Starting Points - Biography

Reference Resources Home
Find Books
Databases
Recommended Reading
Research Guides
Good Web Sites
Librarian Help

Reading Room
Business Connection

Starting Points: Guide to Biography

REFERENCE BOOKS - Available for your use in the library, these books cannot be checked out

R 920 Ame	American National Biography	17,5000 people "whose lives... influenced the course of American history." 24 volumes.
R320.3 Pla	Current Biography	Divided into fourteen subject-matter chapters.
R 920 Dic	Dictionary of National Biography	70+ volumes, this British dictionary, first published in 1855. The Library owns up to 1985.
R 920 Dup	Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography	Some "3,000 of the world's greatest military leaders" from pre-Caesar to Schwarzkopf.
R 920 Enc	Encyclopedia of World Biography	Easy-to-read brief synopses of the subject's life. Photos and drawings included.
R 920 Lar	Larousse Biographical Dictionary	Over 20,000 very short overviews of famous people.
R 920 (varies)	Who's Who	Who's Who in America, International Who's Who, Who's Who in the South and Southwest, Who's Who of American Women (920.72 W) and Who Was Who.
R 920.02 Alm	Almanac of Famous People	"33,000...newsmakers from Biblical times to the present." Birth and death dates, reason for fame, and other sources about the subject. Date, year, geographic, & occupation indexes.
R 922.22 But	Butler's Lives of the Saints	First published over 200 years ago, the New Full Edition is divided into 12 volumes - one for each month. Volume 12, December, contains an alphabetical index directing the reader to the appropriate volume/month via the saint's name and day.
R 925 D	Dictionary of Scientific Biography	This 18-volume set profiles pioneers of science from antiquity through 1980.
R 925 Dup	Notable Twentieth Century Scientists	Four volume set with encyclopediac profiles of the last 100 years' top scientists.
R 928 Dic	Dictionary of Literary Biography	230+ volumes, DLB provides detailed biographies of writers covering all eras and countries. Also available through the Literature Resource Center via the Winter Park Public Library databases.

FINDING BOOKS AND OTHER LIBRARY MATERIALS/ Dewey Decimal browsing numbers: 920-928

In addition to reference books, you may want to search for other books and materials (videos, audiobooks, etc.). Standard encyclopedias are always good sources for biographical information. And don’t forget the Biography section of the general collection here in the Library as well as the subject matter related to the person you’re looking for; ie, Mantle can show up in biography and in baseball. You can access the Library’s online catalog from the Library or home by going to our Web page (www.wppl.org), then to Search Our Catalog. A good subject search for a biography might be Keats, John or Washington, George, for example.

eBOOKS

You may also want to check out the collection of thousands of online books (eBooks) the Library has to offer located on the Web site www.netlibrary.com. Initially, you must open an account from Library computer terminals, but you will then be able to use the account from home as well. See a reference librarian for more detail.

FINDING ARTICLES

The following sources can be used to find magazine articles dealing with your topic:

· The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature - Adult Reference R 050 R Search for articles on a subject within any given year.
· EBSCOhost and InfoTrac OneFile - Access from the Library or at home using your library card number at www.wppl.org.

Search for full text articles on these online databases using your choice of keywords. You can limit your search to a certain year or even a certain magazine.

WEBSITES

Biographical Dictionary	Over 33,000 short entries of biographical information.
Biography.com	An offshoot of the Biography Channel, this site details over 25,000 lives.
Infoplease People	More than 30,000 biographies. Categories for politics, science, sports, recent deaths and others.
Library Spot’s Biography	Search by type; ie, artists, athletes, authors, etc, or by ethnicity.
PBS Biographies	From PBS’ Frontline, American Masters, Ken Burns’ American Stories, and American Masters.

For more materials on this subject available through the Library, visit Good Web Sites - Biography.

Page maintained by Courtney Moore - cmoore@wppl.org

Updated: December 11, 2008