How To Find Biographical Information on the Internet

More than just "biographical" information, this article also includes people-finder resources and name etymology sites. I hope you librarians out there find this article helpful in your reference work, and pass it along to your patrons for their use as well. This article will probably be of use to K12 students for homework assignments, too.

Enjoy! Hope it's useful.

General Biography Sites

Lives, the Biography Resource
Claims to be "The largest guide to biography sites on the Web... With 3945 listings representing almost 3500 biographical pages and sites", and I believe them! Browse alphabetically by last name, or by category such as era, region, or profession. Also features special collections of resources including "Canadians", "Women", "African Americans", etc. Nicely organized and VERY comprehensive. Also has a keyword search feature. *Important Note* - this resource only includes biographies of people who have died. Exception: people found in the Collections (General Collections, Professions, Eras, Regions, Criticism) may be living.*

Biography.com
From A&E, this database is comprised of over 25,000 entires and is easy to use -- just type the name (last is best) into the search box and click "go" -- and the bios are informative. Entries usually include a "related info" section with related bios and websites of interest. The home page is a bit "busy" but still, quite easy to use and a good, helpful site.

Infoplease.com Biography
I love Infoplease. All their reference resources are great, and this is no exception. You can "search the more than 30,000 biographies in our almanacs, dictionary, and encyclopedia" or you can browse by category, such as World Rulers, Entertainers, Women, Artists, Athletes, Writers, Explorers, and much, much more. The only thing negative about Infoplease is the amount of annoying pop-up ads. Still, a great resource.

Biographical Dictionary
"This dictionary covers more than 28,000 notable men and women who have shaped our world from ancient times to the present day." A lot of entries, but not a lot of information is in each entry -- bios are short. Another drawback is there is no browsing feature, the database must be searched (by name, keyword or date). Tricky if you don't know the spelling. But searching by date is a nice feature, and there are good searching tips given.

Academy of Achievement
A fun site modelled after a musuem, includes 6 halls within the "gallery of achievers" which contain notable individuals who have achieved in that field. Choose from the Hall of Arts, Hall of Business, Hall of Public Service, Hall of Science & Exploration, Hall of Sports, and Hall of the American Dream. Biographies are selective, only including "extraordinary individuals who have shaped our times" (there are only 11 people in the Sports Hall, for example), but informative.

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