SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION
90TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE 1999
NEWS DIVISION
NEWS LIBRARY TOOLBOX:
YOUR REFERENCE COLLECTION
BIOGRAPHICAL RESOURCES
Prepared by C.B. Hayden
Manager, Research Center & Information Services
ABC News
PERIODICALS |
Biography Magazine |
This glossy monthly magazine offers several major biographical profiles of people in the news, an occasional historical biography of current interest and many other shorter biographical features. It includes a regular "Where are They Now" feature and its "BioGraph" feature provides a unique graphical representation of a subject’s life each month. Its web site usually offers the full-text of one of the current issue’s major profiles. Indexed in H.W. Wilson’s Biography Index.
Biography Magazine
A & E Television Networks
235 E. 45th St.
New York, NY 10017 USA
Phone: (212)210-9750
http://www.biography.com/magazine/index.htmlMonthly, $14.95
(objectivity statement: A&E Television Networks and Biography Magazine are both owned in part by the Walt Disney Company, the parent of ABC News)
The Constantian; Journal of the Constantian Society |
This journal of the Constantian Society provides profiles and other information concerning the world’s reigning and non-reigning monarchs. The organization is very pro-monarchy in nature and seeks to promote and defend the theory of monarchy as a superior governmental form. The journal is published on a very irregular basis. The full-text of some of its contents are soon to appear on the Society’s web site. The web site offers other interesting material such as lines of succession and budgetary data for many of the world’s royal families. This oddball newsletter makes a nice companion to the lavishly illustrated and slavishly royalty-smitten periodicals Royalty and Majesty for those who track the world’s royal families.
The Constantian
840 Old Washington Road
McMurray, Pennsylvania 15317-3228
(412) 942-5374
http://members.tripod.com/~constantian/index.html
Quarterly, $10.00
Biography Today |
Each quarterly issue contains 10-12 profiles of people of general interest. While the profiles are written with junior and high school students in mind the writing is in no way juvenile. In fact, the succinct nature and readability of each profile makes it ideal for journalists in need of a few quick biographical facts when working under deadline. Biography Today makes a great companion to both Wilson’s Current Biography and Gale’s Newsmakers. Additional series offer biographies providing similar biographical profiles of athletes, artists, scientists and world leaders.
Omnigraphics, Inc.
Penobscot Building
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 961-1340
(800) 234-1340
http://www.omnigraphics.comOne-year subscription, three softbound issues, $54.00
Annual hardbound cumulation, $55.00
Presidents & Prime Ministers |
This magazine, which appears six times each year, consists primarily of transcripts of speeches by world leaders. With each speech a short biographical profile is always included. A country index appears in each index. This index makes it easy to locate material in Presidents & Prime Ministers which may not be included in the various indexing services that include this magazine. The magazine’s web site seems to offer most of the editorial content published in hard-copy but is not kept up-to-date. And while its search engine is little more than a browsing tool it is free. Some of the contents of this publication are also available in full-text in a number of online databases.
Presidents & Prime Ministers
799 Roosevelt Road, #6/208
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137
(630) 858-6161
ppm@goinfo.com
http://ppm.goinfo.com
Six issues per year, $22.35
Soviet Biographical Service |
Soviet Biographical Service provides biographies of the political, intellectual and cultural leaders of the countries of the former Soviet Union. Each issue provides new biographies of emerging leaders and updates for subjects previously covered. The updates follow the careers of each person in obsessive detail and every entry is carefully cited to both English- and Russian-language sources. Each updated biography also includes a reverse self-index making it simple to get a complete biography of the individual. This is truly a unique resource. Covering everyone from Belarusian ambassadors to Russian figure skaters, SBS can be of great use to anyone who needs to track Russian and post-Soviet personalities who are not well-covered by other resources.
