Dead exclusive

Are you in or are you out? This week’s websites are all about the chosen few.

Class of ‘05

215 new biographies have just been added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and the qualification is simple, if a touch macabre – to be included in the latest batch, you must have died in 2005. Of course, since then your name will have been tossed around at meetings of the great and the good at the Oxford University Press, to decide whether you did enough, when you were still alive, to rate an entry in the Dictionary.

You don’t have to have been great or even good yourself. Robert Maxwell is famously described in the ODNB as "publisher and swindler"; they like a crook to spice things up. Sadly, I couldn’t find any known criminals in the new lot.

Parliament is represented by – amongst others - Edward Heath, James Callaghan and Mo Mowlam, the arts by Fay Godwin (photographer), Sheila Gish (actress) and Christopher Fry (playwright, at the great age of 97). Long John Baldry and Dave Allen are in there batting for show biz, while the maker of funny-shaped cars, John DeLorean, also makes it.
It’s a long list, and a fascinating cross-section of the country’s movers and shakers. And if the 2005 lot don’t interest you, there are another 50,000 or so from previous years.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a Westminster Libraries Exclusive Resource for library members. Outside the library, you will need you library card number to get access.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Biography". The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is a Key Link.)

Everybody who’s anybody

There’s just room to remind you that Who’s Who (another Exclusive Resource, also including Who Was Who from 1898) is now in the same stable as the ODNB (discussed above), which means that it’s bright, attractive, and packed with interesting features, alongside the self-penned entries for the rich and famous. And if you’re curious about who gets into Who’s Who, there’s a link on the home page to a very good summary from the Daily Telegraph.

(From the Gateway to websites, select "Biography". Who’s Who is a Key Link.)