Fundamentals of Reference

Biographical Sources 47

Famous First Facts), Wilson (now

through EBSCO) here provides

profiles, photos, articles, essays,

and much more about one-half

million people.

American National Biography Online, or

ANB. American Council of Learned

Societies and Oxford University

Press (www.anb.org). In 1999,

Oxford University Press and the

American Council of Learned Soci-

eties (ACLS) produced the ANB in

print and electronic formats. Before

that time, the Dictionary of American Biography (DAB) was the pre-

mier source of biographical information about distinguished (and

deceased) Americans. The DAB was published by Charles Scribner’s

Sons and the ACLS, and consisted of twenty volumes published

between 1928 and 1936, an index issued in 1937, and supplements

published from 1944 to 1985. Approximately 19,000 notable

Americans in the DAB are profiled in scholarly sketches ranging

in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages. The ANB features

biographies of more than 17,000 Americans of note; some 10,000

of them who were featured in the DAB are represented here in new

biographies. Some 7,000 individu-

als are also represented whose biog-

raphies did not appear in the DAB.

The ANB is updated quarterly and is

easily searched.

Even a quick scan of the lists of sources
included in each of these online biograph-
ical sources will give you an idea of the
vast number of titles that once had to be
searched individually. Online sources offer
a kind of “one-stop shopping” for the librar-
ian or library patron in search of biographi-
cal information.

reference tip

Sometimes you don’t need to

conduct an in-depth search

for biographical information.

Sometimes the library’s computers

are down. What to do? Consult the

Almanac of Famous People (9th

edition). Here you will find brief

biographical information and often

citations to other sources on more

than 30,000 individuals.

another reference

tip: an old Favorite

One of the most useful, although

admittedly dated, biographical

reference books is The New

Century Cyclopedia of Names (3

vols.). Here you will find fictitious

and even mythological figures as

well as historical ones. Works of

literature, events, and places are

also included.