Subject indexes such as MLA and Historical Abstracts can be used to find citations to biographical information found in newspapers, journals, and books. For biographical information on authors, Gale Literary Sources is a good starting point.

Suggested KEYWORD searches:

• To do the broadest possible search to find items by and about the person, do a KEYWORD search with the word near between the first and last names.
• "biography and dictionaries and artists" will give you sources with biographical information for the broad group of "artists."
• "biography and authors and american" - source with information on American authors.
• "biography and france and 19th century" - biographies about the French in the 19th century.
• "encyclopedias and [your chosen subject area]" - for example, encyclopedias and art.

Suggested SUBJECT searches:

• "[Last name] [first name or initial]" of the person you are researching

You can add a name to these searches, if desired:

• "biography"
• "biographical films"
• "genealogy"
• "portraits"