Biographical Information on Engineers
1. SOURCES: There are several types of sources for biographical information about engineers.
Books (may be printed or online) -- three types:
Biography: a book just about one person – usually in-depth
Collective Biography: a book or set that includes many engineers/scientists, often listed in alphabetical order
Encyclopedia: a book or set that covers many topics; may include short biographical articles on people.
Check the encyclopedia’s index for the person’s name (the index is usually in the last volume)
Magazine or Journal Articles (may be print or online)
Articles are shorter than books, but biographical articles often focus in-depth on a period of a person’s life or an aspect of the subject’s work,
so they can be very valuable.
Internet Articles (websites)
Articles on the Web may be part of a book or journal, or may be published independently. Take note of the authorship --
all websites are NOT created equal! Use published sources to verify independent Internet sources.
2. FINDING published sources
UNH Library Catalog
- To find a book about a person, use the Subject search and input Lastname, Firstinitial: Einstein, A
- To find a book about people in a specific profession, use the Subject search and type in the term for the field, e.g.: Engineers
More examples: Electric Engineers, Inventors, Scientists.
Only words that are approved by the U.S. Library of Congress will work, so try out different words and check your results.
Library staff can help you find the right words. - When you look at your results, scroll down to Engineers - Biography and check for different nationalities
- You can use Title, Author, Keyword searches, and more. Keyword searches usually gather more results than Subject searches, but the results may be less precise.
Example:
In this call number, TK is the section for Electric Engineering, 140 is for biography, .H43 takes you to books on Heaviside, N34 stands for the author’s name (Nahin), and 1988 is the year the book was published. This system keeps books on similar topics near each other.
3. ONLINE AND PRINT RESOURCES for engineering biography (books and articles)
Please note: Most online resources provided by the UNH Library require authentication. If you are on-campus, you won’t need to do anything special, but if you are off-campus, you will be prompted to put in your UNH ID number (or you can use VPN).
To make your search easier, here are some well-known general sources for biography to use in addition to the more specific materials you may look up.
a) Encyclopedias with biographical information*
Access Science
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.
b) Searchable online biography collections*
Biography Resource Center (all nationalities) - select from list of resources
American National Biography (U.S. only)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (British only)
*For these online resources, and more, go to the UNH Library home page (www.library.unh.edu), select “Research Tools”, then “Databases” and choose “Title” listing at top. Look up by title.
c) Recommended books (print) -- a selective list
A to Z of mathematicians / Tucker McElroy.
Engr/Math Reference QA28 .M395 2005
American men & women of science (includes U.S. and Canada)
Engr/Math Reference Q141 .A48 (multi-volume set, 1995-96, 19th ed.)
Dimond Reference Q141 .A48 (multi-volume set, 23rd ed.)
Dimond Level 5 Oversize Q141 .A48 (multi-volume set, 17th-22nd editions)
Biographical dictionary of American science: the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries
Dimond Level 5 Oversize Q141 .E37
The biographical dictionary of scientists. Engineers and inventors
Engr/Math Reference TA139 .B56 1986
The Biographical dictionary of scientists. Mathematicians
Engr/Math Reference QA28 .B54 1986
Dictionary of scientific biography
Dimond Reference Q141 .D5 v.1-v.18
Focuses on subjects’ place in history. Includes references to publications.
International biographical dictionary of computer pioneers
Engr/Math Reference QA76.2.A2 I67 1995
Note: Includes references for important publications
Leading personalities in statistical sciences: from the seventeenth century to the present / edited by Norman L. Johnson and Samuel Kotz.
Engr/Math Reference QA276.156 .L43 1997
Notable mathematicians: from ancient times to the present
Engr/Math Reference QA28 .N66 1998
Notable scientists from 1900 to the present
Dimond Reference Q141 .N728 2001 v.1-v.5
Includes concise bios with bibliographies
Prominent scientists: an index to collective biographies / edited by Paul A. Pelletier.
Engr/Math Reference Q141 .P398 1985
This unusual resource directs you to individual biographies within books that cover many people (collective biographies). The abbreviation list for the collective biographies is at the front.
Statisticians of the centuries
Engr/Math Reference QA276.156 .S73 2001
Who's who in engineering (Who’s Who series includes only those alive at time of publication)
Engr/Math Reference TA139 .E37 (1995)
Engr/Math Oversize TA139 .E37 1992-1994
Who's who in science and engineering (U.S. and Canada)
BioSci Reference Q141 .W57 1996
d) Magazine and Journal Articles
Below are some indexes that are especially useful for finding articles about scientists and engineers. These are oriented toward scientific and technical literature, but you will also find biographical information on notable people.
Remember, you can search for articles by OR about the person of interest. To find articles about a person, look him/her up as a subject, topic, or keyword. To find articles by a person, look him/her up as an author.
Go to UNH Library Home Page (www.library.unh.edu), select “Research Tools”, then “Databases” and choose “Title” listing at top to find these indexes:
- Compendex and INSPEC -- COMPENDEX covers all of engineering, while INSPEC covers electrical engineering, physics, computers and controls. Online: 1970/1969; Print: late 19th century forward
- Web of Science -- Choose "Web of Science" on the page.
You can use the “General Search” for articles by OR about the person of interest (1955 to present). You can also use the “Cited Reference” search to look up much older articles that have been recently cited. - MathSciNet -- This resource indexes mathematics articles, 1940 to present (can be by or about mathematicians)
If we don’t have it, we can get it for you. Please ask library staff or look at our “If we don’t have it” website.
4. OPEN-ACCESS WEBSITES
Open Access (free) Websites can be difficult to evaluate if you are not an expert in the field. They may not have been through a process of editorial clean-up and fact-checking, as published books and articles have. Well-known websites such as Wikipedia can be useful starting points, but you should always verify the information you find with other sources. It’s important to have different points of view, especially about controversial subjects!
When evaluating material on the Web, consider about its source, credibility, and possible biases.
Recommended website for biography (small but good): Librarian’s Internet Index: “Scientists”
5. CITING SOURCES
Give credit where it's due. If your sources are good, it makes YOU look good. Cite your source and use “quote marks” if you include direct quotations.
1. For electrical and computer engineering, use IEEE citation style, see pp.4-5.
2. A frequently-recommended guide for science writing (in print):
A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, by Kate Turabian, available at the Library.
3. Example of a citation for a web site:
UNH Engineering, Mathematics & Computer Science Library.
University of New Hampshire; last updated 5 October 2006.
[Online]. Available:
http://www.library.unh.edu/branches/engmathcs.html; Internet;
accessed 14 August 2007.
Questions? Library staff are here to help. That's our job.
rev.1/08