J.L. Scherer
4900 18th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55417
(612) 722-2947
One-year subscription, 4 loose-leaf updates, $100.00
BOOKS |
Dictionary of World Biography |
This projected 10 volume series provides authoritative biographical profiles of important personages from the ancient world through the 20th Century. It is a revision of the thirty-volume Great Lives from History Series. The entries are almost all written by academic experts and provide both quick facts and a narrative biography for each subject. Its carefully annotated bibliographies distinguish themselves from the bibliographies provided by similar reference series.
Dictionary of World Biography
Edited by Frank M. Magill
Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
70 E. Walton St.
Chicago, IL 60611 USA
(312) 587-0131
(800) 850-8102
http://www.fitzroydearborn.com/dicworlbio.htmVolumes may be purchased individually at $125/£95, or the set at a special pre-publication price of $975/£750
The Presidents |
If you can only have one book on the presidents. This is the one that should be in your print collection. This combined with H.W. Wilson’s Facts About the Presidents makes for a compact but powerful presidential biography reference shelf.
The Presidents – A Reference History
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2nd edition, 1996
Edited by Henry F. Graff
Macmillan Publishing Company,
200 Old Tappan Rd.
Old Tappan, NJ 07675
(800) 428-5331
$125.00
First Ladies Quotation Book |
This book, which received little coverage by the book review media, provides carefully cited quotations from every First Lady. The quotations are arranged by broad subject categories. The book’s index provides additional access to the quotations by speaker.
First Ladies Quotation Book
By William O. Foss
Barricade Books, 1999
150 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
(212)627-7000
http://www.barricadebooks.com/$16.95
Who’s Who in Space |
This encyclopedic biographical directory offers substantive biographical sketches for every U.S. astronaut, Russian/Soviet cosmonaut and all others who have traveled into space. Beyond the biographical material this very-browseable source also includes many chronologies, statistical records and other information related to the lives of those who have left the earth’s atmosphere.
Who’s Who in Space
International Space Station edition
By Michael Cassutt
Macmillan Library Reference, 1999
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
(212) 654-8500
$115.00
The Great Rock Discography |
This book offers biographies and band histories for over 1000 rock music performers. For each performer a complete discography is provided which includes every track on each album. The British author includes some performers that are of minor interest in the U.S. but all the major artists are included.
(Note: This resource suggested by Rachel Sapienza, Entertainment Weekly)
The Great Rock Discography, 4th edition
By Martin C. Strong
Times Books/Random House, Inc., 1998
201 E. 50th St.
New York, NY 10022
(212) 848-2436
(800) 726-0600
http://www.randomhouse.com$32.00
Toxic Fame: Celebrities Speak on Stardom |
Over 2,000 quotations from celebrities on the nature of fame and the problems of living a celebrated life. The index identifies quotations by the name of the famed speaker and also identifies quotations about famous personalities.
Toxic Fame
By Joey Berlin
Visible Ink Press, 1996
27500 Drake Rd.
Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535
(248) 699-4253
http://www.gale.com$19.95
Whos’ Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners |
This reference book provides fact-driven biographical profiles of 1175 Pulitzer Prize winners from 1917 through 1998. It is arranged by prize category then by year. Several indexes, a chronology and the book’s clear ( and almost obsessive!) arrangement make it obvious that this is the work of information professionals.
Who’s Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners
By Elizabeth A. Brennan and Elizabeth C. Clarage
Oryx Press, 1999
4041 North Central at Indian School Road
Phoenix, AZ 85012-3397
(602) 265-2651
info@oryxpress.com http://www.oryxpress.com(objectivity statement: Elizabeth A. Brennan is an Information Specialist on the staff of the ABC News Research Center)
Almanac of the Federal Judiciary |
This loose-leaf services provides basic biographical data for each Federal district judge, bankruptcy judge, magistrate judge, circuit judge and Supreme Court justice . It also offers some unique elements such as bibliographies of judges’ publications, information on any pro bono activities, narrative lists of noteworthy rulings, anonymous evaluations by attorneys and for some prominent judges and Supreme Court justices summaries of media coverage of their rulings and careers.
