This directory of the U.S. Congress includes enteries dating back to 1774. It can be searched by the peron's name, position, state, party affiliation, or year in Congress. A biography is available the length of which varies depending on the person. Some individuals biographical pages include an additional bibliography section for further research and/or links to Research Collections that that cover the individual.
Use the Person Search feature at the top of the page
Subscriber: VIVAIncludes: Gale Virtual Reference Library (literature related titles); Literature Resource Center - LRC; Scribner Writer Series; Twayne's Authors Series
Use the Advanced Search Under Publication Type select Biography
Subscriber: VIVAProvides full-text access to over 1,500 general periodicals covering general reference, business, health, education, general science, multicultural issues and much more. Additionally it features: the full-text Magill Book Reviews; full-text reference books; the full-text from over 80,000 biographies; over 105,787 full-text primary source documents; an image collection of 293,480 photos, maps and flags. PDF backfiles for some publications go as far back as 1975.
Knowing things such as nationality, profession, ethnic background and whether the person is alive or dead can help you select the best places to look.
Many of the online databases will allow you to limit a search to biographical articles; check the advanced search option for things such as source type or document type.
Other types of articles on or by the person may include biographical information.
Locating biographical information on a college or university professor who has published a book or two can be very difficult; check the person's university website to see if it provides any information about faculty members or to see if the professor has posted his/her cv online.
If you find one article, but need more, consult the bibliography of the article for sources.
Consider what you need the information for; do you really need an entire book about the person or will an article or entry in a reference work provide you with enough information.