Why the Australian Dictionary of Biography matters to Wikimedians (and the world)
Wikimedia Australia strongly supports the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) and is deeply concerned by any proposal to reduce or discontinue this nationally significant resource.
The ADB has been a trusted and authoritative source of biographical information for decades. Maintained by the Australian National University (ANU), it provides rigorously researched entries on notable Australians, making it an essential reference for historians, researchers, writers and the general public alike.
The online version offers free access to over 11,000 biographies, searchable by various criteria, including name, date and place of birth and death, cultural heritage, religious influences, and occupations. It is frequently cited in Wikipedia articles about historical Australian figures.
For the Wikimedia community, the ADB plays a key role in helping editors determine notability and ensures content is accurate and well-sourced. Wikipedia’s reliability depends heavily on resources like the ADB. To demonstrate the reliance on ADB, as of July 2025, the ADB citation template has been used in nearly 4500 Wikipedia articles. While the ADB property (P1907) has been used over 25,000 times in Wikidata, often as a reference to key information such as dates, place of birth or alternative names. This does not include the related publications of People Australia ID, Women Australia ID, Labour Australia ID, Indigenous Australia ID, and Obituaries Australia ID.
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In an era of online misinformation, declining trust and paywalled services, the ADB keeps fact-based, scholarly information in the public domain. Its continued high quality and availability supports our shared mission of making knowledge freely and reliably accessible to all. Wikimedia Australia supports ADB as there is no other resource like it, and its depth, quality, and authority cannot be easily replicated.
Wikimedia Australia acknowledges the ANU’s long-standing commitment to the ADB and urges ongoing investment in this crucial national resource. Preserving and strengthening the ADB isn’t just about protecting a historical archive - it’s about ensuring that all Australians, and the world, have access to accurate, inclusive, and publicly available knowledge about the people who’ve shaped our country.
We call on the ANU and the Australian Government to act now, to work together to secure and increase funding for the ADB. Without urgent and sustained investment, Australia risks losing one of its most valuable public knowledge assets. Ensuring the ADB’s future is essential to safeguarding digital access to Australia’s history now and for generations to come.