Almanac of the Federal Judiciary
Aspen Law and Business
7201 McKinney Circle
Frederick, MD 21701
(301) 698-7100
(800) 223-0231
Semi-annual updates, $295.00
Encyclopedia of Television News |
While not exclusively a biographical resource, the majority of this book’s content is made up of succinct biographical profiles of many of the major personalities in television news. Most of those included are on-air anchors and correspondents but a significant number of producers and news directors working behind the scenes in television news are also included. The entries are primarily written by scholars from schools of journalism and communications.
Encyclopedia of Television News
Edited by Michael D. Murray
Oryx Press, 1999
4041 North Central at Indian School Road
Phoenix, AZ 85012-3397
(602) 265-2651
info@oryxpress.com http://www.oryxpress.com
BIOGRAPHICAL DATABASES |
Wilson Biographies Plus |
This online biographical resource provides profiles of almost 50,000 individuals. In addition to all the material from the print source Current Biography almost every other biographical directory published by H.W. Wilson is also included. Newly added are links from each profile to the full-text and abstracts of biographical information from many of the Wilson databases such as Readers’ Guide Abstracts Full Text. Illustrations and portraits are currently being added into the database.
Wilson Biographies Plus
H.W. Wilson
950 University Avenue
Bronx, NY 10452-9978
(800) 367-6770
http://www.hwwilson.com/biosplus.htm$1295.00 per year (intranet pricing by negotiation)
The following H.W. Wilson sources are currently included in Wilson Biographies Plus:
African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary
American Authors 1600-1900
American Composers Today
American Reformers
American Songwriters
British Authors Before 1800
British Authors of the 19th Century
Composers of Today, 2nd Edition
Composers of Yesterday
Composers Since 1900
Composers Since 1900 1st, Supplement
Computer Pioneers
Current Biography 1940-1982 (43 vols.)
Current Biography 1983-1998 (16 vols.)
Dictionary of Woman Artists-Volume 1: A-I
Dictionary of Woman Artists-Volume 2: J-Z
Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century
Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature
Encyclopedia of Mexico-Volume 1: A-L
Encyclopedia of Mexico-Volume 2: M-Z
Encyclopedia of Television-Volume 1: A-F
Encyclopedia of Television-Volume 2: G-P
Encyclopedia of Television-Volume 3: Q-Z
Encyclopedia of the Essay
European Authors 1000-1900
European Composers of Today
European Immigrant Women in the United States: A Biographical Dictionary
Fifth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators
Fourth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators
Great Composers 1300-1900
Greek and Latin Authors
Handbook of American Women's History
Hollywood Songsters: A Biographical Dictionary
Inventors and Discoverers Junior Book of Authors, 1st Ed.
Junior Book of Authors, 2nd Ed.
Library of International Biographies
Library of North American Biographies
Living Musicians
Living Musicians 1st Supplement
Military Leaders
More Junior Authors
Musicians Since 1900
Native American Women: A Biographical Dictionary
Nobel Prize Winners
Nobel Prize Winners Supplement 1987-1991
Nobel Prize Winners Supplement 1992-1996
North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical
North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical
Popular American Composers
Reader's Guide to Russian Literature
Seventh Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators
Sixth Book of Junior Authors and Illustrators
Spanish American Authors
The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary
Third Book of Junior Authors
Who's Who in British History-Volume 1: A-H
Who's Who in British History-Volume 2: I-Z
Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe
World Artists 1950-1980
World Artists 1980-1990
World Authors 1900-1950 (4 vols.)
