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Biographies

Biographies are non-fiction works about a person's life and an autobiography is a person's telling of their own life. These types of works can help us understand creative works, important people or moments in history.

Scholarly Articles

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Databases & Scholarly Articles

Library Databases may contain:

scholarly articles
newspapers or magazines
images or historical documents
full-text books

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MasterFILE Complete
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Multi-disciplinary database with full-text coverage of more than 2,300 magazines and journals. Emphasis is popular, rather than scholarly publications. Contains over 870 full-text reference books, over 73,000 full-text primary source documents, more than 1.6 million photos, maps and flags, and over 70,000 videos from the Associated Press.

Format: Majority full-text; some additional full-text via link resolver. Coverage: As early as 1975 - present, Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text, scholarly journals, date, length, publication name and type. HELP link on each screen, which includes Citation information. Can print, save, or email results. Some full-text publications may have the most current 3-12 months in abstract only, due to publisher restrictions. Add keyword BIOGRAPHY to easily search 88,000 biographies.

Other Databases with Important Content

Biography & Genealogy Master Index
Indexes major print products that include biographical information on multiple persons, such as 'Who's Who'.
Texas Reference Center
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Contains magazine articles, newspaper articles, and book chapters about all aspects of Texas history and culture. Substantial biographical material on Texas personalities, both historical and current.

Format: Full-text, Coverage: , Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text, scholarly journals, date, length, publication name and type. HELP link on each screen, which includes Citation information. Can print, save, or email results. Some full-text publications may have the most current 3-12 months in abstract only, due to publisher restrictions.
Literary Reference Center (EBSCO)
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Over 35,000 plot summaries, synopses and work overviews, nearly 100,000 articles/essays of literary criticism, 252,000 author biographies, 693,000 book reviews, over 78,400 classic and contemporary poems, more than 19,700 classic and contemporary short stories, and more than 6,600 author interviews.

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Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles:

are written, reviewed, and edited by experts,
refer to work by other scholars

Learn more about scholarly articles

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If you need a book or article that we don't have, you can get it via Interlibrary Loan Details (ILL).

Request a book or article.
Most articles are emailed within 1-2 weeks. Books may take longer.

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Use our 24/7 Live Chat located on the bottom right of library websites.
Call (806) 651-2215 during library hours
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Last Updated: Feb 4, 2021 11:55 AM
URL: https://infoguides.wtamu.edu/biographies
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Subjects: Research Basics

Tags: biographies