Biographies

Often in the course of your studies you will need information on people. A biography is a book written about a person; an autobiography is a book written by a person about his or her own life. A full profile of the person you are studying can be found in either a book or a periodical.

• If the Johnnie Mae Berry Library contains a book on the person you are studying, you can find it through BLINK: the Cincinnati State Online Catalog. Individual books of biography and autobiography are shelved together in the Library. The call numbers will start with “B”, and they are filed alphabetically, according to the name of the person they are about. Often, the library will not have a book devoted exclusively to the person you selected, but will have good information on that person in a periodical or magazine, or in a collective biography. To find information on individuals in these sources, it is necessary to first consult an index.
• Popular magazines are a great place to find information about people in the news. Academic Search Complete and MasterFILE Premier are both good places to start. They search thousands of different journals and magazines, and often include links to the full-text of the articles they find. Ask at the Library’s Help Desk if you need assistance with these databases. You must have a valid SurgeCard to use the database off-campus.

Biography Reference Bank is an online database providing information about 19,000 people who have influences American history and culture. It is searchable by name, or you could choose to search for all people of a certain nationality, occupation, etc. Literary Reference Center is another online database, giving biographical and critical information about authors.  Another useful source is Who's Alive and Who's Dead.

Several reference books are devoted exclusively to biographical information. Some good sources in our library include:

• Encyclopedia of World Biography (Ref 920.003 E56 1997
• Current Biography (Ref 920.03 C976
• Concise Dictionary of American Biography (Ref 920.073 C744

Some sources specialize in people from a particular era, or of a particular professional or ethnicity. Some of these resources in the Johnnie Mae Berry Library are:

• African American Lives
• Almanac of Famous People
• American Business Leaders
• American Writers Before 1800
• Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology
• Dictionary of Scientific Biography
• Encyclopedia of Artists
• Encyclopedia of Biography
• International Biographical Dictionary of Computer Pioneers
• International Dictionary of Women's Biography
• McGraw-Hill Modern Scientists and Engineers
• New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
• Ohio Biographical Dictionary
• Thinkers of the Twentieth Century