Biographies: Welcome

Rowan has access to several databases that contain encyclopedic biographical information. To see the list of useful databases, click on the Databases tab.

For more extensive information on a specific subject, search the Library Catalog for biographies, autobiographies, and/or memoirs. To learn how to effectively search for these, click on the Find Books tab.

There are also several websites that contain useful basic biographical information. To see a list of these websites, click on the Find Web Sources tab.  

Biographies are accounts of someone's life written by another person. They are considered secondary sources because they were written by someone other than the subject.

Autobiographies are accounts of someone's life written by that person. They are considered primary sources.

Memoirs are historical accounts or biographies written from personal knowledge or special sources. They are different from autobiographies due to their often emotional tone focusing on events in the author's life that were significant to them emotionally. Autobiographies are often more chronological and factual in tone.