Guides: International Studies: Finding Background &amp; Books

Background Information

Credo This link opens in a new window
Provides access to authoritative content from subject encyclopedias and handbooks covering every major subject. Offers topic pages that provide background information on a topic and mind maps that show relationships between topics. Search results may include images, video clips, and maps. Also displays links to related and specialized library databases allowing users to select other library databases for further topic exploration.

Reference Resources

Statesman's yearbook This link opens in a new window
Provides authoritative, reliable, concise information on international affairs topics and key world developments. Provides coverage of history, politics, economics, trade, and infrastructure for countries. The Statesman's Yearbook published annually since 1864, now offers this website. Key features include: extensive further readings, web links, a monthly Editor's Spotlight, focusing on major anniversaries in modern history, and a timeline of the main natural disasters that have afflicted the world in recent years. Updated regularly and provided by Palgrave MacMillan.

General Reference

Gale Ebooks This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to a significant number of reference works published by Gale. Includes works in all academic subjects, and includes encyclopedias, literary criticism (individual works, authors, and movements/genres), biographical dictionaries, directories, and dictionaries (of events, ideas, and movements). Most entries have the option of being read (includes downloading an MP3 of the computer-voice reading). Gale Cengage.

Biographical Information

American national biography online This link opens in a new window
Covers more than 18 000 individuals who fit all the following criteria: American (lived within what is now the United States), deceased (with enough time having passed since the individual's death to allow for critical evaluation), influenced American history or culture broadly (not just a locally influential individual), sufficient research materials exist on this individual to create a solid biographical essay. Essays are written by scholars and include a bibliography (including an indication of where a person's archives are located), links to reliable online resources, and links to cross-referenced individuals. Additionally, there are links to thematically related essays from the "Oxford Companion to United States History" to help place the individual in the larger trends and issues of his time. Drawing again on the "Oxford Companion to United States History " there are links to articles in 12 broad research topics to help focus a paper or research on an individual or an era. ANB may be searched by name, by keyword (any occurrence of it), or click on the "Search" tab to conduct an advanced search by gender, profession, birthplace, and other features. Oxford UP.
Australian dictionary of biography This link opens in a new window
Presents biographical articles on over 10 000 individuals important to the history of Australia, most of whom died before 1980. The online edition currently contains no more biographies than the print edition does, and the older entries have not been updated to show recent historical developments. However, the online edition allows for searching by keyword, gender, cultural heritage, birth/death dates, occupation, or religious influence. Biographies are between 500 and 2000 words in length, written by scholars and contain a bibliography of secondary resources on the individual. Australian National University.
Biography.com This link opens in a new window
Presents biographies of living and deceased persons from all walks of life. Articles range in length from a few paragraphs to three web pages. Written by various sources/authors from the A&E Television Network staff to noted dance critics, the information is factual but may be dated. No bibliographies are included, although if the subject of the biography has written books or had a book written about him, the title of the book will be mentioned. Primarily useful for confirming birth/death dates, major activities of the subject, and identifying who might have been contemporaries. A&E Television Networks.
Current biography illustrated This link opens in a new window
Provides short biographies of persons currently in the news and about whom no full-length biography exists as of the date of publication in Current Biography. Includes references to current (or then-current) news sources on the individual. Entries date back to 1940 but this is often the only reliable source for biography for current, living individuals. Broad coverage of people in media, politics, and all professions and arts are included.
Dictionary of Irish biography This link opens in a new window
Covers Irish men and women from the earliest times until 2001, providing biographies and a sense of their influence on Irish history, culture, and life. Simple keyword search from the homepage may be used or use the advanced search feature to search by occupation (including "saint"), date of birth or death, place of birth or death (by Irish counties), or religion. Biographies range from a few paragraphs to longer essays which will assess the individual's influence. Includes fictional characters, like Molly Malone, who have become immortalized in song, and some of the figures from Irish mythology who have become familiar through literature (Deirdre). Brief bibliography of further reading provided. Cambridge UP.
Gale In Context: Biography This link opens in a new window
Indexes and provides full-text access to a variety of news and reference sources containing the biographies of individuals from all time periods. Front page provides basic search box, a listing of selected biographies arranged by occupation, and links to current biographical news (obituaries, etc.). Searching by occupation, individual name, place of birth/death, nationality, and other advanced search features is available. Individual entries include a general overview of a person's life and links to reference and news sources (divided into "scholarly" and "magazines"), as well as audio or image resources (audio from NPR). Advanced search includes a "lexile index" search which allows teachers to choose materials at an appropriate reading level for their students. Also useful is the "Listen" button which will read the entry aloud (including word or sentence highlighting if desired). Gale Cengage.
Oxford dictionary of national biography This link opens in a new window
Provides authoritative biographies of deceased individuals who influenced British history, including colonial British-Americans. Biographies include a listing of major works written by the individual (if any) and a reference list of full-length biographies and critical articles. Each biography also includes a "Reputation" section which describes the individual's standing in his or her time period and how that has changed since then. Very helpfully will indicate where the individual's archives are, if they exist. Also provides links to major themed articles (on the American Founding Fathers, for instance), entries to related individuals, and to other online resources produced by Oxford University Press (which we may or may not have access to). Oxford University Press.
Salem history This link opens in a new window
Includes the complete content of the following printed reference sets: The Fifties in America, The Sixties in America, The Seventies in America, Great Events from History Series, Great Lives from History: The Ancient World, Prehistory-476 c.e. Great Lives from History: The Middle Ages, and Great Lives from History: The Nineteenth Century. Search by keyword or name for events, places, people, or groups/movements. Limits by one of five topical areas (historical or geographic areas). Results are subdivided by "Biography " "History/Event " "Primary Source " and "Resources."
TOPICsearch This link opens in a new window
Allows researchers to explore current events, social, political and economic issues, scientific discoveries, and other popular topics discussed in today's classrooms including controversial opinions and viewpoints. Indexes newspapers, journals, biographies, public opinion polls (including Gallup Poll Briefings), book reviews, pamphlets, and government information. At the beginning of a search, one of a dozen chosen current events or a number of frequent political hot topics can be chosen. Results can be limited by subject, the type of information source, or publication name.
World biographical information system This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing to biographical entries in major reference works published from the 16th to the 21st centuries. Coverage is international in scope and in languages (Chinese, Turkish, British, Spanish, etc.). Library owns the microfiche collection of all the "Biographical Archive" titles indexed (microfiche #s 206 - 445). Other individual titles (various "Who's Who" and biographical yearbooks) may be searched in OneSearch to see if the Libraries own them. De Gruyter/Saur.

