Internet Speculative Fiction Database
{{Short description|Online database of written speculative fiction and its creators}}
{{Infobox website
| name = ISFDB: The Internet Speculative Fiction Database
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption = Example bibliography (James H. Schmitz) on ISFDB.
| url = {{Official URL}}
| commercial = No
| type = Online database
| registration = {{unbulleted list|None to view|Required to edit}}
| owner = Al von Ruff
| key_people = {{ubl|Al von Ruff|Ahasuerus}}
| location_country = United States
| area_served = Worldwide
| programming_language = {{hlist|MySQL|Python}}
| launch_date = {{Start date and age|df=yes|1995|9|8}}
| current_status = 2,319,391 story titles from 273,511 authors (as of 18 January 2025)
| revenue =
}}
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with the database being open for moderated editing and user contributions, and a wiki that allows the database editors to coordinate with each other. {{As of|2022|4|post=,}} the site had catalogued 2,002,324 story titles from 232,816 authors.
The code for the site has been used in books and tutorials as examples of database schema and organizing content. The ISFDB database and code are available under Creative Commons licensing. The site won the Wooden Rocket Award in the Best Directory Site category in 2005.
Purpose
The ISFDB database indexes speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, horror, and alternate history) authors, novels, short fiction, essays, publishers, awards, and magazines in print, electronic, and audio formats. It supports author pseudonyms, series, and cover art plus interior illustration credits, which are combined into integrated author, artist, and publisher bibliographies with brief biographical data. An ongoing effort is verification of publication contents and secondary bibliographic sources against the database, with the goals being data accuracy and to improve the coverage of speculative fiction to 100 percent.
History
Several speculative fiction author bibliographies were posted to the USENET newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written from 1984 to 1994 by Jerry Boyajian, Gregory J. E. Rawlins and John Wenn. A more or less standard bibliographic format was developed for these postings. Many of these bibliographies can still be found at The Linköping Science Fiction Archive. In 1993, a searchable database of awards information was developed by Al von Ruff. In 1994, John R. R. Leavitt created the Speculative Fiction Clearing House (SFCH). In late 1994, he asked for help in displaying awards information, and von Ruff offered his database tools. Leavitt declined, because he wanted code that could interact with other aspects of the site. In 1995, Al von Ruff and "Ahasuerus" (a prolific contributor to rec.arts.sf.written) started to construct the ISFDB, based on experience with the SFCH and the bibliographic format finalized by John Wenn. The first version of ISFDB went live on 8 September 1995, and a URL was published in January 1996.
The ISFDB was first located at an ISP in Champaign Illinois, but it suffered from constrained resources in disk space and database support, which limited its growth. In October 1997 the ISFDB moved to SF Site, a major SF portal and review site. Due to the rising costs of remaining with SF Site, the ISFDB moved to its own domain in December 2002, but it was shut down by the hosting ISP due to high resource usage.{{Cite web |title=What's New from 2003 - ISFDB (Jan)|url=https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What%27s_New_from_2003#What.27s_New_-_18_January_2003 |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=isfdb.org}} In February 2003, it began to be hosted by The Cushing Library Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection and Institute for Scientific Computation at Texas A&M University.{{Cite web |title=What's New from 2003 - ISFDB (Feb)|url=https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What%27s_New_from_2003#What.27s_New_-_11_February_2003 |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=isfdb.org}} The ISFDB moved to a commercial hosting service in 2008.{{Cite web |title=What's New from 2008 - ISFDB |url=https://isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What%27s_New_from_2008#What.27s_New_-_12_April_2008 |access-date=2023-01-14 |website=isfdb.org}}
On 27 February 2005, the database and the underlying code became available under Creative Commons licensing.
ISFDB was originally edited by a limited number of people, principally Al von Ruff and Ahasuerus. Editing was opened in 2006 to the general public on an open content basis, with changed content being approved by one of a limited number of moderators in an attempt to protect the accuracy of the database.
In late 2022, the ISFDB faced public criticism for refusing to update its entry for the transgender author Lee Mandelo to reflect his new name. The update was finally made after more than a year of repeated requests.
Awards and reception
In 1998, Cory Doctorow wrote in Science Fiction Age that "[T]he best all-round guide to things science-fictional remains the Internet Speculative Fiction Database". In April 2009, Zenkat wrote that "it is widely considered one of the most authoritative sources about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror literature available on the Internet". ISFDB was the winner of the 2005 Wooden Rocket Award in the Best Directory Site category.
