When looking for biographical information, time can be saved by knowing more than just the name of the person. If a biography is owned by the library, it will be found under the name of the person written about as a subject. Consult a general biographical source or index. Check the index volume of one or more encyclopedias.
Encyclopedias often contain biographical material about well-known people of all nationalities.
If no or insufficient information is available in these sources, make a survey of the data known about the person. With whatever information is available, start with applicable reference books from the following lists. With the exception of most indexes, only the latest edition is in reference .