Finding Sherlock Holmes

Do you have any biographies of Sherlock Holmes?
(asked by a 12-year-old boy)

Sherlock Holmes – the fictional detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – was “born” sometime in 1887 and featured in more than 50 novels and short stories and dozens of other works.

His first appearance came in the novel A Study in Scarlet in November 1887 and his legend lives on today in print and movies, including the recent “Sherlock Holmes” starring Robert Downey, Jr.

Learn more about Holmes and his creator in Biography in Context.

New World Biographies

Image via Wikipedia

The following title has been added to Gale Virtual Reference Library – Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Volume 31. A multicultural biographical source that covers notable individuals from every part of the world and from all time periods who have made significant contributions to human culture.

For additional biographies see Biography in Context and under Search by Topic select People.

In Context Gale Databases Get New Features

Gale In Context resources have been updated with the following enhancements:

• Enhanced Search Assist
• Enhanced Portal Page Layout
• Reduced white space throughout portal pages
• Multimedia more prominent
• Expert picks now called “featured viewpoints”
• Full text limiter option turned on by default

Check out this PDF  – InContextEnhancements to SEE all the new changes NOW LIVE.

This applies to the following databases:

• Biography in Context
• Opposing Viewpoints in Context
• Student Resources in Context
• Science in Context
• U.S. History in Context
• World History in Context

Also updated with a new front end is the Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers. When you enter it’s called Gale NewsVault. I have the left the name as Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers we only own the one history collection of newspapers.

The Time of the Hero

 

Image via Wikipedia

 

By Erin Walker

Congratulations to Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian writer who this morning was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature (and to the Swedish Academy, who made excellent usage of the word “trenchant” in describing Vargas Llosa’s work — it’s one of our favorite adjectives, and occurs in 551 Biography in Context biographies). We have eight biographies for Vargas Llosa, including one from Contemporary Hispanic Biography that, right off the bat, adeptly describes the future Nobel Laureate and drives home why he was this year’s winner:

Already a profound chronicler of South America’s political and social reality, Mario Vargas Llosa took an unusual step for a writer in the 1980s: he immersed himself in the political life of his native Peru rather than simply standing outside it as an observer. In the widest sense, Vargas Llosa has been a champion of freedom, a writer who spoke out against abuses of military and government power, who defied literary conventions, and who stood up for the cause of freedom of expression for writers worldwide. His more than 15 novels and numerous other writings have gained him international acclaim as one of Latin America’s most significant writers of the 20th century.

Learn more about this author and his works in these online resources:

Biography in Context

Contemporary Authors

Literature Criticism Online

Literature Resource Center

Related Articles

• Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa wins literature Nobel (ibnlive.in.com)

Recent Updates to Credo Reference Titles

[Orginially By Darcie O’Donnell of Marquis]

We’ve recently updated some titles on Credo Reference:

 

Marquis Who’s Who in America

Marquis Who’s Who in the World

From the Marquis Who’s Who website:

For over 100 years, Who’s Who in America has provided accurate, concise biographies of notable Americans. That was the mission of founder, Albert Nelson Marquis, whose First Edition in 1899 featured 8,602 distinguished people.

Today, the Marquis Who’s Who family of directories has grown to include the biographies of millions of leaders and achievers from around the world, and from every significant field of endeavor.

These are great titles to find out more information about the people shaping our world, yesterday and today.

Go to Credo Reference and select “Find a Book” link to see a complete listing of all the books the library subscribes to.