Help Page

Who is in the DWB?

• To find out more about the kind of information you can expect to find in the biographical articles in the DWB, click on the 'Read more about the project' link in the centre of the Home page, or on 'The Project' at the bottom of any page.

How can I return to the Home page?

• To get to the Home page from any page on the site, click on 'Home' at the top of the page.

How can I get to the Help page from other pages on the site?

• To get to the Help page from any page on the site, click on the 'Help' link at the bottom of the page.

How can I change the language of the site between Welsh and English?

• You can change between languages by clicking on 'English' or 'Cymraeg' at the top right hand corner of any page.
• N.B. If you change the language of the interface during a search, you may lose your search results.

How can I search the DWB?

• There are three ways to search:
  (i) by using an A-Z list of articles;
  (ii) by using the main 'Search' box or
  (iii) by using the 'Free text search' box.
• A-Z list of articles
• Articles are listed alphabetically in three places:
- under 'Browse by Name' in the middle of the Home page
- when you click 'Browse' at the top of any page
- at the top of each page that opens when you click on one of the letters


• Click on a letter to see a list of articles for personal names and pseudonyms beginning with that letter.
• Clickable cross-references are provided in the list where a person has more than one name or more than one form of the name.
• Click on a highlighted name to open an individual article.
• It is not possible to see results for more than one letter of the alphabet at a time.
• Articles are listed according to the English alphabet rather than the Welsh.
• 'Search' box
• The 'Search' box is displayed prominently at the top of the Home page, in the middle.
• It offers two search options:
- 'Name' – this will search only for personal names in article headings.
- 'Free text' – this will search for personal names in article headings and also for any data in the main body of articles, so you can search for personal names, place-names or any other terms that appear in the data.


• To select one of these options, use the dropdown menu which appears when you click on the arrow displayed on the left hand side of the search box.
- The default search option is 'Name'.


• To start your search, type the term you want to search for into the box, click on the magnifying glass icon on the right hand side of the box (or press the return key on your keyboard), and your results will appear.
• 'Free text search' box
• The 'Free text search' box is at the top right hand side of every page on the site, so there is no need to return to the Home page to start a new search unless you wish to restrict your search to personal names in article headings.
• 'Free text search' will search both for personal names in article headings and also for any data in the main body of articles, so you can search for personal names, place-names or any other terms that appear in the data.
• To start your search, type the term you want to search for into the box, click on the magnifying glass icon on the right hand side of the box (or press the return key on your keyboard), and your results will appear.
• Other points to note about searching:
- The search function is not case sensitive.
- You can use an asterisk as a wildcard; for example, jon* will produce results that contain 'Jones'.
- Boolean searching (e.g. AND / OR / NOT) is not supported.
- If you change the language of the interface between English and Welsh during a search, you may lose your search results.

How are my search results shown?

• Your search results appear on a temporary 'Search results' page, arranged by surname or pseudonym, with each result showing part of the article, usually the heading. Where a result is found within an article but not in the heading, the relevant part of the article is shown.
• At the top of the list of 'Search results', the following information is displayed:
• the number of articles that contain your search term
• confirmation of what your search term is and what type of search you have conducted
• the number of results displayed on the current page
• Where there is a large number of search results, they will be displayed over a number of pages. The number of pages is shown in a row of small square boxes immediately above the list, with number 1 highlighted to show that you are on page 1 of the results.
• To navigate these pages, click on the numbers in the boxes to go to the associated pages, or - where there are a large number of pages - on the arrow/s that appear in the penultimate box/es to denote the next page or the previous page.
• You can choose to display 12, 24 or 48 results per page. Click the 'Display options' button at the top right hand corner of the page and use the dropdown menu to change the number of results shown per page.
• Relevance of search results
• The order in which search results are shown is weighted for relevance, which means that it takes into account the number of results within each article, and also the importance of names in article headers over those in the body of articles. However, these considerations can conflict with one another, and some names appear both as surnames and as forenames (and also in non-final surnames and double-barrelled surnames), so you may find that results are not always prioritised as you would expect. We hope to improve this in the future.
• To view an article, click on the highlighted link.

