LIS 407Class 12 Biographical Sources and ethics

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LIS 407-Class 12/ Biographical Sources and ethics

• Why do we need biographies? Who needs them?
  Journalists, historians, private detectives, etc

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Warning!!

• If you think that encyclopedias are the subject
  of sometimes subjective and biased statements and
  ideas, you should look at the way biographies are
  built and written. Clearly, biographical sources
  need to be carefully assessed.

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From nixonfoundation.org

• A few months after the war ended, President Nixon
  was charged with complicity in blocking the FBI's
  investigation of the June 1972 Watergate
  break-in. In a political atmosphere made even
  more corrosive by Democratic control of Congress,
  residual tension over Vietnam, and the nation's
  deepening economic and energy-supply woes, the
  investigation was broadened to include matters
  ranging from the President's conduct of the
  Vietnam war to his income tax returns and
  security expenditures ordered by the Secret
  Service at his and Mrs. Nixon's personal
  residences

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Cont.

• After the House Judiciary Committee passed three
  Articles of Impeachment in July 1974 and the
  Supreme Court ordered the release of White House
  tapes that appeared to implicate the President
  further in Watergate, he decided to resign on
  August 9, 1974, prior to impeachment by the full
  House and the Senate trial that would have
  followed. Even though he was entitled under the
  Constitution to a trial conducted according to
  rules of evidence, he said that he did not want
  the nation preoccupied with Watergate for months
  to come. His second Vice President, Gerald R.
  Ford, was sworn in as President the same day.

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Biographical Sources

• Universal - current
• Whos Who - brief, factual, living people
• Current Biography - essays, pictures, living
  people in the news. (also included in Biography
  Reference Bank)
• Universal - retrospective
• Who Was Who in America
• Description
• http//www.marquiswhoswho.com/products/productlist
  _main.asp
• Professional and subject biographies
• Form subdivision
• -- Biography
• Authors 20th Century Biography
• Contemporary Authors
• Very complicated in print - revision series,
  permanent series, Contemporary Literary
  Criticism, etc.
• Online version has solved most of these problems

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Some random sources

• Mathematicians
• USA Presidents
• Astronauts and cosmonauts
• Your favorite congressman or congresswoman (if
  you have one)

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Biographical Sources

• National biographies (current and retrospective)
• Whos Who in America - brief, factual, living
  people
• What is in the Whos Who record?
• Dictionary of National Biography
• British nationals - essays, bibliographies
• Dictionary of American Biography
• Americans - essays, bibliographies

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The sometimes World of biographical information

• http//www.biography.com/
• http//www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/ref15.00.00/
  
• www.supremecourtus.gov/about/biographiescurrent.pd
  f

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Whos Who
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Whos Who
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Dictionary of National Biography

• DNB
• over 37,000 dead British nationals - essays,
  bibliographies
• 36,500 articles
• 33 million words
• 33 volumes originally published between 1885 and
  1901 (28,194 articles in 22 volumes) and in
  eleven twentieth-century supplements at ten- or
  five-year intervals, covering people who had died
  in the period since the last volume. None of the
  original DNB articles has ever been substantially
  revised.

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New DNB

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• http//www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/
• 50,000 articles, about people from the earliest
  times to the end of the year 2000.
• 62 million words
• 10,000 contributors
• 60 printed volumes with 10,000 illustrations,
  researched in partnership with the National
  Portrait Gallery
• All subjects of articles in the old DNB will be
  included in the New DNB, but every article will
  have been rewritten or revised for fresh
  publication in 2004. A further 13,500 articles
  will be added covering subjects entirely new to
  the dictionary.

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DAB and ANB (ACLS)

• Dictionary of American Biography
• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
• 20-volume set records the lives of 19,173
  celebrated women and men who have made
  significant contributions to American life, who
  died through 1980.
• 10 base volumes and 10 supplements, and an index.
  
• American National Biography
• Portraits of more than 17,400 men and women --
  from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives
  have shaped the nation.

