Authority - tips for finding authority

Authors may be a single person, a group of people, an association, a corporation, government agency or other. As you dig for 'author' information, make note of complete names and credentials attached to names. Also make note of group or corporate names. These names may be initials like ANS. ANS may mean Academy of Natural Sciences or American National Standard. Pay attention to the context of your published work as you search for initial meaning. Finding out what initials mean may help your search. See: Acronym finder.

Biographical highlights may be located with the published work. For example 

Books may have biography information on the book jacket or cover
            Journal articles may include credentials in the introduction, abstract or summary

 Sources with biographical information:
            AccessScience - Biographies            
            Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
            Credo Reference Online
            Current Biography - Reference CT100.C9
            Encyclopeadia Britannica
            GaleGroup Discovery Collection - Click Advanced, drop down search box for Person
            GaleGroup Junior Reference Collection - Same as Discovery Collection
            GaleGroup KidsInfoBits People
            GaleGroup Expanded Academic Index Drop down search for Person
            LexisNexis People      
            Oxford Art Online  Biographies
            Oxford Music Online Biographies
            Scirus Scientist homepages    

Search library catalogs for biographies or biographical dictionaries about authors.
            Use subjects searches like
            Biography--Dictionaries
            Biography

Try to locate more works by an author, use the author search in
            Library catalogs like MnPALS or WorldCat
            Digitized book sites like Google Book
            Publisher sites like Amazon

Web sites that may be helpful
            Google Scholar
            Wikipedia - BEWARE of the authority of this source - anyone can edit these articles 

Tips:    Authors may include students or lab technicians working with a faculty member
             Look for places of employment like colleges or universities
                     Find a web page for the college and/or business
                     Search the college and/or business web pages for author
                     Look for biographical information, credentials or curriculum vita

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Maintained by Theresa Borchert.  Last update 9-4-11
Send comments or corrections to borchert@cord.edu
Carl B. Ylvisaker Library, Concordia College, Moorhead,Minnesota