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American National Biography Online. New York: Oxford Univ. Pr., 2000. Price: annual subscription, details available from your regional network or www. anb.org/orderinginfo.html.
Oxford English Dictionary Online. New York: Oxford University Pr., 2000. Price: annual subscription, details available from your regional network or www.oed.com.
"Dynamic: of or pertaining to force in action or operation; active" is a definition taken from the recently issued Oxford English Dictionary that best describes the essential element of two recently issued online reference works: the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the American National Biography (ANB). Both of these works are produced by the dynamic Oxford University Press. One of the many marvels of digital technology is that it allows the text or work to be continually "in progress." This quality or state of being is fundamental to many reference works, particularly dictionaries and biographical sources. A dictionary is constantly changing to reflect the dynamism of language and culture, and a biographical source is never static until an entry is closed through the fact and record of a death.
Of the two sources, we will first consider the ANB and its significance in the catalog of reference works. Important biographical sources have preceded the ANB; the Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) is one. However, recent scholarship recognizes, as stated in the preface of ANB, that ". while the value of a national biographical reference work has endured, the character of such an undertaking has changed considerably since the DAB was published" (foreword). The DAB was published between 1926 and 1937 under the auspices and authority of the American Council of Learned Societies. In 1986, the need for an entirely new biographical work was recognized by John A. Garraty, Gouverneur Morris...