Database “Biography” – a New Information Resource of the State Public Historical Library of Russia

Abstract

The article is devoted to a new information resource of the State Public Historical Library of Russia (SHPL) – the Biography database, which takes into account publications of a biographical and iconographic nature in pre-revolutionary periodicals. The database is part of the reference apparatus of the biography cabinet – a new structural unit as part of the reference and bibliographic department of the SHPL. A distinctive feature of the resource is the combination of biographical information about a person, bibliographic descriptions of information sources and direct links to their digital copies in the “Open Electronic Library” of the SHPL. The practical experience of the SHPL bibliographers in the formation of the database and the creation of normative records is presented, the range of sources used in its formation and the creation of normative records is characterized. Examples of normative records of geographic objects are given. The main search capabilities of the database, available to readers of the SHPL and for remote users are described. The possibilities of further development of the information resource, including information from registers of births, creation of a corporate project with interested libraries and archives of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are considered. This will provide additional opportunities to recreate the biographies of Russians of the late 19th – early 20th centuries, and can become a serious help both for professional historians and for a wide range of amateur genealogists studying the history of their famil.