Biographical Research On Authors
From Wiki.lexisnexis.com
English department professors use LexisNexis for the basic English 101 classes, for which they assign papers on current topics. English 102 and all upper level courses are oriented toward literature, both general [genres and movements] and specific [authors and selected works.] Library instruction classes are offered for all English classes; however, only a few professors elect to ask for instruction sessions for the “beyond the basic” courses.
As a consequence, the widely held belief is that LexisNexis has news, legal material, and business information. There is NOTHING in LexisNexis pertaining to literature, except for book reviews.
One student recently asked for assistance in finding personal information about a noted female author. He had used other databases, including one that is devoted to literature. The librarian summarized his assignment in these terms:
Your assignment is to find information about an author’s life, specifically societal influences which affected that author’s literary themes and subject matters. For instance, Doris Lessing was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Persia [now Iran] in 1919, she grew up in Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe] and immigrated to England in 1949. She was [and is] a political activist, having been banned from two countries. How have her life experiences been reflected in her novels?
STEP-BY-STEP DIRECTIONS: [NOTE: DATE OF SEARCH AND SCREENSHOTS -- APRIL 16, 2008]
[edit] 1. From the Easy Search screen, choose “People.”
[edit] 2. Type her last and first names in the appropriate boxes and leave “Select Sources” as the default, “Biographies Plus News.”
[edit] 3. Click on the Search button and then expand the “newspapers” result list of 18 articles.
[edit] 4. Look for the “extended” articles of more than 1000 words.
[edit] 5. Of the 9 articles meeting that criterion, 8 are highly relevant to your assignment.
Contributed by Ted Nesbitt [Library Instruction] and Nicolas Queen and Emmanuel Bland [Students] -- West Liberty State College, West Liberty, WV - 26074