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School Library
Journal, June 2005
American
Reference Books Annual 2004
Reference Books
Bulletin/Booklist, June 2003
Library
Journal, March 1, 2003
Reviewed by:
School Library Journal, June 2005
Current Biography Illustrated (Gr 6
Up) contains the full text of the 25,000 biographies and obituaries that
have appeared in Current Biography Yearbook since 1940, many accompanied
by photos (more than 20,000). CBI profiles artists, politicians,
businesspeople, journalists, actors, writers, sports figures, scientists,
and other prominent individuals in the news. The biography profiles
average 2,500 words and provide information such as full name, preferred
name, or pseudonym; birth date; business or home address; field or
profession; an account of the subject's life and career; the subject's own
views, attitudes, and opinions; and observations of journalists,
colleagues, and associates. The completed articles are sent to the
biographee for fact checking. CBI includes both the earlier and
latest article on the same individual, providing fuller coverage. A
bibliography of works about the subject and article citations guide
students to further information.
Numerous updated biographies and articles
that have not appeared in the print editions are also included. The
profiles and obituaries are searchable by name; profession; place of
origin; title; gender; race/ethnicity; title of works; day, date, or year
of birth or death; keyword; and profession/occupation. Searches also can
be limited to images.
The search screen defaults to "Advanced
Search," where students can tweak their searches using the above
parameters. Other options include "Basic" and "Browse."
"Basic" works best with personal names. A
search for Pope John Paul II retrieved both the 1979 and 2000 articles as
well as his obituary. Students using the "Browse" feature enter words,
terms, or phrases and then select the applicable field (16 choices) from
the drop-down list. Results can be displayed by date instead of by
relevancy, and customized displays are available.
CBI is strong on popular culture and
political figures. It complements American National Biography, which
includes only those who are deceased. The plethora of search parameters
and limiters permits students to find such items as biographies of all of
the people who were born on April 1 or biographies of famous scientists.
Result search terms appear in bold black
italics. Each result is offered as a brief display that supplies a
subject’s name, birth and death dates (if applicable), profession, and an
image (if applicable). Selecting a hit opens a fuller display that
consists of a thumbnail photograph that can be enlarged, links to
additional images (if any), subject’s name, dates, links to Current
Biography articles and obituaries, and a list of the professions or
activities assigned to the person.
The usual Wilson database features are
present: print, e-mail, save, document type, search history, document
description, limiting features, All SmartSearch Technology, open URL
compliant, etc. Uniform name authority control makes searching easy and
reliable.
CBI is written in an energetic style
that makes for entertaining as well as informative reading. It is a great
and easy-to-use resource for both students and teachers. The biographies
are interesting, fun to read, and not just for scholars. Biographies come
alive in Current Biography Illustrated.
Review
from: American Reference Books Annual 2004
Current Biography
Illustrated provides more than
25,000 articles and obituaries provided from past issues of Current
Biography. The biography's remain unchanged, but more than 19,000
illustrations are included on those profiled. Each year nearly 450 new
biographies are added. Users can search by name, profession, place of
origin, birth or death date, ethnicity, gender, or popular works. A
bibliography provides users with new resources for further study. Building
on its solid reputation, Current Biography Yearbook and Current
Biography Illustrated remain an essential purchase for reference
collections at all levels.
Reviewed in:
Reference Books
Bulletin/Booklist, June 2003
Current Biography, long a
staple in many library collections, has been released on Wilson’s new
WilsonWeb system. The database offers more than 25,000 articles and
obituaries and more than 19,500 images.
Search options include Basic,
Advanced, and Browse. We tried several Basic searches: Clare Boothe
Luce, Katharine Graham, and Supreme Court justices. We had the
best results with the personal names—both came up first on our results
lists, even though we misspelled both Clare and Boothe. In the Basic mode,
users have the option to choose natural language or Boolean searching,
using more than 30 operators.
Advanced Search, which is the
default, is a better choice for Supreme Court justices. Here, we
could refine our search so that, instead of looking for occurrences of the
term anywhere in the text, it looked only in the Profession/Activity
field. We could refine it further to look for Supreme Court justices who
are women. Other choices for refining a search include date of birth,
place of origin, and ethnic background. Searches can be combined and
limited to images or biographies and obituaries. Results can be displayed
by date instead of by relevancy, and customized displays are available. An
All-Smart Search is also offered. This is a search based on
"Wilson-created search rules" that rank occurrences of terms
according to where they are found. In Browse, the researcher can enter
terms into an entry box and then select from a list of indexes, such as
Awards, Place of Origin, or Date of Birth, from the drop-down menu. Browse
is an easy way to find all the entries for, say, newspaper publishers or
people born in New York. The Awards index seems to include only the Nobel
Prize for literature.