How can I refine my search?

• You can refine your search in four ways:
• Search within the results of your most recent search by adding text to it.
• Remember that, as well as adding more search terms, you can also use asterisks for wildcard searches (see 'How can I search the DWB?' above).
• Use the specific filters on the left of the screen, which include:
- Gender (you can restrict results to articles about males or females)
- Authors (you can restrict results to particular authors of articles)
- Categories (you can restrict results using specified keywords which denote the spheres of activity of persons in the DWB)
- Article Language (you can restrict results to articles written in Welsh or English)
- N.B. The site is intended to be fully bilingual, but some of the articles are available in only one language, and the precise content of some articles may vary between the English and Welsh versions.

• The number that appears in brackets next to each filter term shows how many results have been found for that term.
• Select filter options by clicking on them. A tick appears in the box on the left to show when a filter option has been selected. You can refine your search further by selecting multiple filters and multiple options within them. To remove a filter, click again to remove the tick. You can clear all of your selected filters at once by clicking on the 'Clear Selections' button at the top of the list.
• Search within existing results using a further filter.
• There is a text box at the top of each filter, showing some text (e.g. 'Filter Category'). You can use this box to search
• Choose the order in which your results are displayed.
• To sort your search results into ascending or descending name order, click the 'Display options' button at the top of the list of your search results, and select 'Ascending' or 'Descending'.
• To sort your results by relevance, click the 'Display options' button at the top of the list of your search results, and select 'Score'. For more about relevance weightings, see 'How are my search results shown?' above.

How can I browse the DWB?

• You can browse every article on the site by using the A-Z list of articles. This can be found in three places:
• by clicking 'Browse' at the top of any page
• under 'Browse by Name' in the middle of the Home page
• under 'Browse by Name' at the top of each page that opens when you click on one of the letters
• Click on a letter to see a list of articles for personal names and pseudonyms beginning with that letter, and then click on the highlighted names to open individual articles.
• Articles are listed according to the English alphabet rather than the Welsh.

How are articles displayed?

• To view an article, click on the highlighted link.
• If you have found the article by entering a search term, your search term will be highlighted within the text of the article.
• You can return to your search results from within an article by clicking on 'Back to results', which appears at the top and bottom of the left hand side of the page.
• When you open an article, the information within it is arranged as follows:
• a heading giving the person's name, dates and occupation/s
• a summary box giving further details, including family relationships, the author of the article, and so on
• the main text of the article, comprising a biographical description, with highlighted clickable links to related people in the DWB
• the name of the Author of the article
• a list of the Sources used in the article – if these post-date the original article, they represent later editorial decisions to add references to related works published at a later date, as well as important sources that were not initially approved by the author
• information about Further Reading, Additional Links, Images, etc., comprising related material in a variety of formats from the NLW catalogue and from external web sources
• the Published Date of the article
• a link to information about Article Copyright
• Where an article has been corrected, the corrections can be seen by clicking on the 'Corrections' button in the bottom left hand corner of the page.
• Where the contents of an article have been substantially revised after publication, an 'Archived article' is displayed, so that the original and revised versions of the article are shown together.

How can I make copies of articles?

• To make a PDF copy of an article, open the article and click the 'PDF' button which appears at both the top and bottom right hand corners of the page. This will create and open a PDF copy that you can print and/or save to your own device.
• There are two ways to print an article:
• Open the article, click the 'Print' button which appears at both the top and bottom right hand corners of the page, and follow the instructions to print.
• Create and open a PDF copy of the article, and then click the printer icon.

How can I cite an article?

• To cite an article (e.g. for academic research and publications), open the article and click the 'Cite' button which appears at both the top and bottom right hand corners of the page. This will open a pop-up of a downloadable official citation. To save the citation, click the 'Copy to Clipboard' button, and then paste the citation into a document on your own device in the usual way (e.g. paste into a Word document using CTRL+V).

Who owns copyright in the DWB?

