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Indepth Research Guide: Africana Studies

Librarians for Africana Studies:

Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, Research & Instruction, x3497
Graham Henderson, Collections, x3514

Contents:

Course guides: Related subject guides:

Related academic department:

Offcampus Access · Databases A-Z · Research Guides by Subject | by Course · Reference Books Online · Library Catalog


Find articles & essays 
America: History and Life
Contains U.S. and Canadian history articles, prehistory to present (1964 +).

American National Biography
Over 17,000 biographies of deceased notable American men and women (through 1995)

ArticleFirst
Articles &/or abstracts in all scholarly fields, as well as popular culture (1990 +).

Callaloo
The online version of this journal has back issues from 1995. This journal is described as "the permier journal of African-American and African arts and literature [which] publishes original works by and critical studies of black writers worldwide."

Ethnic NewsWatch
newspaper articles from ethnic, minority, and native presses (1991 +).

GenderWatch
contains full-text articles on women's social, religious, and political issues (1974 +).

JSTOR
A full-text collection of journal articles from the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. First issues are in the collection but not those from the latest five years.

LexisNexis Academic News
Another full-text source containing news, business, legal, medical, and current events articles (years can vary - 1980s +).

MLA International Bibliography (via CSA)
has articles &/or abstracts on literature, linguistics, film, and folklore (1963+).

National Journal
A weekly publication featuring articles on politics, policy, and government (1977+).

New York Times
(Proquest Historical Newspaper, 1851-2001) has exact replica of articles in PDF format, including graphics.

Periodicals Index Online
An index to articles published in over 4,500 periodicals, in as many as 40 languages, and covering topics in the humanities and social sciences.

Project Muse
A full-text source for academic journals in the humanities and social sciences. (Latest 5 years)

Quarterly Black Review of Books
The current issue (only; no backfiles) appears online with signed reviews of nonfiction, fiction, children's books and poetry; a featured interview; and `The QBR Guide to Black Classics". [Past issues can be found in Ethnic News Watch (look above for "live" link)].

Women's Studies International
Indexes journal articles and books on women's studies, feminism, and gender studies, 1972 to present

Other databases may be useful for you, depending on your specific topic and approach. AskUs and get some customized suggestions.
Find background information

Print titles

Africa Bibliography
An annual review that surveys African publications principally in the social sciences, humanities, & arts, with selected items included from the medical, biological, and physical sciences. The entire African continent & its associated islands are included. Clapp Ref qZ3501 .A3

Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey and Documents. Clapp Ref DT1 .L43. This reference tool contains scholarly essays on important historical periods in African history.
 
African Americans at War: An Encyclopedia. Clapp Ref U52 .S88 2004 1 & 2.
 
African Folklore: An Encyclopedia. Clapp Ref GR350 .A33 2004.
 
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and American Experiences. Clapp Ref DT14 .A37435 1999.
 
American Health Dilemma. Clapp Lib RA448.5.N4B97 2000. [This 2 volume set deals with a medical history of African Americans from the beginning to 1900 and thier health care in the U.S. from 1900-2000].
 
Biographical History of Blacks in America Since 1528. Clapp Ref E185.96 T66.
 
Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook. Clapp Ref E185.5 .B512 (We have yearly editions from 1994 to the present).
 
Bibliographic Guide to Black Studies. Clapp Ref q Z1361 .N39 S373a. This bibliography has information on materials by & about African Americans, Africa, & peoples of African ancestry. It includes the catalog of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of the world's most important collections for the study of African descended Americans.
 
Chronological History of the Negro in America by Peter M. Bergman. Clapp Ref E185 .B46 (1969).
 
Current Bibliography on African Affairs is considered by many experts to be the best general index abstract to African periodicals. It covers not only periodicals, but related matter from books, dissertatons, official documents, and reports. Clapp Ref Z3501 .C8.
 
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. Clapp Ref DT351 .E53 1997.
 
Encyclopedia of African Literature. Clapp Ref PL8010 .E63 2003.
 
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture & History, Vols. 1-5. Clapp Ref E185 .E54 1996.
 
Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Clapp Ref E185 .E554 2005.
 
Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa. Clapp Ref DT2 .E53 1997.
 
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Clapp Ref PS153.N5 A24 2003.
 
Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century African History. Clapp Ref DT29 .E53 2003.
 
Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights: From Emancipation to the Twenty-First Century. Clapp Ref E185.61 .E54 2003 1 & 2.
 
Guide to Africa: A Bibliography of Sources. Alfred Kagan & Yvette Scheven. Clapp Ref Z3501 .K15 1999.
 
Historical Statistics of Black America, 2 vols. Clapp Ref E185 H543 1995.
 
International African Bibliography: Current Books, Articles, and Papers in African Studies
Has c overage from materials published in Africa & abroad. There is ample cross-referencing to cope with the complexity of African names.Clapp Ref Z3503 .I5

Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism
A bi-annual journal which provides ... "a forum for scholarship & creative work by & about women of color in North American & international contexts." The current journal editions are in the Brackett Reading Room and older volumes are on the 3rd floor of Clapp. (Call # HQ1101 .M475).

