Biography Resource Center Trial through August 31, 2007

Through August 31, 2007, the Library offers a trial subscription to Gale’s Biography Resource Center, a comprehensive biographical reference database in the areas of literature, science, multicultural studies, business, entertainment, politics, sports, government, history, current events and the arts.

After exploring Biography Resource Center, please leave a comment here at Screenings to let us know what you think about the database.

By combining more than 135 of the most frequently consulted Thomson Gale™ biographical sources with nearly 300 full-text periodicals, the Biography Resource Center delivers in-depth, full-text answers to a wide range of questions. This expansive reference integrates more than 1.4 million biographies from numerous sources including: Contemporary Authors®; Contemporary Black Biography; Contemporary Musicians; Contemporary Theatre, Film & Television; Dictionary of American Biography; Encyclopedia of World Biography; Notable Black American Women; Notable Scientists; Scribner’s Encyclopedia of American Lives; and Who’s Who Among African Americans as well as the Marquis Who’s Who® add-on module. Users can learn about the lives and accomplishments of past and present noteworthy figures for their own interest, to complete a research project, or as a starting point for in-depth research on a particular event, country or era — all within one, easy-to-navigate product.

Biography Resource Center provides fulltext coverage of the sources most often cited as key to biographical reference collections. Students and other library patrons will appreciate the following features when conducting their research:

  • Narrative biographies — extensive biographical profiles collected from databases such as the Encyclopedia of World Biography
  • Thumbnail biographies — one or more brief biographies containing key facts
  • Full-text magazine articles from publications such as Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report that amplify and update the narrative biographies and thumbnail biographies, and also provide information on individuals not yet profiled in the Biography Resource Center
  • Recent Updates — brief updates on individuals in the news
  • Links to Web sites that amplify an individual’s life and works

For additional information about Biography Resource Center, please visit the Gale website.

Janet Clarke

Janet Clarke

Associate Dean, Research & User Engagement at Stony Brook University Libraries
email: janet.clarke@stonybrook.edu
Janet Clarke
Posted in Database Trials