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Biography Resources

Your search for biographical information can include books, periodicals, online databases, and authoritative Internet sites. Within the guidelines of your assignment, select a person that interests you. Once you have selected an individual you’re interested in researching, use the general reference sources available in the library to get information on that person.

Reference Sources

Reference Books and Reference Databases are a good starting point for your research because they help you become better acquainted with the person you have selected. GaleNet is an online database that can be used for this purpose.  Listed below are some reference books that may be useful in your research.

A to Z of Native American Women

REF  E98 .W8 S65  1998

Great lives from history. American women series

REF HQ1412 .G74 1995 

ABC-CLIO companion to the Native American rights movement
 REF KF8203.36 .G76 1996

Great lives from history. Ancient and medieval series

REF CT113 .G74 1988

African American writers

REF PS153.N5 A344 2000

GREAT LIVES FROM HISTORY.  THE 19TH CENTURY, 1801-1900

REF Ct119. g69 2007

American men & women of science

REF Q141 .A474 1998

Great lives from history. Renaissance to 1900 series

REF CT104 .G68 1989

African Americans, voices of triumph

REF E185 .A512 2003

Great lives from history. Twentieth century series

REF CT120 .G69 1990

Biographical dictionary of

twentieth-century philosophers

REF B104 .B56 1996

Lincoln library of sports champions

REF GV697.A1 L56 2004

Biographical encyclopedia of mathematicians

REF QA28 .B544 1999

New Grove dictionary of music and musicians

REF ML100 .N48 2001

Biography index
Ref/Index

Native America in the twentieth

century

REF E76.2 .N36 1994

Contemporary Black biography

REF E185.96 .C66

Notable Asian Americans

REF E184 .O6 N67 1995

 Great lives from history. American series

REF CT214 .G74 1987

Notable native Americans

REF E89 .N67 1995

 

Current biography yearbook

REF CT100 .C8

Notable twentieth-century scientists

REF Q141 .N73 1995

Dictionary of American biography

REF E176 .D56

Notable women in American history
 REF CT3260 .A3 1999

Dictionary of Hispanic biography

REF E184 .D53 1996

Notable women in world history

REF CT3230 .A28 1998

Distinguished African American

scientists of the 20th century

REF Q141 .D535 1996

oxford dictionary of national biography

REF DA28 .O95 2004

Distinguished Asian Americans:

a biographical dictionary

REF E184 .O6 D57 1999

oXFORD eNCYCLOPEDIA OF lATINOS AND lATINAS IN THE uNITED STATES

ref e184 .s75 o97 2005

Encyclopedia of women and sports

REF GV709 .S44 1996

SCRIBNER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN LIVES

ref ct213 .S37

Encyclopedia of world biography

REF CT103 .E56 1998

Also: electronic access via GaleNet

 

Who's who among Hispanic Americans,

1994-95

REF E184 .S75 W53 1994

Notable Latino Americans: a biographical dictionary

REF E184 .S75 M435 1997

Who's who in space

REF TL789.85.A1 W5 1999

 

World authors

REF PN451 .W67

 

Finding More Books

Use the Library Catalog to find books available in the Cerritos College Library.  Books can provide a broad overview of a topic or in-depth information. 

You can search for books by author, title, subject, or keyword.  Do a Subject search to find books about the person you have selected. Enter the person’s last name first.

Example: Anderson, Marian

You may also look for more general information by subject if you have not selected a person.

Example: Scientists -- Biography -- Dictionaries


Finding Magazine and Newspaper Articles

Journals and magazines usually provide the most current information on a topic.  Journal articles are more scholarly or professional while magazine articles tend to be shorter and more general.  Newspaper articles, while not usually scholarly or professional, can give you the most current news and some additional facts on your topic.

To find articles on the person you are researching, use one of the online databases listed below.  These databases usually provide full-text articles on almost every topic.  For historical research, the Library also has print indexes that must be used to find older articles, generally anything published before 1985.

Online Databases

EbscoHost
 GaleNet

Grove Art

NewsBank

ProQuest

See Databases & E-Resources for a complete description of Cerritos College Library online resources.

For remote access to the library databases, see E-Resources Login & Searching Options.

Print Indexes

Biography Index
Readers’ Guide

Humanities Index

Social Sciences Index

Los Angeles Times Index

 

Internet Sites

The Internet can be a valuable source for supplementing the information you have gathered from books and periodicals. It is important that you evaluate the information you get from the Internet to determine if it is reliable and useful to your research. A few Internet sites that may be useful are listed here.

Biography (A&E Television Networks)
http://www.biography.com/

Biography (Infoplease)
 http://www.infoplease.com/people.html

Google Subject Directory
 http://www.google.com/dirhp

Librarians Index to the Internet
 http://www.lii.org

Notable Women Ancestors: Women’s Biographies
 http://www.rootsweb.com/%7Enwa/index.html

 

 

VM 10/03 ; Latest Rev JL 08/07

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