The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, redux

The Team from Alexander Turnbull Library

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography was originally published in five print volumes between 1990 and 2000. In 2017 the Ministry for Culture and Heritage resumed work on the Dictionary, and 20 new biographies of women will be published in September this year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage. Come and hear Tim Shoebridge, the Dictionary’s programme manager, talk about the challenges posed and opportunities offered by this new chapter in the Dictionary’s life.

Public History Talk
Date: Wednesday 6 June 2018
Time: 12:10 to 1:00pm
Cost: Free. Booking is not required
Venue: Programme Rooms, Te Ahumairangi (ground floor), National Library, corner Molesworth and Aitken Streets, Thorndon

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography was originally published in five print volumes between 1990 and 2000. It comprised 3000 biographical essays about a wide range of deceased New Zealanders who had come to prominence by 1960. The Dictionary went online in 2001. In 2010 it was merged with Te Ara: the Encyclopedia of New Zealand to form the single largest reference work on New Zealand’s history and society. The combined Dictionary and Te Ara website is one of the largest works of scholarship ever undertaken in this country, and is unique in the world.

The Dictionary has been in hiatus since the completion of the print programme in 2000, with the exception of a batch of 15 biographies that were published online in 2010-11. In 2017 the Ministry for Culture and Heritage decided to resume work on the Dictionary, and to publish a new batch of biographies online every year. The new programme commences with 20 new biographies of women which will be published in September this year to celebrate the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage.
Tim Shoebridge, the Dictionary’s programme manager, will talk about the challenges posed and opportunities offered by this new chapter in the Dictionary’s life.

Tim Shoebridge, Senior Historian at Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage’, has researched and written on aspects of New Zealand's biosecurity, First World War, and motoring history, including New Zealand’s First World War Heritage with Imelda Bargas published in 2015.