ABSTRACT
Libraries contain biographic information that comes in all kinds of packages--ready-reference articles, periodical articles, essays in books, and, of course, whole books. If German language students need biographical information, encyclopedias can be useful, but when they need to find a biography of an obscure figure or to find more comprehensive or specialized information, their will want to consult a biographical dictionary. If the more specialized subject biographies fail to meet German language student's needs, they should consult a dictionary of national biography, which identifies people associated with a particular nation or culture. National and trade bibliographies are general bibliographies of a nation's or culture's book production. Many of these bibliographies consist of a multitude of volumes that grows ever more rapidly to keep pace with the unceasing expansion of published documents. The function of a trade bibliography is to identify trade books, books that are or have been available for purchase in stores.
