LibGuides: Creative Non-fiction: Other Sources

Conducting Interviews?

Interviews are a great way to gather information concerning a moment in your life from another person's point of view. You can interview family, friends, and other sources that may have information relevant to your memoir.

Here are some great online tutorials for interviewing:

How to Interview - BBC Blasts
A series of 4 videos about how to interview from the BBC and reporter David Garrido
Art of the Interview - TedTalk
Marc Pachter has conducted live interviews with some of the most intriguing characters in recent American history as part of a remarkable series created for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. He reveals the secret to a great interview and shares extraordinary stories of talking with Steve Martin, Clare Booth Luce and more.

Videos on Interviewing

Although they are on how to conduct video interviews, these how-to videos from eHow.com have good points about interviewing in general:

Biographical Information

Here are some useful web sites containing biographical information on famous people (in case your memoir mentions a famous person):

Biography.com
This is a good source for true stories about famous people.
Infoplease Biography Site
This is a free, authoritative, reference site that provides biographies of famous people.
Internet Public Library
A searchable biographical directory of famous/infamous people. You can browse by category, alphabetical order, highest rated or by most popular. This site indexes and provides links to biographies available from other Web sites.
The Time 100
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world, as assembled by Time. It was first published in 1999.

Statistics and Surveys

Depending on your topic, you may find it helpful to locate resources on statistics and surverys, which are often conducted by news agencies, non-profit organizations, government agencies, and marketing firms.

The following resources contain surveys and statistics:

Gallup
Provides data-driven news based on US and world polls, daily tracking and public opinion research.
Pew Research Center
The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan "fact tank" that provides information on the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does so by conducting public opinion polling and social science research; by reporting news and analyzing news coverage; and by holding forums and briefings.
Data.gov
The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.
FedStats
FedStats provides access to statistics and information produced by more than 100 US Federal Government agencies.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
Statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States.
American FactFinder
Sponsored by the U.S. Census Bureau, American FactFinder is an excellent source for a variety of demographic information.

You can also try CNN, ABC News, MSNBC, and other large, mainstream news organization that conduct polls, or report the results of polls done by other news organizations.

Need Maps?

National Map Viewer (USGS)
An interactive map of the US that allows for certain amounts of customization of views, resources, transportation and more.
National Atlas of the United States of America
A collection of maps of America. The site allows for users to create and print their own maps.
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
The PCL Map Collection is operated by the University of Texas Libraries. "The PCL Map Collection includes more than 250,000 maps, yet less than 20% of the collection is currently online" (June 2012). Users will find maps of varying geographical regions, localities, and topics. Most are available in pdf format.
American Memory Map Collection
The Library of Congress site with several large subject map collections, e.g., railroad maps, civil war maps.
David Rumsey Map Collection
The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 25 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. 20,000+ historical maps. Click on "Launch Collection in LUNA Browser" to access the map collection. Items range in date from about 1700 to 1950s.