The Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase

Who wrote that book? What was that title?

• The Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase
• http://www.cu-online.com/~avonruff/sfdbase.html
• Maintained by Al von Ruff
• avonruff@cu-online.com
• Some Tables; Text-only Option

he Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase is an on-line project that is attempting to compile a list of every piece of speculative fiction (both SF and fantasy) published since modern SF began, near the beginning of the 20th century. Through a Web interface anyone can use the database to find the author of a particular work, bibliographies, award winners and much more.

The database is presented in five main sections, starting with Awards. For 22 different SF and fantasy awards -- from the Aurora to the World Fantasy -- users can search by year to find the nominees and winners for any given award. Next comes the Directory, which is simply a list of the (currently) 7,382 authors compiled in the database. The Forthcoming section lists soon-to-be-published novels by month, looking ahead about eight months.

The meat of the ISFDB is found in the Magazines and Search areas. The site has so far cataloged 37 current and past periodicals, with links to a full table of contents for each issue. The database often includes a short history of the magazine, as well as subscription information, links to Web pages and a timeline of major events, such as changes in owner, editor, and format.

On the Search page, users can look up names, titles, series or a complete listing of all fiction published in a particular year, sorted by either title or author. All of the information is cross-linked: Story titles in an author's bibliography will link to the table of contents of the magazine where the story appeared, and from there other authors' names will link to their bibliographies, etc.

The ISFDB is a very useful tool that is intentionally graphics-light to keep access speedy -- even so the pages can load slowly (it would be nice if some of the larger lists could be broken up into smaller files). The interface is generally quite simple and instructions are readily available, although there are some navigational problems such as a lack of back-links on certain pages. It's also disappointing that there is no way to search the award listings by name or title (for cases of "I know this book won, but I need to know when").

Users are free to enter new data into the ISFDB, which is both good and bad. On the one hand it allows authors and fans to contribute to the project, which fits in with the community spirit of the SF and fantasy world. But does anyone check the entries? That's not clear. These complaints are quibbles, though.

The ISFDB puts valuable data just a few clicks away from any browser, and there's no arguing that it's an excellent resource.

A resource for scholars and fans alike. -- Brooks

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