LibGuides: Biographical Research: Biographical Databases

Obituaries

When looking for information about people who have already died, you might want to use the keyword 'obituary' in your searches; especially if you're not having a lot of luck finding formal biographies.

Because this information is usually printed in newspapers, you might try ProQuest Newsstand, for best results. In fact, this database even lets you limit your results to obituaries!

Biographical Databases

Each of the following databases contains biographical information, although some will have more than others.

A great place to start is with Credo Reference, which is a collection of online encyclopedias where you might find multiple biographies for the person you're researching.

You may also find biographical information in other databases, but they may be subject-specific (Oxford Music Online, etc.).

If you're not having luck with one database, try others and compare your results for a more complete picture of the person you're researching!

Credo Reference's Academic Core This link opens in a new window The Credo Reference database is a portal to over 1,300 full-text reference titles from over 120 major publishers. Easy to search and browse, the Credo platform provides access to text, images, maps, statistics, and graphic concept maps to illustrate connections among and between topics. The titles, which range across subjects in art, biography, business, geography, history language, law, literature, medicine, music, philosophy, psychology, religion, science, the social sciences, and technology, are fully integrated through the Credo search platform, and the Credo database also provides numerous points for accessing other Cheng Library resources. Credo is a most useful starting point for general research on almost any topic.
America: History and Life This link opens in a new window Bibliographic database contains over 450,000 citations and abstracts for journal and magazine articles, book and media reviews, and dissertations covering the world's scholarly literature about the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes material from over 1,820 journals and magazines written in over 40 languages, although the majority of items were published in English. Most of the items in the database were issued after 1954. Many records contain links to full-text articles in other Library databases. [1954 - present]
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window Oxford Music Online is a full-text portal to high-quality music reference sources, including the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, containing over 50,000 articles on composers, performers, conductors, instruments and notation, forms and genres, and individual works. The database also includes the full text of The Oxford Companion to Music and The Oxford Dictionary of Music.
Salem History (Decades in America, Great Lives, Milestone Documents) This link opens in a new window The Salem History portal provides full-text access to several major series published by Salem Press, inclduing Decades in America (1920s-1990s), Great Lives from History, and Milestone Documents.

Hard To Find People

It may be especially difficult to find biographies on some people.

In these cases, you might consider searching for articles about them, instead of strictly looking for biographies. Sometimes you can piece together a complete picture by using bits and pieces from different sources.