Finding Information with the BIOGRAPHY RESOURCE CENTER

The Clearwater Public Library and the Pinellas Public Library Cooperative offer the Biography Resource Center to registered library patrons as a way to search for biographical information on historical and cultural persons.

ACCESSING THE BIOGRAPHY RESOURCE CENTER

Click here to access the Biography Resource Center

At the next screen, enter your 14-digit library card number (if outside the library) and click PROCEED.

The main page of the Biography Resource Center will appear. You will see options for searching, such as by name or by characteristics such as occupation and nationality. You will also see links to a Help section, notes on references, and a research guide, as well as a Spotlight on… section where someone in the database is profiled.

NAME SEARCH

The most basic search is to search by either name contains or start of last name.

Try to be as specific as possible with your search; i.e., if searching for "Abraham Lincoln," do not just enter "Lincoln" or you will get a huge number of hits, since so many people have his name in theirs. If you search for both his first and last name, the number of hits is a manageable size.

BIOGRAPHICAL FACTS SEARCH

From the main search page, you can click on Biographical Facts Search and search for persons according to criteria such as occupation, gender, nationality, year of death, etc.

ADVANCED SEARCH

You can also conduct an advanced search using Boolean operators such as or, and, and not.

WORKING WITH YOUR RESULTS

When you select a search result, you will have a number of different resources at your disposal.

Probably the best way to work with the database is to take advantage of the Mark feature, which allows you to create a list of the various articles and other resources you want to examine from all four of the categories pictured above.

Once you retrieve your marked records, you will also be able to view a citation list.

DICTIONARY AND RESEARCH GUIDE

At the top of each page you will see links to two items in particular that can be useful, a dictionary and research guide.

The research guide has some very good tips on how to approach using the database.

OTHER SEARCH TIPS

• The search engine is not case sensitive.
• A hyphen used between two words is considered part of the term, e.g. "nineteen-thirties," and should be used when searching.
• Apostrophes are not recognized by the search engine and should not be used.
• Ampersands (&) are not recognized either. Instead, use the W (Within) operator in this manner:
  e.g. tulips W2 chimneys means "tulips within two words of chimneys" instead of tulips & chimneys.
• You can also use the W operator to find an exact phrase: e.g. time W1 travel means "time within one word of travel;" i.e., "time travel."
• The W operator can also find essays containing specified words in a specified order:
  e.g. old w4 sea finds documents that contain the word old within four words of the word sea, and old must precede sea.
• You can also use the N operator to find words you specify within the number of words you specify, but in any order:
  e.g. apples N3 bananas finds documents that contain the two words within two words of each other, in any order.

Click here to access the Biography Resource Center

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Page last updated Friday, March 19, 2004

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