Oxford Bibliographies Online (OBO) is a new database composed of bibliographies in a range of subject areas. Each bibliography is intended to direct users to the highest quality resources in that subject area. To that end, each subject module has an editor in chief and an advisory board of 15 to 20 experts in the field who together decide what articles will be in each bibliography. The bibliographies are updated quarterly.
As of June 2010, the available bibliographies are Atlantic history, Classics, Criminology, Islamic studies, Philosophy, Renaissance and reformation, and Social work. The addition of Biblical studies, Medieval studies, Buddhism, and Hinduism was planned for autumn 2010. In development for release in 2011 were International relations, Victorian literature, Human rights, Education, Sociology, Latin American studies, American literature, Linguistics, International law, Public health, Communication, Jewish studies, Film and media studies, Political science, Anthropology, and Military history. The addition of topics seems to lack order and logic. While all are useful, few are the most heavily studied topics, particularly the first set.
The top page is simple, with a box listing the available bibliographies, a box to browse entries in the bibliography or bibliographies selected, and a search box. However, the design is not optimal. The box listing the bibliographies has them on a line with a graphic above the name and a check box beside it. Only four fit in the box, so to see all the bibliographies you have to scroll forwards and backwards. It would be preferable to have a box that lists all the modules with a check box beside each and no graphics. It would also be better to default to no bibliographies selected. It is inconvenient to have to deselect all those you do not want to view. A “select all” button could be added for those who want to do a comprehensive search.
Another suggested improvement would be a splash page for each bibliography, which has the information about that bibliography and its editorial board, an introductory article, and the list of articles. The graphic and title on the top page, if clicked now, simply selects or deselects that bibliography. A link to the suggested splash page could appear here instead. Most of the suggested splash page information is available at the top of the right column of each article in a bibliography.
The organization of the bibliographies is excellent. Each article is a literature review, placing the works in context and annotating them. Included are a variety of material formats, including books, journal articles, and data sets. The bibliographies are selective rather than comprehensive, striving to lead the user to the best content. Annotations are brief or lengthy, depending on the bibliography. For example, annotations viewed in the Classics bibliography are shorter than those in the Criminology module. For each citation, the client can check to see if their local library has that item or check the item record in WorldCat. A user can select citations, annotate them, and export them to a reference manager (Refworks, EndNote, or ProCite). Each bibliography has around 50‐100 articles. Each article has a table of contents in the left frame, links to related articles on the right, and Print, Email and Cite buttons at the top.
The content is superb. It is an Oxford publication, after all. The articles do a good job of summarizing the current state of a topic, though “current” may be defined differently in different disciplines – even some topics of the same discipline. For example, the article on the philosophy of technology points out that most philosophy deals with texts that remain useful for millennia, but that technology and its implications is changing so fast that books on that topic become dated much more quickly. It should be noted that not all the publications cited are works published by Oxford, and that older works are cited as well as more recent items.
The OBO team has kept the needs of libraries in mind with linking through OpenURL, DOIs, library records, WorldCat, and Google Books. They also provide MARC21 records for each bibliography for easy addition to a library catalogue. In sum, the product is recommended for its excellent content. The user interface needs improvements that should be relatively easy to implement. The bibliographies published so far are for smaller niche disciplines than those planned for publication in 2011. OBO is to be commended for making bibliographies relevant for the digital age.
