Biographical Databases and Web Sites

Biographical databases offer an excellent chance of locating information on notable persons because they specifically look for it. The actual content of individual databases varies widely.

For example:

American National Biography provides biographies of over 17,400 people who shaped American history. Most of the entries are for people who died before 1995. An excellent resource, but don't look for the living here.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index contains information on where to find information on over three million contemporary and historical persons, but does not contain any actual biographies.

Biography Index cites more than 2,700 periodicals and 1,800 books, including collective biographies. This database contains relatively few actual biographies; however, it will tell you which ones are available from the UAA Consortium Library.

Biographical web sites can vary greatly in content and quality. Many of the larger sites are tied to commercial interests, and those dedicated to specific persons are often maintained by an interested person who may or may not be concerned with accuracy.

When you choose to include information from any web site in a research paper, it is vital to evaluate the site for "publishability". Few academic journals would publish a research paper by a seventh grader, yet that same seventh grader can produce a professional-looking web page.

For information on evaluating a web site, please see Evaluating Information Found on the Internet by Elizabeth E. Kirk.

General and Subject Databases

General databases contain abstracts and articles for a large number of magazines. They do not attempt to be thorough in their coverage of any single subject. They do, however, include a great deal of information and are especially good for researching popular topics. Databases in this category frequently have copies of articles which can be read from your computer. This can be an important consideration for those who get a late start on their papers.

Subject databases focus on a single subject area in an effort to provide the depth that general databases lack. If your person was famous in a specific area, try to find a subject database covering that field.

Books

The Joint Library Catalog can help you find books on your person.

On the online catalog screen, change the type of search by clicking the arrow on the pull down menu under "Choose Method" and select "Subject Heading". Enter your person in the search box last name first (ie. Washington, George) and click "Find". This will bring up a list of subject headings in which the library has books. You may also want to look for books on the subjects in which your person was famous. If the book has an index in the back, your person should be listed by their last name with the page numbers on which he or she appears.

By default, our catalog searches only for items found at Mat-Su College. To widen your search to include other libraries on the Joint Library Catalog, change the setting on the pull down menu under "Choose Location" and click "Find" again. Items from other libraries can be obtained by clicking on "Place Hold". Please see our tutorial on placing a hold for more information.

In the Reference Collection

Some starting points for your research are located in the Reference Collection:

• Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The 19th Century, 1800-1914 (REF Z1039.C45 B56 2001)
• Current Biography (1940-1988) (REF CT100.C8)
• Dictionary of American Biography (REF E176.D562)
• Dictionary of National Biography (REF DA28.D47) (for British persons)
• Great Lives from History Series (Various locations in REF CT)
• Encyclopedia of World Biography (REF CT103.E56 1998)

Be sure to check in subject encyclopedias for the discipline in which your person was famous. For example, look for Sigmund Freud in the Encyclopedia of Psychology (REF BF31.E52 1994).