Worldwide collection of biographical data on microfiche with index in electronic and printed form.
The World Biographical Archives are a significant source of information in terms of the period covered, the completeness of the collected biographical data, and the territory covered.
A reader is available at the Reference Centre to access the World Biographical Archives, which are stored on microfiche.
The biographical archives provide access to the biographies of approximately five million people taken from approximately 8,500 sources.
In biographical archives, it is possible to find personalities of all professions and ranks.:
- knights, nobles, members of royal families
- alchemists, artisans and visual artists, writers, actors, musicians, and composers
- industrialists, merchants, booksellers, publishers
- scientists, philosophers, clergymen, doctors, pharmacists, veterinarians, lawyers, students, teachers, farmers, foresters, soldiers, policemen, politicians, local officials
- sailors, travellers, colonists and emigrants, criminals
The individual biographies (biographical articles) have been kept in their graphic form and are arranged alphabetically according to the names of the personalities. Multiple biographies from different sources may exist for a single person. All additions are included under the biography to which they relate, as are all spellings and other variants of the name. The chronological arrangement of the biographies makes it possible to clarify how the biographical data evolved. Each biography includes information about the source from which it was taken.
Registers:
Currently the Reference Centre can be accessed:
- World Biographical Information System online registers
ABA, ABEPI, ABF, ABI, AfBA, ANZO-BA, BAA, BAB, BaBA, BBA, CBA, DBA, GBA, IBA, JaBA, JBA, PAB, RBA, SBA, SEABA, TBA, UBA
- World Biographical Index - CD-ROM
The 7th edition contains data from the following indexes:
ABA, ABEPI, ABF, ABI, AfBA, ANZO-BA, BAB, BaBA, BBA, DBA, JBA, PAB, SBA
- printed indexes from the following biographical archives: AfBA, ABA, ABEPI, ABF, ABI , ANZO-BA, BaBA, BAB, BBA, CBA, DBA, IBA, JBA, PAB, SBA
For each person, the name, its variants and pseudonyms (listed alphabetically), date of birth and death, occupation, the titles of the works from which the biographies of the person were taken, the microfiche number, and the windows on the microfiche are given in abbreviated form.
Overview of biographical archives
Unfortunately, it is not possible to simply and unambiguously divide biographical archives in this way. Some "European" biographical archives contain, for example, biographies of personalities related to the overseas colonies of the countries in question. Many archives are not strictly limited to a single country, but rather focus on several countries linked by language, political or geographical proximity. For these reasons, therefore, the division of biographical archives is rather tentative.
Without exact geographical destination
Jewish Biographical Archive
Africa
African Biographical Archive/Archives Biographiques Archives
Biographical Archive of the Classical World
Europe
Archives Biograhiques Françaises I+II
Archivio Biografico Italiano I+II+III
Archivio Biográfico de Espańa, Portugal e Iberoamérica I+II+III
Baltic Biographical Archive
Biografisch Archif van de Benelux/Archives Biografiques des Pays du Bénelux
Biographical Archive of the Classical World
British Biographical Archive I+II
Český biografický archiv a Slovenský biografický archív
Deutsches Biographisches Archiv I+II
Greek Biographical Archive
Hungarian Biographical Archive
Polskie Archiwum Biograficzne
Russian Biographical Archive
Scandinavian Biographical Archive
South-East European Biographical Archive
Turkish Biographical Archive
Asia
Arab-Islamic Biographical Archive
Biographical Archive of the Classical World
Chinese Biographical Archive
Indian Biographical Archive
Japanese Biographical Archive
South-East Asian Biographical Archive
Turkish Biographical Archive
North and South America
American Biographical Archive I+II
Archivio Biográfico de Espańa, Portugal e Iberoamérica I+II+III
Oceania
Australasian Biographical Archive