Welcome to the Electric Library, a blog series by Sarah S., Oro Valley Public Library. Each month, Sarah will write about their favorite offerings in the E-Library. This month's feature is Biography in Context.
Have you ever found yourself wanting to know more about a famous or historical figure, or needing to do so for a school assignment, but been daunted by figuring out where to start? Fear no longer, for the library has you covered with Biography in Context!
Biography in Context by Gale is an excellent resource for all your primary source-gathering needs! Access to this wonderful resource comes free with every library card. Just search their catalog for the person you’re looking for, and voila. Each biography has an overview of the person in question, with everything from their basic information like when they were born and where, as well as a dive into their lives. Each page also includes links to other biographies, news and magazine articles, and even academic journals and images.
And a special treat for students & writers—it has built in citations! Think about all the time you can save. If the citations aren’t in the format you need, don’t worry! There’s a widget built in that lets you export it to several citation generating websites like EasyBib.
A feature I found personally exciting was the ability to highlight and notate passages for later, especially with the handy widget in the upper right corner that lets you view all your highlights and notes in one place! When highlighting words, if you find a word you’re unfamiliar with, there’s an option to define the word while you’re highlighting.
It’s super easy to use, so if you find yourself hankering to learn more about historical figures, let us be your first stop!