• Every data element in the DWB, including the biographical articles and every aspect of the website itself, is protected by copyright. Some uses of the data on the site are permitted by copyright, while others require the permission of copyright holders. For further details, click on the 'Copyright' link at the bottom of any page. The holders of copyright in the DWB site include the authors of articles, their legal heirs and assigns, the National Library of Wales, and The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.

How can I share an article or a page?

• To share an article or other pages from the site, click on the 'Share' icon at the top of any page and then select whether to share on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Why can I not find the person I am looking for?

• If you cannot find a particular person, it is worth considering the following:
• Have you tried different versions and spellings of the name?
• Is the person dead? Did they die more than 3 or 4 years ago?
• Is the person is on the list of articles that need to be created?
• Is the person a member of a historically under-represented group (e.g. women, ethnic minorities, etc.)? We are working to rectify this.
• Does the person fall within the DWB's inclusion criteria? These are laid out in the 'About the Dictionary of Welsh Biography' page, which can be reached by clicking on 'The Project' link at the bottom of any page.

How can I view the latest articles?

• A selection of the latest articles appears in a box at the bottom right hand corner of the Home page. To see more, click on 'View more new articles' at the foot of the box.

What is the Featured Article?

• A new and/or topical article is selected every month to be the Featured Article, which appears at the bottom left hand corner of the Home page. To see the full article, click on the 'Read More' button.

How can I find all of the articles written by a single author?

• To see all of the articles written by a single author, click on 'Authors A-Z' at the top of any page. This opens an alphabetical list of all the authors, arranged by surname. Browse the list by clicking on the appropriate letter; it is not possible to see results for more than one letter of the alphabet at a time. To see the required author's articles, click the highlighted link. You will then be able to refine your search further by applying filters to the author's articles by Gender, Category and/or Article Language; for more about filters, see 'How can I refine my search?' above.

How can I suggest corrections or additions to articles, or report factual errors?

• To let us know about corrections, additions or errors, contact us by clicking on the 'Contact' link at the bottom of any page.

How can I nominate a person as a subject for a biographical article?

• Check to see if the person is on the list of articles that need to be created?
• To nominate a person as a subject for an article, contact us by clicking on the 'Contact' link at the bottom of any page.

How can I find the guidelines for authors of articles?

• To see the guidelines for authors of DWB articles, click on 'The Project' link at the bottom of any page, and then scroll down and follow the 'Guidelines for authors' link highlighted in the text.

How can I suggest an author for a biographical article?

• Check to see if the person is on the list of articles that need to be created.
• To suggest an author for an article, contact us by clicking on the 'Contact' link at the bottom of any page.

How can I view a list of forthcoming articles?

• To view a list of forthcoming articles, go to the 'Latest articles' box at the bottom right hand corner of the Home page, click on 'View more new articles' at the foot of the box, and then go to the bottom of the 'List of recently added new articles' and click on 'Forthcoming articles'.

How can I find out more about the DWB?

• To find out more about the DWB, including the background to the project and the kind of information you can expect to find in the biographical articles, click on the 'Read more about the project' link in the centre of the Home page, or on 'The Project' link at the bottom of any page.

Where can I find a list of the Advisory Board members?

• To see a list of the DWB Advisory Board members, click on 'The Project' link at the bottom of any page, and then scroll down and follow the 'Advisory Board' link highlighted in the text.

How can I find the project sponsors?

There are four clickable icons in the bottom right hand corner of any page, each linking to the website of one the four project sponsors:
National Library of Wales
The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
Welsh Government

How can I find the site's policy relating to privacy and cookies?

• Privacy and cookies on this site are subject to the relevant policies of the National Library of Wales, which can be seen by clicking on the 'Privacy & Cookies' link at the bottom of any page.

How can I view the DWB Twitter feed?

• You can view the DWB's Twitter feed by clicking on the Twitter icon at the top right hand corner of any page.

How can I contact the DWB?

• If this Help page does not answer your query, you can contact us by clicking on the 'Contact' link at the bottom of any page with questions or observations about any aspect of the DWB.