Biography

• Find out about the lives of artists, musicians, world leaders, writers, scientists, actors and many thousands of other individuals

• This page links you to online sources giving brief details and more substantial information and it also guides you to printed sources

Online

Brief details

• You can check the freely available Oxford biography index for the full names, birth and death dates and fields of activity of over 55,000 notable people from British history. Search the index by using a general search engine. Just add odnb after the name you are searching. For example, type jane austen odnb

• In the online reference book collections Oxford Reference Online and Credo Reference you can find concise information on individuals associated with many subjects, such as music, theatre, politics, science and more
• Among the books in Credo Reference are 'Chambers biographical dictionary', which has concise details on people from all periods worldwide, and books focusing on women's biography
• If you need to check up on the aristocracy see 'Debrett's peerage and baronetage' in Credo Reference. This gives details of families and pictures of coats of arms
• At the Biography web site, on WebLinks, there are details of thousands of well-known people, past and present, including popular musicians and actors

• For people no longer living who were involved in some way with British history worldwide, search the huge Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. It gives long expert articles on people from all walks of life from the 4th century BC onwards. The dictionary also has 10,000 portrait images. You can search by name and also by many other features such as place, dates and fields of interest
• At Credo Reference, you can go to 'Advanced search' and select 'Longer results' as your preferred option
• At Oxford Reference Online, when you see your search results you can click a 'longer entries' tab so as to see list longer results listed first
• For biographical articles, images and web links, visit the Encyclopaedia Britannica online
• For present-day individuals, you may also find recent and historical biographical articles in Newspapers online

Printed

• The 60-volume Oxford Dictionary of National Biography is available at Bedford Central, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard libraries, in addition to being in reference books online
   

• The annual Who's who has over 32,000 short biographies of living noteworthy and influential individuals, from all walks of life, worldwide. It is available at several libraries

• Over 100 years of 'Who's who' entries are in the CD-ROM 'Who's who 1897 - 1996', at Bedford Central, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard libraries

• The companion title Who was who contains entries for people after they have died. It was originally published every ten years and now every five years. Several libraries hold individual volumes while the complete set covering 1897 - 2000 is available at Bedford Central and Dunstable libraries. You can read more about 'Who's who', 'Who was who' and their history at the Who's who web site

• Chambers biographical dictionary with over 17,500 biographies of people past and present, from all countries, is at most libraries

• At Bedford Central, Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard libraries you can also find many specialist biographical dictionaries of scientists, artists, designers, musicians, writers, actors and more. The largest collection is at Bedford Central Library

Further information

• Library catalogue
• Contact us - for help to find information, from your local librarians
• 'Enquire' - a 24-hour chat enquiry service from the national People's Network. Local librarians take part in 'Enquire' on a rota basis but it is likely that you would be answered by a librarian from another library service

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