Biography Reference Bank Grows with Content from American National Biography

 

New York, New York, March 18th, 2005
H.W. Wilson's popular Biography Reference Bank database now includes some 5,000 profiles from Oxford University Press's American National Biography, a premier biographical reference series on people who have shaped American history and culture.

 

American National Biography, a 1999 Dartmouth Medal winner, is described by Library Journal as "a masterpiece of scholarly distillation." Biography Reference Bank, honored in years past as a Library Journal Best Reference Source and as a Reference Books Bulletin Top 10 Biography Reference Source, is also described as "a top of the line biographical reference tool" by School Library Journal, and is "highly recommended" by Choice.

 

In all, Biography Reference Bank covers over 500,000 people. This latest expansion follows the recent addition of some 100,000 names to the database, reflecting all personal names cited as subjects in more than 50 WilsonWeb periodicals reference databases. Besides the high-quality narrative biographies, Biography Reference Bank helps users find biographical information from nearly 8,000 periodicals: profiles, features, interviews, essays, book reviews, performance reviews, speeches, and obituaries—including over 175,000 full-text articles. The daily addition of new information from periodicals helps keep research on any individual up to date.

 

In addition to Oxford University Press, Biography Reference Bank also features licensed profiles from other distinguished publishers, including Grove's Dictionaries, Harvard University Press, Greenwood Press, Houghton Mifflin, and others. Content from all other H.W. Wilson biography reference books and databases is included as well—data from Biography Index, Current Biography, World Authors, Junior Authors & Illustrators, and more.

"New profiles from such prestigious and reliable sources as American National Biography are in keeping with our goal to bring libraries the most practical and comprehensive biographical reference possible," commented Ronald Miller, H.W. Wilson Director of Product Management. "We're always on the lookout for quality content to expand Biography Reference Bank."

 

Free 30-day trials of Biography Reference Bank are available to librarians and members of the working press.