Sources
About People and Their Lives
Biographical Sources:
Indexes, Dictionaries, Current, Historical, Subject & Specialized;
Genealogy
Explore the following sources (and similar ones from the textbook or other sources), paying special attention to their intents, potential uses, how they are structured and searched. Use the questions that follow as guides to your thinking about how each of these might be used for those questions, and consider potential sources for each question. On this Catalyst tool, suggest the source you think might be the best, first place to begin; we’ll discuss these in class.
·
Biography and Genealogy Master
Index (BAGMI)
in print, on Web
(UW restricted)
·
Biography Index
·
Cambridge Biographical
Dictionary
·
Merriam-Webster's Biographical
Dictionary
·
s9 (The
Biographical Dictionary)
·
Who’s Who
·
Who’s Who in ________
·
Who Was Who
·
International Who’s Who
·
Current Biography
·
Dictionary of American Biography
·
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
·
Intelius
·
genealogy resources: National Archives,
Census Bureau,
Social Security
Death Master File (ancestry.com), Cyndi's
List
·
skip
tracing: Skip
Tracing: Finding Personal and Business Records (pdf
handouts), presentation
1.
Who was Myrtle Edwards?
2.
Can you find me a good biography of Henry M. Jackson?
3.
Who was the driver of Diana’s car that night?
4.
I want a list of notable American librarians over the last
century or so.
5.
Do you have any general bio information on Alexander McCall
Smith?
6.
What’s a good place to start in researching my family tree?
Also, read these:
Rosenbloom, Stephanie, “New
Online-Date Detectives Can Unmask Mr. or Ms. Wrong”, New York Times 12/19/10
Mihm, Stephen, “The
Biographer’s New Best Friend”, New
York Times 9/11/11
Holson, Laura, “Who’s on
the Family Tree? Now It’s Complicated”,
New York Times 7/5/11
And prepare to discuss these
questions:
v Why is this a separate
category? Why so many resources and kinds
of resources devoted to people?
v What is the most efficient way
of “categorizing” biographical sources—based on which one would be of
most use in finding out about which particular kind of person?
v What kinds of pitfalls or
complications might be raised in genealogical or family-history research?