FAQs — English

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"><head> <base href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/faq/" /> <title>FAQs — English</title><meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" /><meta name="Description" content="Dutch Biography Portal" /><meta name="Keywords" content="biography portal dutch" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/css/reset.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" media="screen,handheld" type="text/css" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/css/layout.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/css/contents.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" media="screen,handheld" type="text/css" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/css/photoframe.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" media="print" type="text/css" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/css/print.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" media="handheld, only screen and (max-device-width: 1000px)" type="text/css" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/css/handheld.css" /><link rel="places_url" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/zoek_places" /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/js/jquery-1.4.1.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/js/utils.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/js/photoframe.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/js/scripts.js"></script><link rel="shortcut icon" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/@@/bioport/images/favicon.ico" /><script type="text/javascript"> var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-23593241-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); </script></head><body id="Contact"><noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-M2KQR4" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript><script>(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= '//www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-M2KQR4');</script><div id="wrapper"> <div id="layHead"> <h2 onclick="window.location.href='/'" class="english"> <span class="textOnly">Dutch Biography Portal</span></h2> <div id="stats">80.626 persons <br /> in 147.999 biographies</div> <hr class="textOnly" /></div> <div id="layMenu"> <h3 class="textOnly">Contents</h3> <ul><li id="home"> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en">home</a> </li> <li id="search"> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/zoek">search</a> </li> <li id="browse"> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/personen?beginletter=a">browse</a> </li> <li id="project"> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/about">project</a> </li> <li id="links"> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/links">links</a> </li> <li id="FAQ"> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/faq">FAQ</a> </li> <li id="contact"> <a href="mailto: biografischportaal@huygens.knaw.nl">contact</a> </li> <li id="search_box"> <form class="search_form" action="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/personen"> <div> <input class="textArea" type="text" name="search_name" size="20" /><input class="submitButton" type="submit" value="zoek" /></div> </form> </li> <ul id="portal-languageselector"><li> <a title="nederlands" href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/contact">nederlands</a> </li> </ul></ul><hr class="textOnly" /></div> <div id="layContent">  <div> <div id="colright"> <div class="visualPadding"> <div id="portletwrapper-706c6f6e652e7269676874636f6c756d6e0a636f6e746578740a2f62696f706f72742f656e2f6661710a7461626c652d6f662d636f6e74656e7473" class="portletWrapper kssattr-portlethash-706c6f6e652e7269676874636f6c756d6e0a636f6e746578740a2f62696f706f72742f656e2f6661710a7461626c652d6f662d636f6e74656e7473"> <dl class="portlet portletStaticText portlet-static-table-of-contents"><dt class="portletHeader"> <span class="portletTopLeft"></span> <span> Table of contents </span> <span class="portletTopRight"></span> </dt> <dd class="portletItem odd"> <ul><li><a href="#1">What are the criteria for inclusion in the Biographical Portal of the Netherlands? </a></li> <li><a href="#2"> I wish to make a correction or to add supplementary information about someone. How should I go about it?</a></li> <li><a href="#3">Can I make suggestions for the addition of individuals who are not yet included in the Biographical Portal? </a></li> <li><a href="#4">Why haven’t I been able to find the person I was looking for? </a></li> <li><a href="#5">I have found more than one biography dealing with the same person, but there are discrepancies between them. Which is more reliable? </a></li> <li><a href="#6">What is the idea behind the categories? </a></li> <li><a href="#7">Exactly what will be searched with the function ‘free search in the text’? </a></li> <li><a href="#8">The Biography Portal contains biographies of ‘Dutch men and women’. But what definition of ‘Dutch men and women’ is applied? </a></li> <li><a href="#9">Does the Portal include people who lived in the former Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium)? </a></li> <li><a href="#10">What is the correct way of referring to the Biographical Portal in citations? </a></li> <li><a href="#11">Who are the makers of the Biographical Portal? </a></li> <li><a href="#12">What plans exist for the Biographical Portal’s future? </a></li> <li><a href="#13">Does the structure of the Biographical Portal provide for a research space?