Using Biography Resource Center

What is Biography Resource Center?  

Biography Resource Center (BioRC) is a database that features biographical information on more than 165,000 individuals. It covers a wide area of historical periods, disciplines, and subject areas.  The information that you have access to is drawn from a number of different sources including entries from numerous reference books and full-text articles from more than 250 periodicals. The entries and articles that you may retrieve have been written by journalists, noted scholars, and subject experts. In many cases you may also be able to see additional information including bibliographies and links to pertinent sites on the World Wide Web.

Searching for information on Biography Resource Center 

The first screen you will see when entering the database will allow you to submit a Name Search for the name of an individual. You may either search by selecting the “Name Contains” option and key in a full name or any combination of the name; or you may select “Start of the last name” to search for any names that begin with part of a name. 

Either method will yield results if there is information about the person in the database but the “Name contains” option is usually a faster and more precise method.

Examples:  you are searching for information about the writer Ralph Ellison. You may type  “Ralph Ellison” or “Ellison, Ralph” and select the “Name contains”. Regardless of the order in which you enter the name, you will retrieve the same result, a link to a list of resources on the writer. You will get the same results by selecting the “Start of the last name” option. However, the “Start of the last name” option may retrieve far too many results if you are researching an individual with a very common last name like Smith . For example, if you are looking for information on the poet Stevie Smith and select “Start of the last name” you will get no results; but if you select “Name contains” you will be directed to a link for “Smith, Florence Margaret”, which was her real name

You are also able to refine your search by selecting the Custom Search. In the Custom Search you may specify by Occupation, Nationality, Ethnicity, Birth and Death Year, and Birth and Death Place.

Example:  you are searching for biographical information on well-known South Americans born after the Second World War. From the Custom Search screen scroll down to the “Nationality” menu and select the South American nationalities for which you are looking. You may select more than one at a time by holding down the “Control” key (Ctrl) while clicking on your selections. To enter the date of birth, scroll down to “Birth Year”. From the pull-down menu select “Is after.” In the box to the right type in “1945.”

Viewing, Printing, and Emailing Results 

The information in Biography Resource Center appears in several forms. You will be able to look at Thumbnail Biographies- brief biographies no longer than a paragraph- and Narrative Biographies which consists of lengthy entries from reference books or encyclopedias. There may also be links to Magazine and Newspaper Articles, Additional Resources (bibliographies), and a listing of Web sites.