you can have data validation pull information from another work book but both work books have to be open to work


http://blog.contextures.com/archives...rent-workbook/

You can use a workaround to do this:
create a new sheet, then create a data list linked to Data list workbook.
Link data validation list to this sheet list. You can hide this sheet now, if you want, if the data list workbook is closed, you will have the last values in your hidden sheet. Whenever you open datalist workbook, links will be updated.