- Who is in the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) Online?
- Who should I contact if I believe there is a factual error in an ADB Online biography?
- Who should I contact if I have some additional information on a person in the ADB Online?
- How do I cite or reference an ADB Online biography?
- Who helped prepare the ADB Online?
- What is the future of the ADB Online?
The ADB Online contains over 10,000 articles on 11,237 persons (some articles are on more than one person) who were important in Australian history or who represent aspects of the Australian experience. All the articles have been taken from the hard-copy volumes of the ADB published between 1966 and 2005.
Volumes 1 to 12 of the ADB deal with people whose careers flourished in particular periods: Volumes 1 and 2 - 1788 to 1859; Volumes 3 to 6 - 1851 to 1890; Volumes 7 to 12 - 1891 to 1939. Volumes 13 to 16 deal with people whose careers flourished between 1940 and 1980 and who (with a few exceptions) died in or before 1980. The Supplementary Volume covers the period 1580 to 1980. Of the persons in the ADB, 11,210 died in or before 1980. The remaining 27 died in the 1980s.
The ADB staff are currently preparing articles on people who died in the period 1981 to 1990. These will be published in the forthcoming Volumes 17 and 18 and in the online edition. Two more volumes are planned covering the period 1991 to 2000. At present there are no plans to revise the articles in the earlier volumes (other than to correct errors) or to add new articles on persons who died before 1981.
For more information, see About the ADB Online.
2. Whom should I contact if I believe there is a factual error in an ADB Online biography?
If you believe that a factual statement in a biography is incorrect please contact the ADB staff via the Contact page. Please supply a fully referenced source to support your claim. If the claim relies on a document not on the public record (e.g. an extract from a privately held diary), please provide a copy. The ADB staff will then review the article and publish any necessary corrections. See Help - Feedback for further details.
3. Whom should I contact if I have some additional information on a person in the ADB Online?
Information can be sent to the ADB staff directly via the Contact page.If you wish to supply information about an ADB subject in addition to that recorded in her or his article, the ADB staff will place it on file for use by researchers and for reference should a revision of the article be contemplated in the future. Please include fully referenced sources and copies of documents not on the public record.
4. How do I cite or reference an ADB Online biography?
The minimum form of identification is: name of the author as it appears at the foot of the article; title of the article; URL of the article; the publisher Australian National University; date of electronic publication of the article; and the words Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition. For example, Rutledge, Martha, 'Ogilvie, Edward David Stewart (1814 - 1896)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography - Online Edition, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A050411b.htm.
5. Who helped prepare the ADB Online?
The ADB Online is operated by the Australian Dictionary of Biography at the Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University. The website is a joint production of the ADB and the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, University of Melbourne (AUSTEHC). See Acknowledgments for further details.
6. What is the future of the ADB Online?
Work continues on both the enrichment of the content and enhancement of the underlying database. Later print volumes of the ADB will be incorporated in the online edition.
