Online Resource of the Month - June 2002

Each month, your SDPL features one of our online premium resources, paid for by SDPL, and available at the locations indicated.

What is Biography Resource Center?
Biography Resource Center (BRC) is a collection of over 300,000 biographies on more than 220,000 people, plus an additional 900,000 capsule biographies. The collection is supplemented with full-text articles from over 250 periodicals. The biographies are drawn from standard print sources such as Contemporary Authors, Encyclopedia of World Biography, Who’s Who, Historic World Leaders, Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, Contemporary Black Biography, Notable Native Americans, Religious Leaders of America, Writers Directory, and more. Biographies typically include a narrative history, capsule information, career profile, awards, and lists of writings by and about the person. Many biographies include a photo or other image. The main page lists "Spotlight" features and links on popular or famous people.

When Should I Use Biography Resource Center?
This online resource should be your first stop for "people" questions on public or historic figures, including leaders, scientists, celebrities, and more. For literary figures, another of our online resources, the Literature Resource Center, provides biographies along with material about the author’s works. You can use the BRC to get information on a ‘known’ person, or to identify persons matching criteria such as occupation, gender, nationality, ethnicity, and/or year or place of birth or death.

How do you use it?
The database opens to the Main Menu, which features searching by name. All screens include a Navigation and Tools column on the left. Options for name searching are:

• Name contains - accepts any combination of first, middle or last name; ignores the case (ex. "Bill Clinton" or "William Jefferson Clinton");
• Start of last name - enter the beginning of the person’s last name ("McGw" for "Mark McGwire").

Below the Name search box, you will see other search options:

• Custom Search - use this to find people matching one or more criteria such as occupation, gender, nationality, ethnicity, and/or year or place of birth or death. Date ranges can be used to match any year in a range (ex. ‘1940 - 1949’);
• Full Text Search - use this to search for terms within the full-text of a biography (ex. mentions of ‘San Diego’). Use the drop menu to select other types of special searching, such as any of the words, or exact phrase.

The Navigation menu in the left column displays context sensitive navigation options which may include: Main Menu, Revise Search, Current Search Results, and Bio Resource Page. The ‘Bio Resource Page’ collects all resources on a person along with an image when available. Use Main Menu to start a new search.

How do I use the Tools listed in the Menu?
The Tools menu in the left column will display different items, depending on what searching you do. Briefly, here’s what each of the items on the Tools menu can do:

• Help
• E-mail Data Home (to e-mail current document or Mark List to an address)
• Format for Printing (reformats without left-column)
• Search Tips (covers truncation, date ranges, and search operators)
• Tips on Bio Research (a guide to step-by-step use of the online resource)
• Dictionary (Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary)
• Add to Mark List (to collect selected materials for later printing or e-mail)
• Citation Generator (generates bibliographic citation based on source)
• Sources in BioRC (summary list of sources, with a link to full list of resources)

Help screens are available at all times while using the Biography Resource Center. For additional search tips, see the Search Tips User Guide.

What information do I find when I access a biography link?
Here’s a brief listing of the types of information you will find when you display a biography:

• Recent Update (links to a brief summary of recent news about the individual)
• Thumbnail Biographies (list of available brief biographies)
• Narrative Biographies (list of available longer biographies)
• Websites List (pre-selected Web sites highlighting the individual’s life and works)
• Magazine and Newspaper Articles (list of full-length articles written by or about the individual)
• Additional Resources (list of available essays with citations for additional resources

Explore Questions
If you’d like to try out the Biography Resource Center, access it here, and try out these questions:

• "What are Tony Gwynn’s parents’ names?"
• "Who’s a baseball player born in San Diego before 1950?"