</a></li></ul><span class="portletBottomLeft"></span> <span class="portletBottomRight"></span> </dd> </dl></div> </div></div> <div id="colcenter"> <div id="viewlet-above-content"></div><div class=""> <span id="contentTopLeft"></span> <span id="contentTopRight"></span> <dl class="portalMessage info" id="kssPortalMessage" style="display:none"><dt>Info</dt> <dd></dd> </dl><div id="content"> <h1 id="parent-fieldname-title" class="documentFirstHeading"> FAQs </h1> <div id="content-core"> <div class="" id="parent-fieldname-text-4f97129555f2000da55e4aeabefd52d3"> <h2 id="1">What are the criteria for inclusion in the Biographical Portal of the Netherlands?</h2> <p>Only people with biographical entries in one of the <u></u><u><a title="Collections" class="internal-link" href="about/collecties">reference works</a></u> incorporated into the Portal are included.</p> <p>Other reference works will be added in the course of time.</p> <p>N.B. Reference works with biographies of persons who are still alive have not been incorporated into the Portal.</p> <h2 id="2">I wish to make a correction or to add supplementary information about someone. How should I go about it?</h2> <p> Mistakes and supplementary remarks about a particular person can be registered on the <u><a href="/contact">contact page</a></u>.</p> <p> N.B. We will only add such corrections/additions to our own page of ‘core data’. They will be verified before being incorporated into the database. All corrections and additions must be accompanied by a reference to the source; otherwise they will be disregarded. And please be patient, since the operational capacity for dealing with additions and corrections is as yet limited.</p> <h2 id="3">Can I make suggestions for the addition of individuals who are not yet included in the Biographical Portal?</h2> <p> No, this is not yet possible. At the present time, the Biographical Portal is only working with existing biographies, or compilations of biographies. That means you can only make suggestions for the addition of existing reference works, files, or databases containing biographical information about Dutch men and women. If you wish to do so, click the link ‘contact’. We certainly plan to take stock of the existing gaps in our biographical information and to fill them at some point in the future, but that is not being addressed at present.</p> <h2 id="4">Why haven’t I been able to find the person I was looking for?</h2> <p> The two likeliest reasons are:</p> <ul><li> <p> He or she is not listed in any of the reference works incorporated into the database;</p> </li><li> <p>You are searching by a name other than the name under which the person is listed in the Biographical Portal.</p> </li></ul><h2 id="5">I have found more than one biography dealing with the same person, but there are discrepancies between them. Which is more reliable?</h2> <p> The most reliable text will often be the one published most recently. The Biographical Portal applies its own rough ranking order of reliability. For more information, click the link <u><a title="Collections" class="internal-link" href="about/collecties">collections</a></u>.</p> <h2 id="6"> </h2><p>Why does the the Portal’s life summary page not include details regarding occupation, religion or social environment?</p> <p> The project is still in its infancy. The database cannot be searched by these keywords because this information has not yet been added. This work is still in progress.</p> <h2 id="7">What is the idea behind the categories?</h2> <p> The ‘reasons’ for people’s fame and hence their inclusion in a biographical register may be extremely diverse, besides which people may be famous for more than one thing. For the time being, we are using a rough classification system to assign people to various walks of life.</p> <ul><li> <p> Nobility and members of royal houses (see also ‘Armed forces and war’ and ‘Politics and administration’)</p> </li><li> <p>Industry (crafts, banking, industry, trade, agriculture, technology, transport)</p> </li><li> <p>Visual arts and design (architecture, sculpture, photography, printmaking, art patrons and collectors, painting, drawing)</p> </li><li> <p>Church and religion (for theology, see ‘Education and science’)</p> </li><li> <p>Colonial and overseas relations and trade (incl. colonial administration)</p> </li><li> <p>Armed forces and war (including everything related to war, such as resistance and treason) (see also ‘Nobility and members of royal houses’ and ‘Politics and administration’)</p> </li><li> <p>Literature (literary fiction, poetry, essays and other forms of prose, plays, pamphlets, print journalism) (for theological writings, see ‘Church and religion’, for theological treatises and academic historiography, see ‘Education and science’)</p> </li><li> <p>Social movements (reform movements, revolts, protests, strikes, trade union movement, women’s movement)</p> </li><li> <p>Education and science</p> </li><li> <p>Politics and administration (see also ‘Nobility and members of royal houses’ and ‘Armed forces and war’)</p> </li><li> <p>Radio and television (see also ‘Performing arts’)</p> </li><li> <p>Justice system (incl. crime) (for jurisprudence, see ‘Education and science’)</p> </li><li> <p>Sports and recreation (incl. travel)</p> </li><li> <p>Performing arts</p> <p>(cabaret, drama, dance, film, music, choreography, stage/film direction) (see also ‘Radio and television)</p> </li><li> <p>Care (health care, charity, social services, obstetrics) (for medicine, see ‘Education and science’)</p> </li><li> <p>Other categories (miscellaneous)</p> </li></ul><h2 id="8">Exactly what will be searched with the function ‘free search in the text’?</h2> <p> A ‘free search in the text’ enables you to search the running text of all files that have been included in the Biographical Portal. If you prefer, you could start by selecting names from the Portal and then choosing ‘free search in the text’. For instance, if you want to find all the apothecaries/pharmacists for a particular place and time, you can start by selecting the place and time (using ‘in ...’ and dates of birth and death) and then perform a free search on ‘apoth*’ or ‘pharm*’.</p> <p> N.B. Some documents have been scanned in using OCR software, and may therefore contain errors. In some cases, this may reduce the reliability of the results.</p> <h2 id="9">The Biography Portal contains biographies of ‘Dutch men and women’. But what definition of ‘Dutch men and women’ is applied?</h2> <p> In principle, the concept of ‘Dutch men and women’ is given a broad definition: it includes people born in what is now called the Netherlands and the former Dutch colonies, as well as people who were born elsewhere but who became active within the territory of the Netherlands at some point in their lives.</p> <h2 id="10">Does the Portal include people who lived in the former Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium)?</h2> <p> Inhabitants of the former Southern Netherlands (present-day Belgium) are added to the Biographical Portal only if their biographies are included in one of the existing reference works (Van der Aa, NNBW). There are tentative plans to expand the Portal at some point in the future to include Belgian reference works.</p> <h2 id="11">What is the correct way of referring to the Biographical Portal in citations?</h2> <p> The Portal’s URL is: www.biografischportaal.nl/persoon/ID. It is not necessary to add a date, since the ID is 'persistent'.</p> <h2 id="12">Who are the makers of the Biographical Portal?</h2> <p> The Biographical Portal is a joint initiative of a number of <u><a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/nieuw/bioport/instellingen">institutions</a></u> and the work is carried out at the <u><a href="http://www.inghist.nl/">Institute of Netherlands History (ING)</a></u>. You can find further information by clicking the links <u><a title="About the project" class="internal-link" href="about">project</a></u> and then <u><a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/nieuw/bioport/colofon">colophon</a></u></p> <h2 id="13">What plans exist for the Biographical Portal’s future?</h2> <p> In the short term we plan to include more existing reference works and to add cross-referencing, to widen the Portal’s range. In the longer term, the intention is to incorporate all biographical reference works for the Netherlands that meet our criteria into the Biographical Portal. In addition, there is an ongoing effort to improve the search functions. Plans also exist to add portrait images to the pages containing essential biographical information. In the meantime, consultations are being held with partners in Europe to create a Biographical Portal for Europe. For recent developments, click the link <u><a title="About the project" class="internal-link" href="about">project</a></u>.</p> <h2 id="14">Does the structure of the Biographical Portal provide for a research space?</h2> <p> A research space is being developed in the form of an intranet within the Biographical Portal, where researchers will be able to submit contributions and arrange forms of collaboration.</p> </div> </div> <div class="visualClear"></div> <div class="documentActions"> </div> </div> <span id="contentBottomLeft"></span> <span id="contentBottomRight"></span> </div><div id="viewlet-below-content"> </div></div> </div>  </div> <div id="layFoot"> <hr class="textOnly" /><a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en">home</a> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/zoek">search</a> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/personen?beginletter=a">browse</a> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/about">project</a> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/links">links</a> <a href="http://www.biografischportaal.nl/en/faq">FAQ</a> <a href="mailto: biografischportaal@huygens.knaw.nl">contact</a> </div> </div></body></html>

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FAQs — English