Articles & Information

Biography

Note: These online subscription resources require a Henrico library card number for use outside the library.

Biography Resource Center
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Over 200,000 biographies searchable by birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity and occupation.

Britannica Online for Kids
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Multimedia encyclopedia including Compton's Encyclopedia (for middle school students), Elementary Encyclopedia, and Merriam-Webster's Student Dictionary.

Britannica Online Reference Center
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Multimedia encyclopedia including Encyclopaedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus.

CQ Press Electronic Library
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Current and historic information about the government of the United States of America, including CQ Researcher and CQ Weekly.

eLibrary
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Over six million 100% full-text documents from popular magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers, television and radio transcripts, reference and historical sources.

Gale General OneFile
[in the library]    [outside the library]
News and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art and many general interest topics.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Titles are Business Leader Profiles for Students; Contemporary Novelists; Contemporary Poets; Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America; Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History; International Film and Filmmakers; and St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture.

Grolier Online
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Grolier Online contains America the Beautiful (a comprehensive program about the states and territories of the U.S.), The Encyclopedia Americana,  The New Book of Knowledge, The American Heritage Dictionary, and the Grolier Online Atlas.

Literary Reference Center
[in the library]    [outside the library]
Plot summaries, synopses and work overviews; articles of literary criticism; author biographies & interviews; full text of literary journals; book reviews; classic & contemporary poems; classic & contemporary short stories; full text of classic novels (anticipated by Fall 2006); and images of key literary figures. The database contains the Bloom Series and all of MagillOnLiterature Plus™, including the Masterplots series.

Selected Websites

Biography.com
Over 25,000 brief biographies of noted people from antiquity to the present day.  Entries include dates, events, achievements, etc.

Biographical Dictionary
Contains some 28,000 brief entries, providing basic information about famous people.

Internet Public Library: Biographies
Provides easy access to many good links for biographical information of all kinds, grouped into categories like “Authors” and “Scientists and Inventors.”

Mathematicians
A large alphabetical index of biographies of mathematicians. Can search alphabetically, chronologically, or by birthplace. Each indexed entry indicates how many words in the bio and if there is a photo or portrait given. 

PBS Biographies
Noteworthy people from ancient times to the 21st century, includes figures as diverse as Benjamin Franklin, Mary Pickford, and Queen Lili’uokalani.

White House Biography
Made up of excellent biographical sketches of all the Presidents and First Ladies. A portrait, if available, is included for each person.  Provides a separate section of more kid-friendly bios of the Presidents.

Who2?: Find Famous People Fast
“Classic authors, movie stars, kings and queens, famous frauds, mythical gods and cartoon dogs—anyone famous is fair game.” Each entry includes dates, birthplace, what they are best known for, and links to authoritative sites for further information. “Who Loops” includes lists of notables who share something in common, such as “Accidental Killers,” “Mauled by Lions,” and “Played Bond.”