PEOPLE

CONTENTS:

• ABC News Newsmaker Bios
• Lii.org
• Darwin Awards

ABC NEWS NEWSMAKER BIOS

You will find bios of newsmakers from King Abdullah to Boris Yeltsin at this site from ABC News. Though heavy on politicos, the site also includes bios of the heads of such corporations as AT&T, Sunbeam and Microsoft. Bios include date of birth, education and quotes.

Don't bother with the "Click Here for the Latest Articles On . . ." link on the bio pages unless you would love weeding through 100 false hits. The search engine looks for any word in the name, instead of searching for the name as a complete phrase. For example, when I clicked for the latest articles on Bill Gates, I came up with a 1992 Nightline interview with former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, then a couple of stories about Sarah Ferguson. Experienced searchers may want to enclose the name in quotes in their search request, or click on Advanced for a search that can be refined by content or date.

http://abcnews.go.com/reference/newsmakers/newsmakers_index.html

LII.ORG

Where would we be without librarians? Often, we find that they have done our work for us, or at least made it easier. The librarians at The Library of California have assembled The Librarians' Index to the Internet, which consolidates reference links in an easy-to-use format, to help us find the biographical resources we need.

Check out the People pages. Click on Biographical Dictionaries or Biographies About Groups or Families for links to numerous biography Web sites, including the well-known Biography.com and the less well-known Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Click on Individual Biographies for links to pages about various individuals. Most are historical but some are still living; they include John Nash, Alice Walker, Arlo Guthrie, Beck and many more. One drawback is scrolling through many pages of oddly-alphabetized listings (by the first letter of the site name, not by the individual's last name). However, there is a search function that will come in handy if you are looking for a specific person.

Also, under Women, look for more listings of biographical Web sites, broken down by categories such as Artists, Immigrants, Photographers, Physicists and more.

http://lii.org/search/file/people

DARWIN AWARDS

Some of the best planned giving prospects are those who die without leaving behind children to divvy up their estates. Lucky for us, there is a Web site that lists just such people, from across the globe. The Darwin Awards "honor those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it." These are people, who, through their own devices, manage to ensure that they die without leaving heirs. Unfortunately, the honor is usually bestowed posthumously, making it too late for our organizations to find these people before their untimely ends. However, there may be a surviving spouse to contact.

Also, keep an eye on the honorable mentions who tried, but failed and survived. That list may be worth perusing in case they do try for the Darwin Award honor again and succeed the next time around.

http://www.darwinawards.com/

Pam Patton

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