Friday, January 09, 2009

Edward Heath, James Callaghan and key shapers of 1970s Britain added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

http://www.oxforddnb.com/
Freely available in almost all UK public libraries, with direct home access for library members

The lives of 215 men and women who died in 2005 are added to the online edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography today, Thursday 8 January (http://www.oxforddnb.com/). Two prime ministers and two Labour cabinet members find their place alongside television entertainers, medical pioneers, Britain’s greatest footballer, as well as a lingerie designer, luxury car manufacturer, communist spy, and a pantomime dame.

Among the 215 new biographies added on Thursday 8 January are authoritative accounts of the lives of:

Prime Ministers Sir Edward Heath and James Callaghan
Labour politicians Robin Cook and Mo Mowlam
Footballers George Best and Johnny Haynes
TV entertainers Ronnie Barker and Dave Allen
Medical pioneers Dame Cicely Saunders and Sir Richard Doll
Authors John Fowles, Julia Darling, Humphrey Carpenter, and Willie Donaldson
Artist Patrick Caulfield, photographer Patrick Lichfield and sculptor
Sir Eduardo Paolozzi
Actors Sir John Mills and Mary Wimbush
Luxury car manufacturer John DeLorean
Janet Reger, lingerie designer
Communist spy Melita Norwood and Jack Tripp, pantomime dame

Additional info:

Following the January 2009 update of 215 new biographies, the Oxford DNB includes 51,924 articles in which are told the life stories of 56,862 people. 10,532 biographies include a portrait image of the subject; the Dictionary has been written by 13,185 authors.

Biographies in the online edition of the Oxford DNB now include people who died in or before the year 2005. No living person is included. People who died in later years will be added by calendar year in online updates each January, and in periodic printed supplements.

The Oxford DNB is published in print (63 million words in 60 volumes) and online http://www.oxforddnb.com/ The online Oxford DNB is updated in January, May, and October each year. The Dictionary is a research project of the University of Oxford, published and funded by Oxford University Press.

Since April 2006 the complete Oxford DNB has been available to 48 million residents in England and to all residents of Northern Ireland via their public libraries. There is further extensive public library access in other parts of the United Kingdom and worldwide. Remote log-ins allow library readers to consult the online Oxford DNB from home, or from anywhere.

In November 2007 the Oxford DNB was awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. The Queen's Anniversary Prizes are awarded biennially to educational institutions for work of exceptional quality that brings benefit to the wider community—both nationally and internationally—as well as to the institution itself.

Personal subscriptions to the online edition (http://www.oxforddnb.com/) cost £195 a year (+ VAT) or £50 (+ VAT) for three months. Institutions which subscribe online can choose from concurrent and unlimited use licence options for annual subscriptions, priced according to size and type of institution. Free trials are available to institutions.

The 60-volume print edition, published in September 2004, costs £3250. Purchasers of the print edition also receive twelve months’ free access to the Oxford DNB online edition and a free Index of contributors volume (which is also available for sale separately).

No comments: