Virtual reference library
Online reference and information
Accessing the resources
You can access a range of free online reference resources using your library membership. You will need a Gloucestershire library card with a number that starts with 77 e.g. 771234123x or 7712341234.
If your card has a different pattern of numbering please contact us using this link: https://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/libraries/contact-the-library/
Some resources can be accessed from anywhere using library membership, while others can only be accessed from a library computer. Please see details below.
Resources that can be accessed from anywhere using library membership:
You can log on to the following sites on any computer, using your Gloucestershire library card number. If you don't have a library card, join the library or update your details
- Ancestry - Gloucestershire records digitised by Ancestry
- Newsbank - Provides access to news articles from across the world from reliable sources. Includes local and national newspapers plus an enhanced trial giving access to full page newspaper images, replicating the real experience of reading a newspaper.
- Times Digital Archive search 1785 - 31st December 2013
- 19th Century newspapers - search national and regional newspapers
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - 57,000 biographies
- Oxford Reference
- Naxos Music Library 600,000 music tracks
- Theory test Pro- theory driving test
- GoCitizen- pass the Life in the UK test
Resources that can be accessed from any Gloucestershire library using library membership:
- Access to Research - For private study use only. Users may print a single copy of an article (usual printing costs apply). Content must not be copied or saved elsewhere. Misuse may result in your computer session being terminated.
- Ancestry - Includes Gloucestershire Parish Registers. If you would like to use Ancestry from home you will need to subscribe to Ancestry.co.uk
- Find My Past - UK family history records
- British Newspaper Archive - Register for access to 742 newspaper titles & explore over 200 years of history
Resources that can only be accessed from Cheltenham and Gloucester Libraries:
Resources that can only be accessed from Gloucester Library:
- FAME - Business database
Other useful websites for county library users
Some of these websites can be used from home with your library card and some can only be used in a library.
- John Johnson Collection - an archive of printed ephemera -access using your library card
- BFI Screen online - guide to British film and TV history. From Library PCs only