As mentioned in Part 1 of this article, if you are
looking for information on an historical person, American National Biography is
a good place to start. But many people are seeking information on
individuals currently in the news like Barack Obama, Taylor Swift or Lady
Gaga. If you need information on people currently in the news, Current
Biography Illustrated is a good place to start your research.
The format of this database will look familiar to those
of you who have used any EBSCO database such as Academic Search Premier as its
search screen and features are similar to other EBSCO databases. Unlike
American National Biography, this database allows you to put in a person’s name
in any format (last name first or first name first) and you will get the same
results. When you want to view the results be sure to click on the links
where the words “Biography” and “HTML Full Text” are found as these will take
you directly to information on the person. (These are usually the results
without the photo of the person).
The database has some unusual features including: a
listen feature which will read the article aloud at either a slow, medium or
fast rate using a computer-generated voice. If you are used to listening
to your Garmin or other devices that “talk” to you, you will be familiar with
that type of voice. It also has a translate feature which will translate
the article into a number of languages. So, if you are more comfortable
reading in Spanish, Chinese or any number of other languages, you can use this
feature to translate the biographical articles. Use of this feature may
not result in a grammatically correct article, as it is done on the fly using
software.
As the word Illustrated indicates, there are photos for
nearly all of the people whose biographies are found in the database. The
will be a main image illustrating the biographical articles, but found on the
right hand side of the page are other images you can use. The right hand
column also offers a number of options for dealing with an article once you’ve
found one including printing, emailing, saving and exporting.
When should I use this database? Start here when
you need information on people who are still alive and are or were in the
current news. It is a good place to obtain a starting biography of a
person, but for the latest information on someone in the news, Academic
Search Premier can be used to update information on the latest film, album
or election involving the person you are researching.
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