Biographical Sources
From CommWiki
In addition to the specific biographical resources listed below, check out the Biography/Who's Who resources at refdesk.com and the complete Biography section of InfoTree.
- Biography Resource Center a comprehensive full-text database of biographical information of more than one million people throughout history, around the world and across all disciplines and subject areas. Includes brief and longer bios, websites as well as magazine, newspaper and encyclopedia articles.
- Biography Reference Bank provides biographical information on approximately half a million people, from antiquity to the present, along with thousands of images.
- Biography.com biographical sketches on more than 25,000 individuals, both past and present. Site related to the "Biography" program on the A&E cable channel. Also includes the complete contents of the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia.
Who's Who Books
The library has copies of print and electronic Who's Who annuals, some by specific subject:
- Who's Who in the Twentieth Century
- Who's Who Among African Americans
- Who's Who in Finance and Business
- Who's Who in International Affairs
- Who's Who in the Federal Government
Local People
Lesser-known people will not be in large biographical databases but there are some other tactics to use:
- Look on the individual's personal or workplace website for a bio.
- Try Lexis Nexis or America's Newspapers for biographical articles about the person
- Try a Lexis Nexis "people" search -- click the link labeled People on the database home page
Historical biographical info
For finding biographical information on local people in the Ohio region, it may be necessary to visit the Center for Archives & Special Collections on Alden Library's 5th floor. The Archives may have some newspaper clipping files and other sources for historical biographical information about people in Ohio (mostly OU-related people; no biography files on community members)
Political Figures
- Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (1774-present) brief biographical information for anyone ever elected to Congress electronic version print version
- The Political Graveyard (17th C.-present) database of over 180,000 U.S. politicians, living or dead, including those who unsuccessfully ran for office
- POTUS brief bios of all U.S. presidents, with links to other biographical resources
- Presidents of the United States detailed biographical sketches of each U.S. president
- Open Secrets.org find out who has donated to political campaigns and public policy issues
- Who's Who in the Federal Government
