People have always been a major interest for other people; and those reference books which give personal details are amongst the most‐used in all libraries. Biography is also an essential tool for many areas of research, especially history; and there is no shortage of relevant literature. A problem arises because of the sheer quantity and the scattered nature of its publication. To resolve it, the World Biographical Archive was conceived as a continuing World project.
Thirty‐three archives are now available, 21 being complete. Japan, Korea and Turkey plan to start by the end of 1999, and then every country will be represented. These Archives, published by K.G. Saur Verlag, in microfiche, provide a valuable collection of material far beyond what any single library can own as original documents. They are arranged under personal names and each national archive has a separate fiche index.
The current CD‐ROM disc goes a huge step further by indexing the national archives in one grand sequence with cross‐references to names, dates, sex, and occupations, thus giving all the flexibility of rapid search and printout. The 4th edition has added indexes to the American Biographical Archive Series II and the French Biographical Archive Series II, and now indexes around 3,200 international biographical reference works, from the sixteenth to the twentieth century and 3.2 million articles, with data on more than 2 million individuals, are noted. There are numerous interlinks to help in targeting required information. The user is able to interrogate the disc in German, English, French, Italian, or Spanish, with online help in any one of these languages and the computer may be set up to use any, or all, at will. There is no additional charge for network use; and the computer requirements are, in modern terms, modest.
All honour to the world’s CD‐ROM indexers who make searches now so facile. It should be stressed, however, that this disc leads only to a location in a national archive which is needed to give the original information required. Also, should one’s interest be especially in British biography, it would be well to wait for the 5th edition, which is due next year, because this will include details of the British Archives Series II.
