Information Services Newsletter
Access to Biographical Information

Are you interested in finding out about the lives of those people who were influential in shaping the history of the British Isles from the 4th Century BC to 2002? If so, the Library has a subscription to the online version of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography which provides access to over 50,000 biographies directly from your desktop. The online version of the ODNB is the equivalent of 60 printed volumes and provides quick and easy access to a wealth of information. The database can be searched in a variety of ways. Quick Search allows you to search for the biography of an individual or to search for words used in the text of a biography. There is also a full search facility for more detailed searching. It is also possible to browse alphabetically by an individual’s name or chronologically by
date as well as searching by themes, for example, Speakers of the House of Commons, 1376-2002.

The online version of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is updated three times per year and the January
2006 update saw 202 biographies being added to the database. The database excludes individuals who are still alive.

A companion electronic resource is the American National Biography which charts the lives of over 17,400 American men and women who shaped the history of America. This resource is updated quarterly and as with the ODNB, it is possible to subscribe to an email list and receive a random “biography of the day”. You will need an Athens username and password to access both of these resources. If you need help with Athens please contact a member of Library staff. To view the full range of electronic reference resources subscribed to by the Library of the University of Ulster, go to:

http://library.ulster.ac.uk/electronic/ref

Janet Peden