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Biography Resources

CONTENTS:
Indexes to biographies
Full Text Collections of Biographical Material Online
Short biographies
Long biographies
Free Online Sources and Indexes

Indexes to Biographies

Biography and Genealogy Master Index
AVAILABLE FROM: Lehigh's Databases list page
An index to biographical sources. Find your person, note the resources that contains the biographical information, then check ASA for those resources.

Biography Index/Abstracts
AVAILABLE FROM: Lehigh's Databases list page
This database indexes biographical articles from books and periodicals from 1984 to present.

Full Text Collections of Biographical material

Biography Resource Center
AVAILABLE FROM: Database list or back issues of some contents are in print in the 920's L-1-REF
Biographical sketches of writers and scholars. Includes Contemporary Authors, Who's Who, Dictionary of American Biography, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary, Gale Notable ... series and many others. Mostly full text.

Literature Resource Center
AVAILABLE FROM: Database list or back issues of some contents are in print in the 800's L-1-REF. Contains both review and biographical sources on literature, including Contemporary Authors; Contemporary Literary Criticism Select (CLC since vol. 95 of the print series and complete profiles of 266 most studied authors from editions prior to vol. 95); and Dictionary of Literary Biography, as well as a number of other sources.

Short Biographies

For a brief biography of famous person, a general encyclopedia such as Encyclopedia Britannica  may be sufficient (note: the Web versions of these sources are available on the Databases list). General encyclopedias can be found in the reference section of both libraries in the 031 call number area.
A number of short subject biographical sources are available online via Lehigh's subscription to xrefer plus: http://www.xreferplus.com/search.jsp.

Who's Who in America
LOCATION: 920.073 W62 FM-1-R-REF and L-1-REF, earlier editions in L-0-UPPER.
Brief biographical facts on famous (living) people.

International Who's Who.
LOCATION: 920.01 I61. Latest in L-1-REF, next to latest in FM-1-R-REF; earlier editions in L-0-UPPER.
Famous living people on the international scene.

Who's Who.
LOCATION: 920.042 W6. Latest in L-1-REF; next to latest in FM-1-REF. Older items in L-0-Upper.
British luminaries

American Men & Women of Science
LOCATION: 920 C368ab Latest in FM-1-REF and L-1-REF, older items in L-0-UPPER.
Brief sketches of scholars and other academics in the physical sciences.

D&B reference book of corporate managements
658.045 D897d FM-1-REF
Brief biographies of corporate executives.

National faculty directory
 920.073 N2772 L-1-REF
Brief profiles of American academics.

Longer Biographies 

Current Biography
LOCATION: 920 C9754 L-1-REF
Longer biographical sketches of contemporary luminaries.

New York Times
Location: These LTS subscription databases: LEXIS/NEXIS, Periodical Abstracts, Academic Index
Includes lengthy obituary notices for a broad range of noteworthy individuals. For older obituaries, use the print New York Times Index ( FM-1-Index) or the NYT Obituary Index (FM-1-Index).

Lexis-Nexis Academic
LOCATION: Databases list
Go to Reference, Biographical to search for individuals.

Proquest  and Extended Academic Index  also include articles on persons as subjects.

To find biographies in ASA:
Search under 'profession AND biographies' as a subject in ASA
Civil rights workers and biographies
Mathematicians AND biographies

Free Online Sources & Indexes

Biography.com: http://www.biography.com/
This service of the Arts and Entertainment television network includes their print publication Biography and the tv schedules for their Biography show, but also an online database of The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia (1994) (look under 'BioSearch'). These are very short entries (200 words or less). Searching is by last name or full name.

The Biographical Dictionary http://www.s9.com/biography.
This dictionary is a free resource containing very brief entries on a wide variety of persons. Good for short definitions, dates of birth and death, professions, major awards and publications. The strength of the database is that is searchable by names, keywords, dates, or combinations; advanced search allows boolean operators to be used (AND, OR, NOT).

Lives, the biography resource http://amillionlives.com/
This portal to biography sites on the web is restricted to posthumous biographies (dead people only). It links to both multiple biography sites and biographies of individuals.

LAST MODIFIED 8/21/03

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