Western Australian Biographical Index (WABI)

The Western Australian Biographical Index (WABI) is a highly used resource at the State Library of Western Australia. A recent generous contribution by the Friends of Battye Library (FOBS) has enabled SLWA to have the original handwritten index cards scanned and later transcribed. \r\n\r\nThe transcription was crowd-sourced and we are aware that there are some data quality issues including: \r\n\r\n* Some cards are missing\r\n* Transcripts are crowdsourced so may contain spelling errors and possibly missing information\r\n* Some cards are crossed out. Some of these are included in the collection and some are not\r\n* Some of the cards contain relevant information on the back (usually children of the person mentioned). This info should be on the next consecutive card\r\n* As the information is an index, collected in the 1970s from print material, it is incomplete. It is also unreferenced.\r\n\r\nIt is still a very valuable dataset as it contains a wealth of information about \r\nearly settlers in Western Australia. It is of particular interest to genealogists and historians\r\n\r\nThe dataset contains: several csv files with data describing card number, card text and url link to image of the original handwritten card.\r\n\r\nWork began on WABI in the early 1970s when information was sought on people who lived in Western Australian prior to 1914. Publicity was sent out through local libraries, historical groups and in publication such as the West Australian. Western Australians were asked to provide genealogical information, not only on prominent identities, but also from their family records including the arrival in Western Australia, occupations, dates of birth, marriages and deaths of their ancestors. Historical material such as diaries, letters, business records, minute books, maps, family trees and photographs, were also sought for copying. Entries for the index closed in December 1979, and were filed at the Battye Library for reference.

西澳大利亚传记索引（Western Australian Biographical Index，WABI）是西澳大利亚州立图书馆的高频使用资源。近期，巴蒂图书馆之友（Friends of Battye Library，FOBS）的慷慨捐赠，使得西澳州立图书馆（State Library of Western Australia，SLWA）得以将原始手写索引卡片进行扫描，并后续完成转录工作。

本次转录采用众包方式完成，我们已知存在若干数据质量问题，具体包括：
* 部分卡片缺失
* 转录内容源自众包，可能存在拼写错误及信息遗漏
* 部分卡片已被划销，其中一部分被纳入数据集，另一部分则未被收录
* 部分卡片的背面载有相关信息（通常为被记录者的子女信息），此类信息本应归入后续连续的卡片中
* 由于该索引信息采集自1970年代的印刷资料，因此内容并不完整，且未附带参考文献。

尽管存在上述问题，该数据集仍极具价值，因其涵盖了大量关于西澳大利亚早期定居者的详实信息，尤其受到谱系学家与历史学家的关注。

本数据集包含若干CSV格式文件，其中的数据涵盖卡片编号、卡片文本以及指向原始手写卡片图像的URL链接。

WABI的编纂工作始于1970年代初，当时该馆征集1914年前曾在西澳大利亚居住的人物相关信息。宣传工作通过当地图书馆、历史团体及《西澳大利亚人报》（The West Australian）等出版物展开，号召西澳大利亚民众提供谱系信息——不仅包括知名人士的资料，还涵盖其家族记录，如祖先抵达西澳的时间、职业、出生日期、婚丧日期等。同时，该馆还征集日记、书信、商业记录、会议纪要、地图、家谱及照片等历史资料用于复制存档。该索引的收录工作于1979年12月截止，所有条目均归档于巴蒂图书馆以供查阅。