Biographical information

Guidelines for Biographical Entries

It is very important that the biographical information we provide to Hymnary.org's users be trustworthy. All information included in biographical notes should come from a trustworthy source that is cited so that users can verify it and do further research if necessary.

Definitions

Author: author of a biographical entry

Person: person in Hymnary.org (text writer, tune composer, editor of a hymnal, etc.)

Biographical entries should have the following elements:

1. An author, either personal or corporate, if the biographical entry is original work. If possible, link the author to the author’s page in Hymnary.org so that users know something about him/her or the organization. Or, provide a note with the author’s name at the end of an entry. Our users need to know where our information is coming from.

2. Sources of the author’s information. Without this, information is naturally suspect and should not be entered. Sources should be as complete as possible in their citation (author, title, date, publisher, website, etc.). For help with citations, see the Purdue OWL website. [1]

• Exception: DNAH essays often do not provide sources, but are typically written by well-regarded scholars in the field of hymnology. When no other source of information is available, these essays can at the very least point the user in the right direction.
• If the author is a relative providing information about a person, that should be noted in the entry, along with the date and method of submission. (Example: Email from Louisa Smith, Mary Smith’s granddaughter, to Tina Schneider, 14 April 2014.)

Use of Web sources. If information is included from a Web resource such as Wikipedia that is continuously updated, provision should be made to keep the quotation up to date with the source. If that isn't possible, it would be better to simply provide a link to the source. In the case of Wikipedia, the editor should simply enter the Wikipedia ID, not copy/paste the content. Eventually, the latest version of the content will be displayed automatically. Note: make every effort to be sure that you are linking to the right person. Check birth and death dates if possible, and read the Wikipedia entry to see if you really have a match or not.

• Reliability: Use a website only if it provides sources for its information.

Biographical entries that do not meet these criteria risk being deleted. If there are special circumstances that preclude a person’s entry from having any of the elements listed above, it should be noted at the end of the biographical entry, along with the Hymnary.org email here:[2]in case a user has questions.