Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Contents & Search Tips

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Online version of the standard print reference resource. More than 50,000 full-text biographies of individuals from or concretely associated with the British Isles. Biographies of individuals from the earliest times to the end of 2000 are included. No living persons are included.

TRUNCATION AND WILDCARDS

Truncation and wildcards can only be used from the full text search page, and only when All Words or Any Words is selected.

*

Use * for variant endings of a word, eg. color* retrieves color, coloring, colored, colorado, etc.

?

Use ? to stand in for a single character when you are unsure of spelling, eg. einst??n retrieves the correctly spelled term, einstein.

BOOLEAN OPERATORS

Boolean operators are not supported in this database. Equivalent functionality is available from the full text search page, using the AND, OR and WITHOUT radio buttons.

SPECIAL FEATURES

	Magic Search	Highlight within the text and click Go to perform a new search from the text of a biography. Follow your own cross-references!
	Web Resources	Where available, links to external web resources for a given person are included in the left-hand navigation bar.
	Source Notes	Source notes are listed for each biography, providing additional bibliographic assistance for researchers.
	Images	Where available, portraits are included with each biography. A link provides immediate access to all likenesses of an individual in the database.
	Field searching	Quick Search allows fast access to biographies by name. From the full search screen, you can search biographies by place/date of birth; education; death; burial; residence; sex; field of interest; wealth at death; or full-text.
	Subheadings	Longer articles include subject-based subheading, allowing quick access to the information you're looking for.