Biographies

Welcome to the Biographies Subject Guide!

This is the place to learn about:

• doing library research for biographical information
• finding biographical information on specific groups of people (Presidents, prominent women, authors, etc.)

Contact Information

My name is Erin O'Toole. I'm the library liaison for the Biology and Geography departments. If you have questions, please contact me in the manner most convenient to you. I'm frequently out of my office, so if you'd like to meet in person, please make an appointment with me first.

Phone: 940-891-6750

Email: erin.otoole@unt.edu

IM: enter Meebo at the right when I'm online

Office: Willis Library, Room 155

Starting Points

How do you get started doing library research on a biographical topic?

1. Reference Sources. If you have little or no familiarity with your topic, encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries are a good place to start. They can give you the background on a topic, the historical research in the area, and potential keywords for your catalog and database searches.
2. Books. Search in the UNT Library Catalog for books. They will give you an in-depth coverage of a topic that is usually broad in scope. The information in a biographical book usually covers a very specific date range and/or group of people. Check the title page or index of a book to see if a particular aspect is covered and on which pages. The UNT Libraries provide access to numerous ebooks through netLibrary (see tutorial for assistance) and other ebook collections.
   
3. Articles. Search in electronic databases, both general and subject specific, for journal articles about your topic. Articles are the most current source of peer-reviewed information and are narrow in scope, with the exception of literature reviews. Visit the Electronic Resources page and type "biography" or "biographies" into the search box (each term will give different results).  Also search within subject specific databases for biographical information on individuals in that field.  Read the descriptions to find out the time coverage, subject coverage and availability of full text in the databases.
4. Websites. Use a search engine (see list here) to find websites, which provide the most current information and hard-to-find information. Beware - you must evaluate a site for credibility, authority and accuracy before using it as a reference for your research. Learn how to evaluate a website here.

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