LibGuides: Information Sciences 503: History of Children's Literature: Background Information

Biography: Core Resources

Biographical questions are very popular with all types of reference services and audiences. The library offers other biographical resources you can find through the biography resources page.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index This link opens in a new window
Identifies biographical material on people from all time periods, geographical locations and fields of endeavor. Covers reference sources such as biographical dictionaries, who's who guides, subject encyclopedias, and volumes of literary criticism. BGMI contains no full text, but the library may subscribe to the resources. Names are not normalized, so there may be multiple entries for an author under different names. You can combine them by checking the boxes next to each variation.
Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Literature Resource Center contains essay-length entires on over 145,000 authors and their creations. It includes full-text, covers all time periods, and you can limit searches to include only biographical entries. It is formed from a combination of two Gale series: Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online This link opens in a new window
Provides biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
Biography In Context This link opens in a new window
Draws from over 170 eBooks including such titles as Major Authors and Illustrators for Children and Young Adults, and St. James Guide to Children's Writers.
Something About the Author Online This link opens in a new window
A long-standing series which currently comprises over 290 volumes. It contains biographical sketches of children's and young adult authors and illustrators. Includes author images and a comprehensive list of books written or illustrated. Obituary citations are also included, which may point to newspapers or others sources owned by the library.

Biography Resources

Biographical Information in Obituaries

Beyond the resources listed above that may include citations for obituaries, check newspaper sources for obituaries as well. Listed below are two database to search for obituaries:

Access World News This link opens in a new window
Search here if the author died from 1978 forward
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search here if the author died before 1978 (and for some newspapers up through 2000)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers is the definitive newspaper digital archive offering full-text and full-image articles for significant newspapers dating back to the 18th century. Every issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images in easily downloadable PDF format. The full collection of ProQuest Historical Newspapers contains over 30 million digitized pages.

See a sample search of ProQuest Historical Newspapers in the Reviews tab. For more historical newspapers, see the guide from the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library.

Historical Newspapers Online
Everything from the New York Times to the Wall Street Journal. Coverage often goes back to the 1800's.

Biographical and Other Background Information in Archival Collections

ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
For the most part ArchiveGrid covers collections in U.S. archives, museums, and libraries. The searchable database is open access allowing you to identify archival collections and their descriptions. The information comes from web-based finding aids and WorldCat records. Searching by author's name or book title may offer a connection to primary source materials such as personal papers, manuscripts, and related correspondence. Some finding aids lead to scanned documents within the inventory of items.

Encyclopedias and Handbooks

You may be find relevant background information in one of the following encyclopedias and handbooks, which are all available from the library catalog. Many are only available in print, so you may want to request a scan of a section via DocExpress if you are a distance student.

M. O. Grenby. Children’s Literature Studies: A Research Handbook
Handbook of Research on Children’s Literature and Young Adult Literature
International Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature
Reading Children’s Literature
The Pleasures of Children’s Literature
The Routledge Companion to Children’s Literature
Oxford Companion to Children’s literature
Oxford Handbook of Children’s Literature
Keywords for Children’s Litrerature
Children’s Literature by Grenby

Library Catalog
The online catalog is your GPS for locating book, journals, and more in the University of Illinois Library. This resource can also be used to request books from other institutions in the State of Illinois through our cooperative catalog called I-Share. You can also use this resource to discover where your class reserves sit - whether they are in electronic format or print - and to check your library account to see what you have checked out, requested, or what needs to be renewed.
DocExpress
Request scans/copies of articles or book chapters from libraries on campus. Free for grad students and faculty, $5 fee applies to each citation for undergrad students.