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Library Instruction for Liberal Arts |
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Social SciencesFinding Author BiographiesThis library guide will cover the topic of searching for author biographies, with an emphasis on historians. While both online and print resources will be discussed, it should be emphasized that most author biographies will be found in print material. However, locating some author biographies, especially little known historians, can be challenging. Therefore, this guide will cover both standard biographical resources and nontraditional sources. Biography and Genealogy Master Index 
Gale's Biography and Genealogy Master Index is a primary online tool for identifying sources of biographies, including famous persons, literary authors, historians, and others. Actually, this online index is the cumulative, electronic version of Gale's Biography and Genealogy Master Index in print, which is available behind the reference desk at the NSU's Tahlequah Library (Ready Ref. CT 214 .B57). Several approaches can be taken when using the online version of Biography and Genealogy Master Index. A simple and effective approach is to use the default basic search screen, as seen below: |
Both the online and print versions of Biography and Genealogy Master Index provide citations only. These citations point to where the biographies can be found, primarily in print. The NSU Library owns many of the print resources listed in the Index. Most of the print biographical resources owned by the NSU Library are found in the reference collection, but some may be found in the circulating collection. The NSU Library catalog can be consulted to find out if the NSU Library owns an item which is cited in Gale's Index. If the Library does not own a particular item, a request for a free copy of the biography being sought can be placed with the Interlibrary Loan Department.
Below is an example of a search run in the Biography and Genealogy Master Index online, using the famous Civil War historian Bruce Catton as the subject of the search. As can be seen below, if a searcher is not certain how the name may be indexed in the database, the name can be entered into the search box with the "Name contains" option selected. However, for this illustration let's assume that the commonly used, full name is known. Place a bullet next to the search box labeled "Start of Last Name" and type catton bruce. Since the "Start of Last Name" selection has been made, the author's last name should be entered first. Also, since the database will accept the entry with or without capitalization, the name is entered in all lower case. Next, click "search".
Below is the result of the search on Bruce Catton. Probably all of the selections except William Bruce Catton (1926- ) will lead to biographical citations dealing with this famous Civil War historian.
To illustrate what the citations will look like, let's choose the largest set of 39 entries. Below is a partial listing of the set of 39 biographical citations. As can be seen, the listed items are citations only, and contain no full text. However, as is many times the case, the NSU Library owns all of the publications shown in the below partial list.
Print Indexes
While hundreds of resources are covered by the online and print versions of Biography and Genealogy Master Index, Gale's Index does not cover all possible biographical resources. Below is a selected list of additional print indexes which may be useful in locating the biographies of historians (especially Americans, Canadians and Britons):
Selected Full Text Print Biographical Resources
When it comes to searching for the biographies of historians, one of the most commonly requested reference titles in the NSU Library is the Directory of American Scholars (Ref. LA 2311 .C32). Thousands of biographies are included in this publication, including historians, geographers, archaeologists and other scholars in the United States. Additional sources of biographies can be found in the below list, which is only a small representation of the many print biographical resources available at the NSU Library. These titles contain the biographies of many well known scholars and historians.
Suggestions for Locating the Biographies of "Difficult to Find" Authors and Historians
Finding biographical information on some authors and historians can be very challenging, especially if they are new authors or have published very little. However, below are suggested resources which may help find some biographical information about these types of authors.
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