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DAB and ANB what is the difference

• DAB was published by Charles Scribner's Sons
  between 1927 and 1936 the last supplement was
  published in 1985 and includes people who died no
  later than 1980.
• Historical scholarship has advanced considerably
  in the last sixty years. In publishing the ANB,
  Oxford University Press and the American Council
  of Learned Societies have produced a totally new
  work that incorporates the vast amount of new
  historical research that has emerged since Word
  War II.
• The DAB covers approximately 19,000 subjects of
  these 10,000 are in the ANB as completely new
  biographies with the latest factual information
  and interpretations the bibliographies that
  follow each article are also entirely new.
• The ANB features 7,000 figures not in any volume
  of the DAB--most of them people who died after
  1980.

http//www.anb.org/qa.html
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Contemporary Authors

• http//0-galenet.galegroup.com.library.simmons.edu
  /servlet/GLD/form?locIDmlin_b_simmcoll2
• Contemporary Authors
• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series
• Contemporary Authors Permanent Series
• Contemporary Canadian Authors
• Check
• Peter Hernon
• David Bain
• Stephen Wolfram

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Wilson Biography Reference Bank

• Contains biographical information on
  approximately half a million people, from
  antiquity to the present, along with thousands of
  images.
• It contains the full text of the articles from
  more than 100 volumes of H. W. Wilson
  biographical reference books, including all the
  entries from all volumes of Current Biography,
  the World Author Series, Nobel Prize Winners,
  World Artists, World Film Directors, American
  Reformers, and others.
• Also included are thousands of biographies from
  other respected publishers, including Macmillan
  UK, Greenwood, Houghton Mifflin, and Harvard
  University Press.

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Wilson Biography Reference Bank

• Also contains magazine citations (many of which
  contain full-text) from all of the Wilson
  Indexing Databases, including all citations from
  Biography Index Database after 1984, as well as
  book reviews excerpts from Book Review Digest
  Plus.
• http//0-hwwilsonweb.com.library.simmons.edu/
• Check Browse for Person
• Jesse Shera
• Shera Jesse
• Search on
• Pervez Musharraf

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Current Biography

• Current, readable, objective and carefully
  researched biographical essays about newsworthy
  person in a broad range of fields.
• Based on articles from newspapers and magazine.
• Analytical style within a narrative context.
• Photographs
• Each issue has about 20 biographical essays, and
  short obituary notices.
• Cumulated into Current Biography Yearbook
• Included in Wilson Biography Reference Bank

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Biography and Genealogy Master Index

• BGMI is a master key to biographical information
  on approximately 4,000,000 persons who have
  distinguished themselves in all fields of
  endeavor.
• BGMI indexes some 700 biographical dictionaries
  and directories, including current works such as
  Who's Who in America and The Writers Directory,
  as well as such retrospective sources as Great
  Lives from History and Medieval Women Writers.

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Biography and Genealogy Master Index

• Each BGMI record provides the complete name of
  the person (as it appears in the source), the
  years of birth and death (when known), and
  complete bibliographic citations of the source
  publications that contain a biographical sketch
  on the person. The database corresponds to Gale
  Research's eight-volume publication, Biography
  and Genealogy Master Index (2nd edition, 1980),
  and its annual updates from 1982 through the
  present.

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Genealogy Public Records

• Subset of biography
• Start with the known work towards the unknown
• Form subdivisions
• germany genealogy
• obituaries massachusetts
• The Source A Guidebook of American Genealogy, MH
  Ref CS49.S65
• Public records
• Birth certificates
• Census records (local, state, national)
• Marriage records
• Military service
• Land management
• Death records
• Cemetery plots
• Death certificates

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Genealogy Other Resources

• City Directories
• Who lived where when with whom sometimes
  occupations in between census
• NARA (www.archives.gov)
• Civil War
• Immigration
• Naval history
• Ethnic Immigration Sources

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Genealogy Broad Resources

• Online resources
• Biography Master and Genealogy Index
• Cyndis List
• 180,000 genealogy sites online.
• http//cyndislist.com/
• FamilySearch (Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints)
  Extensive resources for family genealogy
• http//www.familysearch.org/
• Newspapers
• Many are online -- about 20 years
• Smaller projects go back further
• Obituaries, weddings, bankruptcies

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In conclusion

• Biographical resources represent a big portion of
  Reference materials.
• Multiple uses by several different kinds of
  patrons.
• Presentation based on Professor Terry Plums
  class.

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Some links

• www.smu.edu/newsinfo/announcements/cq-libraries-ma
  rch2007.pdf
• www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2007/030107relyea.pdf