Two questions were sent to us regarding Daniel Imperato. Both persons asking the questions wanted to know who he is, but one inquirer also wanted information about how to find out whether or not he is a legitimate candidate, and the other wanted information about how to research biographical information. Here are the questions and the answers.
Question 1:
Who is Daniel Imperato? He has a gazillion self-generated web pages and news releases but they all come from him. He seems to be covered in no legitimate news source other than one article last January '05 in the Boca Raton news. He claims to be running for president in 2008. Can we get any proof that he is some kind of legitimate candidate or is he just making this up? Thanks for the help. THe sooner the better for an article I'm writing.
Question 2:
I seek general wisdom on how to research the biography of a person. Would you please forward this query to reference librarians and other colleagues? The particular case is a person named Daniel Imperato. He issues press releases almost daily about current affairs, and he identifies himself as a candidate for president of the United States in 2008. At the end of this message I include some links to example press releases from Imperato. Search Google or Google News for more. Suppose you are a reference librarian, and a patron asks you who a person is, what he stands for, what he has accomplished in life, what his personal history is.
-- What free online sources, Google and beyond, would you use?
-- What specialized online databases, available by subscription or at your local library, would you use? (IE newspaper indexes, biographical databases, etc.)
-- What print resources would you consult? Is "Who's Who?" still a resource? Are there other print biographical sources?
-- To answer this question, do you need to telephone or e-mail people? Whom would you contact? Reporters for the local paper in his home town? Who else?
-- If a person appears frequently in Google News but usually in press releases and seldom in actual media sources, what does that tell your patron?
Answer to Question 1:
Daniel Imperato is chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee Honorary Business Council, founder and acting CEO for Imperiali Organization, and a 2008 presidential candidate. Whether or not Daniel Imperato is a legitimate candidate for the 2008 presidency is, perhaps, rather subjective. He does say on the homepage of his Web site that "Being a man of the globe, and understanding the people, I felt that I should at least consider helping the United States and the world make a change by possibly throwing my hat into the ring for the White House in 2008" (para. 3). And on the "About Daniel Imperato" page of his Web site, it says "On June 22, 2005, Daniel J. Imperato officially decided to start his considerations for a possible run at the White House in 2008, after decades of traveling the globe and dwelling amongst its people" (para. 1). To consider running for president is how many would-be candidates begin the process of candidacy. It is a way of testing the waters, so to speak, to see what kind of support and interest can be garnered for their run.
A more definitive way of proving the legitimacy of Daniel's intentions would be to check the Florida (Imperato's home state) Department of State's Division of Elections's candidacy tracking system. I entered Imperato's name and did a search myself but came up with no results. Of course, if Imperato is still in the consideration stage of his candidacy, it would be no surprise that he has not yet filed for candidacy in the state of Florida for the 2008 presidency. The Division of Elections does not even have any 2008 candidate publications on its Publications page yet. It is, perhaps, a little early for them, especially with the 2006 mid-term elections coming up. Ultimately, to find out whether or not Imperato is a legitimate candidate and to learn of his intentions it would probably be best to contact him yourself and ask. His contact information can be found on the Contact page of his Web site.
Answer to Question 2:
To answer your questions about search strategy, a Google search is a great place to start and can help narrow down what print and online resources might (or might not) be needed. Knowing whether the subject is living, occupation(s), and birthplace are all important factors in determining where to search. This can usually be gathered from a well conducted reference interview of the person asking the question, unless the person knows nothing about who they're researching, which leads us back to the Google search.
Regarding databases, the Biography and Genealogy Master Index is a usually useful online database, as it provides citations for biographies in other sources. I have access through Indiana University, but unfortunately Imperato's name yielded no results. If you have a library card for your local library, you might want to check what databases they allow you to access. For example, San Francisco Public Library allows its cardholders access to Biography and Genealogy Master Index as well as Gale’s Biography Resource Center + Marquis Who's Who. If your subject of interest is someone in the headlines, your local library might offer access to databases that have articles from a number of newspapers. This might be an easier way to search news articles than by going to each individual newspaper's Web site and searching through their archived articles, which many papers allow you to do.
As for print resources, there are many. The Who's Who series is a great reference that is still around. Some other useful print resources are the Current Biography Yearbook, which includes "articles about living leaders in all fields of accomplishment worldwide, 1944 to present" (FIU Libraries); and American National Biography (though this 24-volume resource only includes people who died before 1999, when it was published). Those are some of the main ones I know about. For a comprehensive list of print biographical resources, check out this list the New York Public Library has compiled: Geographic Biographical Resources.
Telephoning or emailing librarians is always a good way to go if you don't want or know how to research the information yourself. That is one of the reasons why Radical Reference exists. In the case of Daniel Imperato, the great thing about researching information on him is that you can email him directly by going to his Web site and going to the "Contact page."
Finally, to answer your question about a person appearing frequently in Google News but usually in press releases and seldom in actual media sources, what does that tell the patron? I think the only thing it really tells the patron is that the person is not so well known that he or she is being covered by major media outlets, assuming the press releases are being issued by the subject of interest him or herself, as is the case with Imperato. It also tells us that the person is trying to create his own buzz, not surprising since Imperato is considering running for president.