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Using the Library’s CatalogsCATNYP is the online catalog of The New York Public Library's four Research Libraries. It is easily accessible via the World Wide Web at http://catnyp.nypl.org. For general instructions on using CATNYP, please consult Using the Library's Online Catalog. The following information is specific to the subject of Biography. Biographies of individuals can be found by performing a subject search on the individual's name. When doing a subject search on a person, remember to enter the last name first: Nixon, Richard Pym, Barbara To search for biographical material about groups of people, there are 2 approaches. A subject search will yield more precise results, but only if you know the appropriate Library of Congress subject headings for your topic. If you do, simply add the word biography:
If you do not know the Library of Congress subject headings for your topic, it will be easier to perform a word search. A word search will generally retrieve more items, though many of them may not be relevant. When performing a word search, be sure to use the word "and" between each term:
After you retrieve your results in a word search, scan the record of one of the items. You will see that item's subject headings listed, and can then perform a subject search, if desired. For example, the search above for "clergy and biography" retrieves 2107 items. Scanning the item records reveals such helpful subject headings as "women clergy – biography" and "clergy – Ireland – biography." You can click on any of these hypertext links to perform a quick subject search, and locate similar items. Some additional useful subject headings for biographical research include:
If visiting the Library, you may wish to search the Dictionary Catalog, most of whose entries now appear in CATNYP. In this catalog, books about a person normally follow the listing of books written by that individual. In order to search for an individual biography in the Dictionary Catalog, search under the individual's surname:
If a search in the catalogs does not locate a biographical entry for a given individual, a librarian in Room 315 may be able to recommend other appropriate tools for biographical research. If you are not in the library, you may also e-mail us for assistance at grdref@nypl.org.
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