The Science Fiction and Fantasy Resource Database provides indexing to articles, books, and other material about science fiction and fantasy, including some coverage of horror, gothic and utopian items. It is an “on‐line, searchable compilation and extension of Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index 1878‐1985, Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index 1985‐1991, and Science Fiction and Fantasy Reference Index 1992‐1995, including material located since publication of the last printed volume”. The site does not index book reviews.
The home page has the following links: “New user” provides a brief introduction to the site. “Introduction” gives more information about the scope of the site, the rationale for creating it, and a list of the people who have contributed to it. “How to search” explains methods for finding information. Users can select “Quick” or “Advanced search” options and search the articles, etc. by author, title, date, and/or subject. Boolean searching is available. “Search the index” is where the user actually does the searching. The results of the search can be sorted. “Thesaurus of science fiction and fantasy index terms” is a list of words and phrases that are indexed, including titles of magazines. It can be searched alphabetically or from a master list. It was last updated in March 2000, which seems a long time ago for a database. “Suggest additions” has three forms for a user to recommend a book, journal or book essay for indexing. “Science Fiction and Fantasy Resource Collection – Cushing Library” goes to a site at Texas A&M, and provides information about its science fiction and fantasy‐related materials. A link from the home page also goes to a page discussing the compiler and his qualifications. Site pages other than home have a “Magazine list” link, which contains a long list of the magazines “regularly surveyed” for articles worthy of indexing.
The site has no advertisements. It seems to be affiliated with Texas A&M, and might be funded by them, but this is not clear to me. The site is easy to read and navigate, and has few graphics. It is updated quarterly, which seems sufficient. The Quick Search is a rather eccentric: “hg wells” yielded no hits, “h.g. wells” yielded 11 hits, and “wells” yielded 859 hits. The site searches provide bibliographic information only. I found no links provided to the articles themselves. I searched for some of the magazines listed, and found some online. It would be useful if the compiler found out which of the journals in the “Magazine list” are online, and provided links. I recommend the site for serious science fiction scholars.
