Confessions of an Oxford Dictionary of National Biography addict

I’m a huge fan of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). It is a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to know about the lives of well-known and not so well-known historic British and British-related figures and can be accessed via the Source either in our libraries or from home with your library card number and pin.

I first encountered the DNB when working at the National Army Museum in 2004 when the newly revised printed edition was published and I catalogued all 60 volumes. (The original Victorian edition was edited by Virginia Woolf‘s father, Sir Leslie Stephen.) The print volumes were beautifully produced, wonderful to flick through, took up a lot of shelf space – and came with a free one year subscription to the online version, which was fantastic to explore.

The DNB truly comes alive online (which is slightly ironic as you have to dead to be considered for inclusion) – there are updates every few months, links to related people of interest, theme pages and lists, and a Lives of the Week feature which highlights a different life every day – these can even be sent direct to your inbox. This last week we’ve had the chance to discover botanist and geologist Sir Albert Seward, shorthand specialist Marie Beauclerc and Polish Battle of Britain pilot Josef František amongst others. I wonder who’s going to be there when you’re reading this?

This is the place to find out about the mysterious Spring-Heeled Jack, claimants to the English and Scottish thrones, John Lennon (and John Lennon), Presidents of the Royal Society, Mary Seacole, HD, angry young men and merry men, and many, many more. Indeed, this blog is taking a while to write as I keep getting sidetracked.

Looking at this resource from a New Zealand angle, many governors, governors-general, premiers and prime ministers are included and can be found on this list, the Canterbury Association has its own theme page, and a simple full text search on ‘New Zealand’ brings up plenty of hits.

New Zealand’s own Dictionary of Biography is part of the Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

Who have you discovered? Do you have an online resource you keep returning to?

In your Neighbourhood Week

Neighbourhood week runs from 25 October to 3 November 2013. It is a chance to get to know your neighbours.

We’ve got some tools to help you link into your neighbourhood:

• Check Be There to see what’s on.
• Connect with your community via your local library.

If you need to find a community organisation in Christchurch, our community information directory CINCH is the place to go. Our libraries have community noticeboards and display information on local groups and classes.

• Search for our books on neighbourhoods

Nurses and babies: Picturing Canterbury

A group of St. Helen’s nurses with their charges ca. 1910

• More photos of women in our collection
• More local pictures on the blog
• Browse our image collection

Christchurch Photo Hunt

Do you have your own cool images to share?

Enter the Christchurch Photo Hunt. You could win a tablet or one of three e-readers.

Submit your photos by 5pm 17 November.