16 Nov 07

The ODNB consists of 60 volumes the largest published work in the English language

 Oxford University is one of 20 winners in the seventh round of Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education. The award, for the work of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB), was announced at St James’s Palace on Thursday 15 November.

The Dictionary is the largest published work in the English language and a research and publishing project put together by the History Faculty and Oxford University Press, a University Department. The DNB is a collection of more than 56,000 biographies of men and women who have shaped British life from the 4th century BC to the 21st century.

This is the sixth occasion that the University has received a Queen’s Anniversary Prize since the award’s inception in 1994. The Prizes are awarded biennially and recognise world-class excellence among higher and further education institutions for work of exceptional quality which brings benefit to the national or international community. Overseen by the Royal Anniversary Trust, the Prizes are unique among education awards in being part of the national honours system.

In this round of Prizes the University has received the award for a humanities research project for the first time. In doing so it joins only a handful of institutions to have been awarded a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for a work of historical and literary scholarship.

The Dictionary was written by 10,000 contributors worldwide and comprises 62 million words of text. The work of compilation was co-ordinated by a team of research staff at the Modern History Faculty and was published by editors at Oxford University Press.

The online Oxford DNB is available in universities and colleges worldwide; the online edition is also available in nearly all public libraries across the United Kingdom, with many offering remote access which allows readers to log-in from home.

On learning of the award Dr Lawrence Goldman, editor of the Oxford DNB, said: ‘It is very pleasing that the Royal Anniversary Trust has recognized the collaboration of the University and University Press in bringing together 10,000 contributors to create the Oxford DNB. The project’s success owes a huge amount to our contributors who have produced an accessible and readable national record now used daily in universities, libraries, schools, and homes in Britain and overseas.’