In the results list, search
terms appear in bold black italics (changed from red in response to
concerns about users with common types of color blindness). Each result is
offered as a brief display that supplies subject’s name, birth and death
dates, profession, and a link to an image. Selecting a hit opens a fuller
display that consists of a thumbnail photograph that can be enlarged,
links to additional images (if any), subject’s name, dates, links to Current Biography articles and obituaries, and a list of the professions
or activities assigned to the person. Full-text displays repeat most of
this information and are attractively laid out on the screen. They can be
printed, e-mailed, and saved.
Current Biography Illustrated takes the user well beyond a simple lookup for information on Hank
Aaron or Sally Ride. WilsonWeb is a sophisticated system, and this can be
a drawback as well as a strength. It is tailored to accommodate and search
across a number of often dissimilar Wilson databases—Biological &
Agricultural Index Plus, for example, as well as Current Biography.
Younger and less adept users may be confused by all the available choices
and by the generic examples in Help (a better explanation of WilsonWeb
searching can be found on the Wilson home page), so librarians should be
prepared to offer extra guidance. That said, Current Biography Illustrated
is an attractive, flexible, and powerful alternative to all the linear
feet of the annual print cumulations, especially for libraries that
subscribe to other Wilson databases. Wilson also offers a less-expensive
version of Current Biography without the images.
Review from:
Library
Journal, March 1, 2003
Current
Biography, a staple of school,
academic, and public libraries, is now a web-based database of more than
15,000 full-text biographies, over 9400 obituaries, and more than 19,500
images from the print volumes, 1940 to the present. It is updated annually
with 450 new biographical profiles. The initial WilsonWeb screen opens
with an "Advanced Search," which allows for biographical
searching by name, profession/activity, place of origin, gender,
race/ethnicity, titles of works, date of birth, date of death, keyword,
and the presence of images. Each field offers a tremendous number of
search choices. Other options in the menu frame are Basic Search, Browse,
Search History, Thesaurus, eMail/Print/ Save, and links to Help and
InfoCenter. The InfoCenter is a wonderful resource for reference and
instructional librarians to use with patrons. It provides MLA and APA
examples on citing articles from full-text databases. I started with a
Basic Search for South African heart transplant surgeon Christiaan
Barnard. I can never remember if the two adjacent "a's" are in
his first name or surname. The Basic Search, which supports
natural-language queries, bailed me out. I keyed in "South African
heart transplant surgeon" and received 8590 records-with Christiaan
Barnard leading the relevancy-ranked list. Natural-language searching is
helpful because it gives reference librarians a tool (weapon?) for
responding to biographical queries when the user can remember details
about a subject but not the name. It's also an intuitive search option for
users baffled by Boolean operators.
The Christiaan Barnard results included a
link to full text as well as an icon to indicate the availability of
images. One click brought a basic facts screen with birth and death dates,
resource links (in this case, a 1968 biography and an obituary, both from
Current Biography), and a one-word description of profession. Current
Biography Illustrated also identified him as a restaurateur, surgeon,
healthcare professional, medical worker, and physician. Seeing the other
sides of Christiaan Barnard made me want to try another search.
I used the Advanced Search to search for
the writer James Morris. Readers will have questions about James Morris
and Jan Morris since libraries typically catalog books under both of the
author's names. I tried James Morris in a person search and found James
Morris, the opera singer, followed by Jan Morris. But what if I only knew
the author as James Morris? Back to the Advanced Search screen to add
profession, writer. That didn't work as the only searchable name was Jan
Morris. A Browse search brought up James Morris, the opera singer,
followed by Jan Morris, English journalist and travel writer. This is when
a "See Also" link would have been helpful. Once I checked the
Jan Morris biography from Current Biography: World Authors, 1990-1995, the
mystery was explained: "In 1972 Morris underwent the transsexual
surgery so eloquently described in the book Conundrum."
The Bottom Line: Current Biography
Illustrated is a boon for academic, public, and school libraries with
expanding reference collections and finite shelf space. The cumulative
content and the search options are big pluses. One suggested enhancement
(and I have yet to find a biographical database with this feature) would
be See Also links for spelling variations. Highly recommended.
Reviewed for Library Journal by
Christine K. Oka, Research & Instruction Services, Northeastern
University, Boston, MA
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