The ISO ground-based preparatory programme working group (ISO-GBPPwg) was set the goal in 1990 to characterise accurately in the infrared some 400 stars covering the whole sky. Telescopes in Chile, Hawaii and the Canary Islands were used to obtain J, H, K, and L photometry for all of these stars and, for the brightest ones, spectroscopy and/or N and Q bolometry. The stars were chosen single and non-variable, with spectral type in the range K9 to A0 and luminosity class III to V. The stellar effective temperatures (Te) were determined using the Infrared Flux Method and the V-K versus Te relationship. The results from both methods were combined with the surface gravity and metallicity to give the spectral energy distributions up to about 50 μm, from the Kurucz stellar model atmosphere grids. Tests were then made to confirm the accuracy of the spectral energy distributions over the required wavelength range.