Ken Irwin reviewed the site for Reference Reviews in 2006, praising "the scalable level of detail available for particular authors and titles" while also pointing out "usability improvements" needed at that time. He concludes by calling it "a tremendous asset to researchers and fans of speculative fiction", stating that no other online bibliographies have "the breadth, depth, and sophistication of this database".{{cite journal |last1=Irwin |first1=Ken |date=October 2006 |editor1-last=Chalcraft |editor1-first=Tony |title=Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/862159187 |journal=Reference Reviews |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing |volume=20 |issue=7 |pages=30–32 |doi=10.1108/09504120610691619 |url-access=limited |issn=0950-4125 |access-date=July 14, 2022 |id={{ProQuest|862159187}} }} On Tor.com, James Davis Nicoll described the site as "the single best [SFF] bibliographical resource there is".{{cite web |url=https://www.tor.com/2021/04/30/the-single-best-bibliographical-resource-there-is-if-you-like-sff/ |title=The Single Best Bibliographical Resource There Is (if You Like SFF) |first=James Davis |last=Nicoll |date=April 30, 2021 |publisher=Tor.com |access-date=July 14, 2022 |archive-date=July 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220714211217/https://www.tor.com/2021/04/30/the-single-best-bibliographical-resource-there-is-if-you-like-sff/ |url-status=live }} Gabriel McKee, author of The Gospel According to Science Fiction, described the site as an "indispensable [source] of information in putting this project together",{{cite book |title=The Gospel According to Science Fiction: From The Twilight Zone to the Final Frontier |first=Gabriel |last=McKee |date=January 2007 |publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |page=ix |isbn=978-0-664-22901-6 }} and the site was described as "invaluable" by Andrew Milner and J. R. Burgmann in their book, Science Fiction and Climate Change.{{cite book |title=Science Fiction and Climate Change: A Sociological Approach |first1=Andrew |last1=Milner |author1-link=Andrew Milner |last2=Burgmann |first2=J. R. |isbn=978-1-789-62172-3 |page=40 |date=May 2020 |publisher=Liverpool University Press }} The Chicon 8 committee gave a special committee award to ISFDB during their opening ceremonies on 1 September 2022.
As a real-world example of a non-trivial database, the schema and MySQL files from ISFDB have been used in a number of tutorials. Schema and data from the site were used throughout Chapter 9 of the book Rails for Java Developers. It was also used in a series of tutorials by Lucid Imagination on Solr, an enterprise search platform.
{{As of|2013|9}}, Quantcast estimates that ISFDB is visited by over 67,400 people monthly. The database, {{As of|lc=yes|2025|1|18}}, contains 2,319,391 unique story titles from 273,511 authors.
References
{{Reflist|25em|refs=
|url=http://craphound.com/nonfic/16.html
|title=Internet Column from Science Fiction Age, September 1998
|first=Cory
|last=Doctorow
|author-link=Cory Doctorow
|work=Science Fiction Age
|date=September 1998
|quote=The best all-round guide to things science-fictional remains the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
|access-date=17 May 2009
|archive-date=10 July 2012
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120710161810/http://craphound.com/nonfic/16.html
|url-status=live
}}
|url=https://file770.com/first-fandom-awards-given-at-chicon-8-opening-ceremonies/
|title=First Fandom Awards and Big Heart Award Given at Chicon 8 Opening Ceremonies
|first=Mike
|last=Glyer
|author-link=Mike Glyer
|date=1 September 2022
|access-date=8 September 2022
|archive-date=4 September 2022
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220904024840/https://file770.com/first-fandom-awards-given-at-chicon-8-opening-ceremonies/
|url-status=live
}}
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:General_disclaimer#Copyright
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|title=ISFDB:General disclaimer
|access-date=30 July 2009
|archive-date=2 August 2012
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120802100259/http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB:General_disclaimer%23Copyright
|url-status=live
}}
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Major_Contributors
|title=Major Contributors
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|access-date=18 April 2022
|archive-date=18 April 2022
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220418212341/http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Major_Contributors
|url-status=live
}}
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/topcontrib.cgi
|title=Top ISFDB contributors (All Submission Types)
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|access-date=18 April 2022
|archive-date=18 April 2022
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220418212557/http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/topcontrib.cgi
|url-status=live
}}
|title=What's New from 1995
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What's_New_from_1995
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|access-date=18 April 2022
|archive-date=18 April 2022
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220418210734/http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What's_New_from_1995
|url-status=live
}}
|title=What's New from 1996
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What%27s_New
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|access-date=18 April 2022
