Also see the list of Biographical Sources maintained by the Regenstein Reference and Business Information Department.
Note: The Library owns many biographical works about individual educators; these are not listed here. But a few print reference titles are listed below. Also note that many of the encyclopedias and dictionaries include entries for persons.
Thinkers
on Education (freely available)
This site is from UNESCO's International Bureau of Education and consists of
sketches of 100 famous educators from many parts of the world. These articles
were originally published in 1993-94 in Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative
Education.
American National Biography
Published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, this
is the premier scholarly biographical reference on people from all eras who
have influenced and shaped American history and culture. You'll find profiles
of more than 18,000 men and women from all walks of American life, from the
well-known to the infamous to the obscure. Entries are signed and include bibliographies.
The print edition* was published in 24 volumes in 1999, but the online source
is updated quarterly "with hundreds of new entries each year and revisions
of previously published entries to enhance their accuracy and currency."
*American national biography / general editors, John A. Garraty,
Mark C. Carnes. New York : Oxford University Press, 1999. 24 v. (E176.D58 1999
Reading Rm, floors 1 and 3 Regenstein; D'Angelo Law, Reference)
African American Biographical Database
This database was initiated by providing the texts of the titles listed in Chadwyck-Healey's
Black Biographical Dictionaries, 1790-1950, although the database
continues to expand with newly published biographical dictionaries, narratives,
and so forth. The collection includes "narratives of African American activists,
business people, former slaves, performing artists, educators, lawyers, physicians,
writers, church leaders, homemakers, religious workers, government workers,
athletes, farmers, scientists, factory workers, and more--both the famous and
the everyday person." A list
of the sources included in the database is available.
"Biography
resources: Finding information on the famous, infamous, and obscure"
This guide to freely available web-based sources is the full text of an article
by Susan A. Schreiner and Michael A. Somers that was published in the January
2002 issue of College and Research Library News.
Biography and
Genealogy Master Index (BGMI)
This is an index to the contents of hundreds of biographical sources.
Biography
Index, 1984--
Indexes biographical information appearing in English-language periodicals and
books for many subject areas. Includes citations to individual and collective
biographies from all fields and nationalities and covers persons from antiquity
to the present.
Contemporary
Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers
Begun in 1962 and issued in several print series (located in Regenstein's 1st
floor Reading Room), this source covers authors of books in all subject areas,
not only literary figures, but primarily English-language authors. Sketches
give personal facts, career, work in progress, bibliography of writings, and
biographical sources.
Who's
Who in the Twentieth Century
(Oxford University Press: Oxford Reference Online)
This reference title includes 2,000 short entries on men and women from different
countries and cultures who have contributed to the thought as well as the action
of the twentieth century. The entries are browsable and full-text searchable.
So, for instance, a search for psycholog* retrieves entries for 47 people. First
published 1985 as The Longman Dictionary of 20th Century Biography.
Revised Edition published 1992 by Oxford University Press as A Dictionary
of Twentieth-Century World Biography (Reading Rm, floor 1 Regenstein
CT120.D530 1992) . The web version corresponds to the abridged and updated edition
of the same title, Who's Who in the Twentieth Century, published
as an Oxford University Press paperback in 1999 (Reading Rm, floor 1 Regenstein
CT103 .W46 1999).
World Biographical Index
This is a partial index to huge sets of microfiche editions of major biographical
dictionaries from all parts of the world covering all time periods up to the
recent past. For an in-depth description of these reference sources, please
consult the webpage Biographical
Archives, prepared by the Social Sciences bibliographer Frank Conaway.
Selected Print Titles for Biographies of Educators
Biographical dictionary of modern American educators / Frederik
Ohles, Shirley M. Ohles, and John G. Ramsay. Imprint: Westport, Conn. : Greenwood
Press, 1997.
LA2311 .O55 1997 Regenstein, Reading Rooms, floors 1 and 4
Fifty major thinkers on education : from Confucius to Dewey /
edited by Joy A. Palmer ; advisory editors, Liora Bresler and David E. Cooper.
London ; New York : Routledge, 2001.
LB17 .F56 2001 Regenstein, Reading Room, floor 4 and Regenstein Stacks
Fifty modern thinkers on education : from Piaget to the present day
/ edited by Joy A. Palmer ; advisory editors, Liora Bresler and David E. Cooper.
London ; New York : Routledge, 2001.
LB17 .F57 2001 Regenstein, Reading Room, floor 4
Who'sWho in American education : 1996-1997. 5th ed. New Providence,
NJ : Marquis Who's Who, 1995.
Regenstein, Reading Room, floor 4 LA2311.W445 1995