Deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) onto the surfaces of titania/carbon nanocomposite fibres, which were fabricated by employing a natural cellulose substance (commercial laboratory filter paper) as both the scaffold and carbon source, resulted in a new nanofibrous ternary Ag-NP/titania/carbon composite material, which was employed as an anode material for lithium ion batteries, which showed improved electrochemical performances compared with titania, carbon and titania/carbon hybrid counter materials. For such a composite with 22.48 wt% of silver and Ag-NPs with the size of 5–10 nm, the initial discharge capacity was 1323 mA h g⁻¹ at a current density of 100 mA g⁻¹, and it showed a stable capacity of 320 mA h g⁻¹ after 150 charge–discharge cycles. It was found that the electrochemical performances of the anode material got better with the increase of the silver content in the composites. Due to the enhanced electric conductivity caused by the silver nanoparticles, as well as the unique three-dimensional cross-linked network structure of the composite, the anode performances in terms of the capacity, cycling stability and rate capacity are significantly improved.