|archive-date=18 April 2022
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220418210505/http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What's_New_from_1996
|url-status=live
}}
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What%27s_New_from_2005#What.27s_New_-_27_Feb_2005
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|title=What's New from 2005: What's New – 27 Feb 2005
|date=27 February 2005
|access-date=30 July 2009
|archive-date=3 September 2012
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120903145321/http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/What's_New_from_2005%23What.27s_New_-_27_Feb_2005
|url-status=live
}}
|title=The Linköping Science Fiction & Fantasy Archive
|url=http://www.lysator.liu.se/sf_archive/
|access-date=23 July 2009
}}
|url=http://www.onpedia.com/encyclopedia/Internet-Speculative-Fiction-Database
|title=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|publisher=Onpedia
|access-date=17 May 2009
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120306055809/http://www.onpedia.com/encyclopedia/Internet-Speculative-Fiction-Database
|archive-date=6 March 2012
|url-status=dead
}}
|title=Changes to the ISFDB
|url=http://other-worlds-cafe.com/news/blog/?p=129
|work=Science Fiction Brewed Fresh Daily
|publisher=Other*Worlds*Cafe
|date=23 December 2006
|author=Gandalara
|access-date=17 May 2009
|archive-date=13 December 2015
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20151213085350/http://other-worlds-cafe.com/news/blog/?p=129
|url-status=live
}}
|url=http://www.quantcast.com/isfdb.org
|title=isfdb.org Monthly Uniques
|website=Quantcast.com
|url-access=subscription
|access-date=27 September 2013
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927183538/https://www.quantcast.com/isfdb.org
|archive-date=27 September 2013
|url-status=dead
}}
|url=http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/wooden/wr_2005_winners.php
|title=2005 winners: Wooden Rocket Awards
|access-date=8 February 2009
|publisher=SF Crowsnest
|quote=14 Best Directory Site. Directories, online databases or search engines with a worthy SFF section. Winner: Internet Speculative Fiction Database www.isfdb.org.
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226065709/http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/wooden/wr_2005_winners.php
|archive-date=26 February 2009
|url-status=dead
}}
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|title=Link Sites
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|access-date=17 May 2009
|archive-date=30 June 2012
|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630070802/http://www.sfsite.com/depts/sites01.htm
|url-status=live
}}
|url = http://archive.sfwa.org/news/isfdbhome.htm
|title = ISFDB finds new home at Texas A&M
|work = SFWA News
|publisher = Science Fiction Writers of America
|date = 5 April 2003
|access-date = 29 September 2010
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110811172943/http://archive.sfwa.org/news/isfdbhome.htm
|archive-date = 11 August 2011
|url-status=dead
}}
|url=http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2011/01/21/solr-powered-isfdb-part1/
|title=Solr Powered ISFDB – Part #1
|author=Hossman
|date=21 January 2011
|website=Lucid Imagination
|access-date=14 March 2011
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110301052636/http://www.lucidimagination.com/blog/2011/01/21/solr-powered-isfdb-part1/
|archive-date=1 March 2011
|url-status=dead
}}
|url=https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/stats.cgi?4
|title=ISFDB Statistics
|publisher=Internet Speculative Fiction Database
|access-date=18 January 2025
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118180149/https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/stats.cgi?4
|archive-date=18 January 2025
|url-status=live
}}
|url=http://blog.freebase.com/2009/04/14/science-fiction-books/
|title=Our latest mass data load: science fiction books
|author=Zenkat
|date=14 April 2009
|access-date=12 December 2015
|archive-date=19 May 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120519023333/http://blog.freebase.com/2009/04/14/science-fiction-books/
|quote=...it is widely considered one of the most authoritative sources about Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror literature available on the Internet.
|url-status=dead
}}
|last1=Halloway
|first1=Stuart Dabbs
|last2=Gehtland
|first2=Justin
|title=Rails for Java Developers
|page=249
|chapter=Creating and Invoking Web Services
|isbn=978-0-9776166-9-5
|url=http://ericdean.com/music/vc/railsforjava.pdf
|access-date=2011-03-14
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110710195438/http://ericdean.com/music/vc/railsforjava.pdf
|archive-date=2011-07-10
|year=2007
|publisher=Pragmatic Programmer
}}
|url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/76590909
|title=Genre Grapevine for December 31, 2022
|first=Jason
|last=Sanford
|author-link=Jason Sanford
|date=31 December 2022
|access-date=11 January 2023
}}
}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://www.isfdb.org/}}
- {{SourceForge|isfdb|ISFDB Bibliographic Tools}}
- {{Openhub|isfdb|ISFDB Bibliographic Tools}}
- [https://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/Sources_of_Bibliographic_Information Sources of Bibliographic Information] (isfdb.org)
{{Fantasy fiction}}
{{Science fiction}}
{{Horror fiction}}
Category:1995 establishments in the United States
Category:American book websites
Category:Bibliographic databases and indexes
Category:Creative Commons-licensed databases