Book Catalogs

OneSearch
Use this resource for searching the library catalog, the Baylor Digital Collections, BEARdocs (electronic theses and dissertations, honors theses, technical reports, faculty publications, etc.), research guides, and much of the full-text subscription content.

WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Contains an online catalog to the book, media, archival, journal, map, music, and special collections holdings of libraries across the United States and internationally. Can limit by year, type of material, and other factors. OCLC FirstSearch.
HathiTrust digital library This link opens in a new window
Serves as a digital repository for major research institutions and libraries to archive their immense digital collections and to ensure that the cultural record that these digital collections represent is preserved and accessible today and in the future. HathiTrust was founded in 2008 and includes content from the Google Books project and Internet Archive.
Oxford scholarship online This link opens in a new window
Offers access to over 10 000 academic works, in 20 subject areas across the humanities, social sciences, sciences, medicine, and law. Full text is available for subscribed sections, abstracts and tables of contents are available for all titles. New titles are added quarterly. The e-books can be searched by title, author, keywords, fields of study, publication year, and ISBN.
International law - Oxford bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on international law. Covers governmental rules and principles between states and other entities and other related topics. Introductory essay provides a review of current research trends and issues. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
International relations - Oxford bibliographies online This link opens in a new window
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on the study of foreign affairs and political interaction between states. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.
Political science - Oxford bibliographies This link opens in a new window
Offers peer-reviewed annotated bibliographies on political science and related fields. Introductory essay provides a review of current research trends and issues. Bibliographies are browseable by subject area and keyword searchable. Contains a "My OBO" function that allows users to create personalized bibliographies of individual citations from different bibliographies.

International Studies

Finding Books and Ebooks in OneSearch

Background Information

Reference Resources

General Reference

Biographical Information

Book Catalogs

University Libraries