, a place, or get a broad range of views on a particular news story and find information on local and national events.

The most comprehensive online reference resource for all aspects of the visual arts worldwide from prehistory to the present day.

The Oxford DNB contains 50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2004.

The OED is widely acknowledged to be the most authoritative and comprehensive dictionary of English in the world. It also traces the evolution of more than 600,000 words over the last 1,500 years through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of sources: from classic literature and periodicals to film scripts and pop songs.

Use this link to access the OED with your library card.

Instant access to the world's premier authority on all aspects of music

Oxford Reference Online: Premium Collection is a vast online reference library of over 150 titles available 24x7. It combines in-depth content offered by titles in the acclaimed Oxford Companions series with authoritative, quick-reference coverage of the full subject range.

The entire newspaper is captured, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to make searching easier.