eResources at the National Library

The National Library has an amazing collection of digital reference databases from around the world, much of which can be accessed from home.

How

Go to the NLB’s eResources Page and login or register with you IC or FIN (the services is for Singaporeans and residents only).

You can then access a massive collection of material using the list in the left sidebar. There is everything from archived newspapers and photo repositories to vintage books in digital form.

If there is any one problem with this collection, it is that it’s too massive: there are 170 databases listed. That is a LOT of stuff – as if the internet wasn’t distracting enough already.

Limitations
Some of the best databases can only be accessed at the central library or selected satellite libraries. This includes Bloomberg, Factiva & Economist Intelligence Unit.

Best of At Home

My favorites finds for home access were:

• Factiva – access to broad range of news and business info
• Library PressDisplay – access to more than 1000 newspapers globally
• Naxos Music Library



• NewspaperSG – this is billed as digital archives of Singapore and Malaya papers from 1831-2006 however I found articles as recent as 2009. These are colour scans of newspapers and not text. Some of results found were marked “Available at NLB libraries only”.
• ePage magazine collections – includes a number of popular mags
• OnAsia – Massive collection of images
• Singapore 1000 – audited financials of Singapore’s top 1000 corpropates
• Singapore National Album of Pictures
• Mango Languages – offering basic to advances courses in a number of Asian languages as well as French, German and Spanish.
• World eLibrary – Huge collection of eBooks

To access any of these services and more, login and select from the list here.

It’s worth noting that there is no home access of current local newspapers: to look at recent archives of the ST or other local papers, you need to physically get yourself to a library.