NEAR NORTH BOARD OF EDUCATION
Library Services
Biographies
Your Name___________________________ Teacher's Name ________________________________
Person you are investigating
___________________________
There are many sources of biographical information ranging from brief
entries in biographic dictionaries to complete books on specific individuals.
In part, you must decide how much information you require and how many
different kinds of sources [ie. books, CDs, magazines, dictionaries, encyclopedias,
Internet...]
A. Reference - Dictionaries
-
Dictionaries of Biography give brief descriptions of hundreds or thousands
of people. These books can be found through the Library online catalogue,
but generally are found in 920 or with the actual subject area. That
is, a dictionary of biographies of scientists would be in 509.2, of musicians
in 780.92, of artists in 709.2, of Canadians in 971.092. In the online
catalogue, look under biography or biographies, or under subjects such as scientists, doctors,
painters, chemists...
List here the name of the dictionary you used __________________________________Dewey
No ____________
What was the occupation or field of work of your person [ie. Newton
was a physicist or scientist; Chretien is politician] _____________________
Nationality [ie. Canadian American...]________________________________
Date of birth ______________ Date of death ______________
Famous for ________________________________________________________________________________
B. Reference - Encyclopedias, CDs
-
Encyclopedias give more information than dictionaries. These books
can often be found in the reference section or in the subject section.
That is, an encyclopedia of painters would be in 759, of Americans in 973.092,
of psychologists in 150. Always remember to look up the last name of the
person.
List here the name of the encyclopedia you used _______________________________Dewey
No ____________
-
Use CDs such as Encarta, Grolier or Compton's [American encyclopedias]
or the Canadian Encyclopedia, or subject CDs such as the Kindersley Science
disc or Universe disc. Remember always to use last name.
List the CD used _________________________ Title of the article ____________________________________
Date of the disc ______________
- Online Encyclopedias - see your library's
web page for links to sources, logins and passwords for Encarta,
Britannica, World Book, Access Science and Webencyclo.
List
here the name of the site you used_______________________________________
C. Books - Biographies
-
Books about people can be in several areas: books dealing with many
people in many walks of life are in 920; look up the person's last name
in the online catalogue, or look up the person's occupation or field of
work. That is, to find Pierre Trudeau, look under Trudeau Pierre
or under Canada-Biography or under Politicians Canadian.
List here the name of the books you found ___________________________________Dewey
No ____________
D. Internet - Current Sources [magazines
& newspapers]
- Many libraries have online subscriptions to
reliable sources of magazines & newspapers such as SIRS and Electric
Library. See your library's
web page for links to sources, logins and passwords.
List here the name of the site [SIRS or
Electric Library]__________________________________
List the name of the source [ie. Maclean's, Time, Science...]_____________________________
Date _________________________
E. Internet
-
Remember always with the Internet to check carefully the source of the
information. ie. is the information from The Museum of Civilization
in Ottawa or from www.somebodycalledjoe.com? You can often tell the
source of the information from the URL [Uniform Resource Locator] www....
.edu = educational institutions, .gov = government, org = organization,
ac.uk = British universities are very reputable sources. .com can
also be reputable, but check carefully.
UNLIKE books and encyclopedias, the Internet allows you to search
for names in proper order: Margaret Atwood, Pierre Trudeau... If you use a search engine [Yahoo,
Webcrawler,
Infoseek...]
use quotation marks to enter the name: "John Lennon" or "Michael Jordan"
Some Biography Links
General Links:
Biographies in French
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