Find Books - Search Tips! - Biographies - Library Guides at Iowa State University

Searching for Books about a Person

The best way to locate biographical books in the ISU Library Collection is to use Quick Search - Advanced Search.

Change the first drop-down menu to search by SUBJECT.
Change the Material Type dropdown to Books

Two of the most common types of biographical searches are personal name search and search for biographies in a specific subject area.

To search by personal name:

Type the person's name (last name first - e.g., Kennedy, John F.)
If you find zero results, try leaving out the middle name/initial
If you still find zero results, ISU Library may not own a book about that person - try using WorldCat and borrowing a biography from another library using through Interlibrary Loan.

To search for biographies in a subject area:

Type the subject area and truncate it to ensure you get both the topic and the professionals - e.g., biolog* will retrieve both biology and biologists.
and add the word "biography" - e.g., biolog* AND biography
to eliminate autobiographies - use the second line of the search box. Change AND to NOT and type autobiography in the box

Additional Resources

Online Encyclopedias
Many of these specialized encyclopedias include biographies of notable individuals in a specific subject area.

Try your searches here!!

SPECIALIZED SEARCHES!

Beyond basic searches, it is also possible to combine different types of searches into one. Using Quick Search - Advanced Search page. Type in your topic(s), then add AND biograph* to the end of the search. For example: "Indians of North America" AND Women AND biograph*

Examples for multi-topic searches - remember to add AND biograph* to the end of the search:

Lesbians AND actors
"African Americans" AND politicians
Women AND (scientist* OR science)
Minorities AND "armed forces"
Muslims AND women

If you get too many results, change the first dropdown search box from "any field" to "subject."