Finding Biographical Information about Authors

Reference Resources

There are many reference books in the library that have biographical information about authors. Although reference books do not check out, you can make photocopies in the Copy Room.

Reference Books

Here is a list of resources available in the reference collection that include information about authors as well as the historical periods in which they lived. As you can see by the numbers in the list below, books about authors from the same geographical area are shelved together.

[R 809 Au8]

Author biographies master index

[R 809 C99]

Cyclopedia of world authors

[R 809 G79]

Great foreign language writers

[R 809.04 C765]

Contemporary foreign language writers

[R 809.1 C86]

Critical survey of poetry: English language series

[R 809.8928703 En1]

An Encyclopedia of continental women writers

[R 809.8971 Ox2]

The Oxford companion to Canadian literature

[R 810.3 H25]

The Oxford companion to American literature

[R 810.9 K96]

American authors, 1600-1900: a biographical dictionary of American literature

[R 810.9897 W61]

Native American literatures: an encyclopedia of works, characters, authors, and themes

[R 810.9928703 Ox2]

The Oxford companion to women's writing in the United States

[R 820.3 Ox23]

The Oxford companion to twentieth-century literature in English

[R 820.9 C14]

The Cambridge guide to literature in English

[R 820.9008 K96]

British authors of the nineteenth century

[R 820.99287 D56]

A Dictionary of British and American women writers

[R 820.99287 En1]

An Encyclopedia of British women writers

[R 820.9944 W64]

The Oxford companion to Australian literature

[R 820.99603 C73]

The companion to African literatures

[R 820.999303 Ox2]

The Oxford companion to New Zealand literature

[R 820.90003 B57]

The Feminist companion to literature in English: women writers from the Middle Ages to the present

[R 809.2003 C86]

Critical survey of drama

[R 860.998 L34]

Latin American writers

[R 892.70903 En1]

Encyclopedia of Arabic literature

To find information about significant historical events of an era, use a chronology. Chronologies are organized by year and list important events that occurred during that year. Some chronologies available in the library are:

[R 902.02 C23]

Chronology of World History

[R 902.02 M48]

Encyclopedia of World Facts and Dates

[R 902.2 W67]

Chronology of the Modern World: 1763-1992

Using the Library Catalog

The library catalog is used to help you find materials in the library. The catalog can be used to find information about an author or books by an author.

When searching for information about an author, start with a Subject search. An example of a Subject search is given below. Notice that the name should be typed in the order Surname, comma, first name:

When searching for books written by an author, use an Author search. An example of an Author search is given below:

Note: If you are using the "generic" CCRLS catalog, click on the Author or Subject tabs to do the same search:

Literature Resource Center

Literature Resource Center, available to Chemeketa students and staff, consists of criticism, biographies, bibliographies, work overviews and explications, Web sites, periodical articles, compare and contrast pages, full-text author's works, and reading lists

Over 70,000 selected full-text critical essays and reviews from the following sources are included

• Contemporary Literary Criticism,
• Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism,
• Literature Criticism from 1400-1800,
• Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism,
• Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism,
• Drama Criticism,
• Poetry Criticism,
• Shakespearean Criticism,
• Short Story Criticism,
• Children's Literature Review

Access:  http://library.chemeketa.edu/information/database.htm. To access databases from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.

Basic Searching

The Author Search is the default search.

• Enter author's name and click on search
• Click on the author's name to display the Tabbed Results (folders) 
• If more than one author displays, click on one that fits your needs.  

The Biographies Tab is the default display when viewing results.

Other Tabs include:

• Literary Criticism, Articles & Work Overviews
• Bibliographies
• Additional resources
• Literary-Historical Timeline

To print or email an article:

Other search paths include:

• Title
• Authors by Type
• Advanced
• Literary-Historical Timeline
• Keyword

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search allows you to construct more powerful searches by combining terms. With the Advanced Search, you can conduct a search using a variety of criteria; this enables you to retrieve very specific document results.

Three search boxes with associated pull-down menus allow you to enter your search terms and select the appropriate fields pertaining to your research. Select from

• Author-name contains
• Author-last name starts
• Author-exactly
• Critic
• Fulltext (searches the full text of a document. This is a good search to use if you are looking for a particular line of text or an unusual phrase)
• Keyword
• Title-any words
• Title-all words
• Title-exact match

You can use boolean operators (commands that combine terms together) from the pull-down at right and establish an "and," "or," or "not" relationship between your search terms.

Finding Articles

The library has many indexes to magazines available in paper or electronically from our catalog page (Click "Article Indexes and Databases" to reach the database page.)

If you are accessing these databases from off campus, you will need your My Chemeketa username and password.

A good database to start with is Academic Search Premier, available on the database page.

To search for information in the database, start Academic Search Premier and click on the Indexes link under More in the EBSCOhost toolbar banner.

1. Choose "People" from the dropdown menu.
2. Type an author's name, last name first, in the space marked "Browse for."
3. Then click the Browse button.
4. Check off the desired items from the list of results.
5. Click the Search button.

When you click the Search button, a list of articles will appear. If you wish, you can click the "Refine Search" tab to limit your search to Chemeketa library periodicals or full electronic text. An option is also available to limit results to scholarly journals. After selecting limits, click the Search button again.

The newest articles will be at the beginning of a list. To see more information about an article, click on the highlighted title. Many articles have links to full text, where you can read or print the article online. If an article has full text, you can also e-mail it to yourself. More information on printing, saving, and e-mailing articles is at the EBSCOhost instructions page.

If the magazine is one the library has ("Chemeketa subscribes..."), you will need the name of the magazine and the date to find it on the shelf.

MasterFile Premier is another EBSCOhost database. Start with a Subjects search. An example of a Subjects search using MasterFile Premier is given below:

Internet Sites

Useful Sites: Biography and Useful Sites: Literature include some Web sites for biographical information.

For further help, ask for assistance at the Reference Desk, or use the contact information below to call or e-mail.

Updated by Reference.