Ask A Librarian
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Kelvin Smith Library Ask A LibrarianInformation on how to get help by email, phone, chat, and in-person.
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Finding Biographical Information
There are many resources at your disposal to find biographical information. Here are a few.
When might you use the catalog?
If the person in question has been active for many years, it is likely that books have been written about him or her. This may be a novelist, a politician, or a scientist. Remember that when a book is written about a person, a Library of Congress subject category for that person's name is created. So using the Subject search in the catalog is a good way to find books about that person. For example, here is a screen shot of the results of a Subject search for books about Theodore Roosevelt. You will see that there are even sub-categories, which will help you refine your search for books on certain aspects of Roosevelt.
Biographical Reference Sources
Many reference sources are excellent for finding biographical information. Here are a few:
- American National Biography is a fantastic source for biographical information about Americans. It has over 127,000 entries, all full text, online. You can search the entries by a specific name, or by category, era, sex, birth date, and many other ways.
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography- This guide is excellent for finding biographical information about scientists. The entries are usually 3-6 pages long, are signed entries, and include bibliographies that will point you to more sources about the scientist.
- The Oxford Reference Online collection has many entries that are biographical in nature.
- Was your person a Clevelander? If so, there is probably an entry about him in the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.
- If you are researching a literary figure, try the Literary Reference Center. This online database has full text biographical information, as well as articles on literary criticism and even original works.
- Newsmakers- if the person is currently in the news, you might want the latest information from newspapers. Try our list of online news sources here.
- If the person is a musician or an artist, try the excellent Grove reference sources, Grove Music or Grove Art.
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American National Biography Online (Up to 5 users at a time)Offers portraits of more than 17,000 men and women, from all eras and walks of life, whose lives have shaped the nation. Please note that up to 5 users at a time may access this resource.
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Oxford Reference OnlineContains over 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press.
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Encyclopedia of Cleveland HistoryA project between Case Western Reserve University, The Western Reserve Historical Society and the northeastern Ohio community, the Encyclopedia represents the contributions of hundreds of academic scholars and talented amateur historians to the interpretation and understanding of the history of Greater Cleveland.
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Literary Reference Center PlusInformation on authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes.
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Grove Art Online (Up to 8 users at a time)Grove Art Online, part of Oxford Art Online, provides access to authoritative, inclusive, and searchable online art resources. Please note that up to 8 people may use this resource at one time.
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Grove Music OnlineGrove Music Online is part of Oxford Music Online. Oxford offers users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. With Grove Music Online as its cornerstone, Oxford Music Online also contains The Oxford Companion to Music (revised 2011), which offers more than 8,000 articles on composers, performers, conductors, instruments and notation, forms and genres, and individual works; and The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd edition (revised 2006), which supplements Grove's more-extensive articles with content geared toward undergraduates and general users. Both of these sources are included in subscriptions to Grove Music Online.
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World Biographical Information System (WBIS)WBIS Online provides biographical information on over 6 million people from the 8th century B.C. to the present. Included are 8.5 Million digital facsimile articles from biographical reference works.