Work on the current version of the DNZB was started in 1983 under the editorship of W. H. Oliver. The first volume covered the period 1769–1869 and was published in 1990. The four subsequent volumes were all edited by Claudia Orange, and they were published in 1993, 1996, 1998, and 2000. These later volumes made a conscious effort to move away from the male and Pākehā-dominated coverage of early works to a more representative view of New Zealand. Women who had done well in male-dominated fields were included, as were Māori, a range of ordinary people and criminals. Many of these people were included because detailed accounts of their lives were readily available, in archives, academic studies and official histories. Others were prolific diarists. Helen Clark as Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage launched the online version of the DNZB on 19 February 2002. The online version was first promoted by Judith Tizard, a graduate in history from the University of Auckland, which was supported by Clark, who had also graduated in history from the same university, and endorsed by Michael Cullen, who had been a history lecturer at the University of Otago. The dictionary was integrated into in December 2010. In 2017 the Ministry for Culture and Heritage announced a 'new phase' in the life of the DNZB, with the addition of an essay about ; this was followed in 2018 by to mark the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand. Subsequent rounds will illuminate the lives of significant and representative people from a cross-section of New Zealand society, with a focus on the decades after 1960.
Representative entries
A number of entries were added to make the dictionary more representative of population covered, boosting the numbers of women, Māori, and other minority groups. A number of these are not based on secondary sources, as encyclopaedias traditionally are, but instead on primary sources, because no secondary sources exist for these individuals.
Margaret Fraser
Fraser was a New Zealand domestic servant and letter-writer. Born in Scotland, she emigrated alongside a brother in 1887, following two brothers who had gone to New Zealand earlier that decade. She was hoping for the remainder of her family to come out but when that did not happen, she started financially supporting them by sending money to Scotland. After many years as a domestic servant, she married in 1899 and had a farm with her husband, bringing up four children. They retired to Rotorua and after her husband's death, she lived with her daughter and grandchildren for another decade.
Jessie Finnie
Finnie was a prostitute. She was born in Scotland in circa 1822.
Nielsine Paget
Nielsine Paget was a homemaker and community worker in southern Hawke's Bay.