World Authors 1950-1970
World Authors 1970-1975
World Authors 1975-1980
World Authors 1980-1985
World Authors 1985-1990
World Film Directors Vol. 1
World Film Directors Vol. 2
World Musicians
Biography Resource Center |
This major new biographical web site is the first joint product to be generated by the merger of Gale Research and IAC. In its first release it provides more than 215,000 biographical entries from 44 Gale and St. James Press sources, covering more than 150,000 people. In addition, full-text biographical material from 250 periodicals is included in the database. In the next release additions will include all 800,000 biographies from the Marquis Who’s Who series, material from other Gale resources and links to over 10,000 biographical web sites.
The Gale Group
P.O. Box 9187
Farmington Hills, MI 48333-9187
(800) 877-GALE
galeord@gale.com http://www.gale.com(contact Gale Group for pricing)
The following Gale and St. James Press sources are currently included in Biography Resource Center:
Almanac of Famous People. 6th ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
American Decades CD-ROM. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Authors and Artists for Young Adults. Vols. 7-26. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992-99.
Business Leader Profiles for Students. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999.
The Cold War 1945-1991. 3 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.
Contemporary Artists. 4th ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996.
Contemporary Authors. Vols. 1-167. Detroit: Gale Research, 1962-99.
Contemporary Black Biography. Vols. 1-20. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992-99.
Contemporary Designers. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999.
Contemporary Fashion. Detroit: St. James Press, 1995.
Contemporary Heroes and Heroines. Bk. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990; Bk. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992; Bk. 3. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Contemporary Musicians. Vols. 1-23. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989-99.
Contemporary Newsmakers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985-87.
Contemporary Photographers. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996.
Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television. Vols. 1-20. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984-99.
Current Leaders of Nations. Detroit: Gale Research, 1990-99.
Dictionary of Hispanic Biography. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996.
Directory of American Scholars. 9th ed. Detroit: The Gale Group, 1999.
Encyclopedia of World Biography. 2nd ed., 17 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998; Vol. 18, 1998
Explorers and Discoverers of the World. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.
Great Women in Sports. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996.
Historic World Leaders. 5 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1994.
International Dictionary of Art and Artists. 2 vols. Detroit: St. James Press, 1990.
International Dictionary of Ballet. 2 vols. Detroit: St. James Press, 1993.
International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers. 3rd ed., 4 vols. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996.
International Dictionary of Modern Dance. Detroit: St. James Press, 1998.
International Dictionary of Theatre. 3 vols. Detroit: St. James Press, 1992-96.
Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults. 6 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993; Supplement. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Newsmakers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1985-99.
Notable Asian Americans. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.
Notable Black American Men. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Notable Black American Scientists. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Notable Black American Women. Bk. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992; Bk. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996.
Notable Hispanic American Women. Bk. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993; Bk. 2. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Notable Mathematicians. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Notable Native Americans. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.
Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists. 4 vols. Detroit: Gale Research, 1995.
Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists. Supplement. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Religious Leaders of America. 2nd ed. Detroit: The Gale Group, 1999.
Sports Stars. Series 1-4. Detroit: U*X*L, 1994-98.
St. James Guide to Black Artists. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997.
St. James Guide to Native North American Artists. Detroit: St. James Press, 1998.
Who's Who Among African Americans. 11th ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998.
Who's Who in the Theatre. 17th ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981.
World of Invention. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.
World of Scientific Discovery. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale Group, 1999.
Writers Directory. 14th ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999.
World News Connection |
World News Connection from the National Technical Information Service offers extensive web-based access to thousands of translated and English-language non-U.S. news sources. Its content is provided by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. As a biographical resource WNC is often the first place to provide information on emerging government and opposition leaders in all areas of the world.
National Technical Information Service Technology Administration
U.S. Department of Commerce
Springfield, VA 22161
(703) 605-6000
http://wnc.fedworld.gov/A variety of pricing options are available from one-week ‘passes’ to enterprise-wide site licenses
C.B. Hayden
Manager, Research Center & Information Services
ABC News
47 West 66th Street
New York, NY 10023
(212) 456-4769
haydenc@abc.com