The OEB is the successor of the Annual Egyptological Bibliography (AEB), which appeared in print until 2001.

Janssen, a Dutch Egyptologist at Leiden University, was asked to publish a yearly list of titles with abstracts.

Heerma van Voss assumed the task of AEB Editor-in-Chief, with the help of a number of assistant editors.

Due to budget cuts at Leiden University, The Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO) took responsibility for the AEB in 1992.

van den Berg developed a digital administration of the bibliographical information, which led to the publication in 2001 of the CD-ROM Egyptological bibliography 1822–1997 (which included the digitized information of C. Beinlich's Bibliographie Altägypten 1822–1947), and the AEB Online website in 2007.