New York Public Library African American Desk Reference/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Clapp Ref E185 .N57 1999.
 
Notable Black American Women, Bk. I, 1992, & Bk. II, 1996. Clapp Ref E185.96 .N68.
 
Oxford Encyclopedia of Archeology in the Near East. Clapp Ref DS56 .O9 1997.
 
Timelines of African American History: 500 Years of Black Achievement. Clapp Ref E185 .C86 1994.
 
Who's Who Among African Americans. Clapp Ref E185.96 .W52 (9th Edition to present)
 
Who's Who Among Black Americans. Clapp Ref E185.96 .W52 (1st-8th Editions).

Internet resources

Africa Guide
A clearly organized commercial site devoted to the needs of individuals planning holidays to any of fifty-one African countries. The sections contain data on climate, currencies, visa requirements, transportation and accommodations, favorite destinations (including national parks and game reserves), sports, and annual festivals. There is also a Charities entry, Current News and Medical features, plus a Photo File.

AfricaBib.org
has been maintained by the University of Arkansas's African researcher & librarian, Davis Bullwinkle. Some augmented features to try --- African Women's Bibliographic Database, Bibliography of Africana Periodical Literature Database, and his new additions DISA: Digital Imaging Project of South Africa and African Studies Abstracts Online.

African American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture.
This site provides valuable archival photographs and graphic images.

African American Women: On-line Archival Collections.
On-line archival collections featuring scanned pages and texts of writings of women drawn from the Special Collections Library of Duke University. At present the site includes the memoirs or letters of women slaves: the Lester Vilet letter, Elizabeth Johnson Harris's Life Story; and the letters between Hannah Valentine and Lethe Jackson.

Black Past: Remembered & Reclaimed
is a guide to six centuries of African American history, directed by Quintard Taylor, at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938
contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. They were collected in the 1930s as part of the WPA's Writers' Project. The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past --- a reflection of the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times.

Center for Africana Studies/University of PA
one of the largest university sites, offering a large number of links, including the Country-Specific Pages. It can also link users to Africa Web Links: An Annotated Resource List. This is an on-going project of Ali B. Ali-Dinar, which lists online resources related to African Studies. Here the user will find a variety of topical lists, including CIA Maps and Women's Issues.

Center for Electronic Resources in African Studies.
This is a virtual archive of text & multimedia sources designed by the U. of Iowa for their academic community. Most of the useful material is found in Resources, which consists of 14 sections that are links to Web sites for Iowa-based projects or Iowa-produced lists of other Web sites. this hard-to-find information on conference proceedings will be useful to Africanish scholars.

Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
by William L. Andrews, Frances S. Foster, & Trudier Harris. There are 550 entries presenting authors' biographies, essays by critics on literary characters and historical figures, plus 150 plot summaries of major works.

Dictionary of African Mythology: The Mythmakers as Storyteller
by Harold Scheub is an Oxford Reference Online title with 400 entries that capture the sweep and diversity of African mythology.

Documenting the American South: North American Slave Narratives, Beginnings to 1920
is a project of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It is a collection of primary resources for the study of Southern histroy, literature, & culture.

e-Black Studies
is a Web-based portal that provides "information for students & scholars in all academic fields that focus primarily on Africa & the African Diaspora." Book 1: Introduction to Afro-American Studies: A Peoples' College Primer; Book 2: Cyberorganizing.

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: the Black Experience in the Americas
edited by Colin A. Palmer is a 2nd edition of the print title from Macmillan Reference USA.

Gilder Lehman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition
is a Yale university searchable site "dedicated to the investigation and dissemination of information concerning all aspects of the Atlantic slave system and its destruction." Source Documents contains "200 individual items, including speeches, letters, cartoons, and graphics, interviews, and articles." Bibliographies are included

Internet Living Swahili Dictionary. (Maintained by Yale University).

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
is a non-commercial Web site that chronicles the contributions and experiences of African-Americans. Two particularly interesting sections are Harlem 1900-1940 and African-American Women Writers of the Nineteenth Century.

Find books 

Wellesley College Library catalog

WorldCat to find books, journals, video recordings not listed in the Wellesley Online Catalog.


Key scholarly websites 
Africa Action (formerly Africa Policy)
A non-profit organization that works with Congress on Africa-related legislation.

Africa South of the Sahara
A selected list focusing on Southern Africa from the Hoover Institute and the African Studies Association.

Africa Web Links: An Annotated Resource List
An on-going project of Ali B. Ali-Dinar, which lists online resources related to African Studies. Here the user will find a variety of topical lists, including Maps and Satellites and Women's Issues

African American Odyssey
Rare and unique titles from the Library of Congress's African-American collection.

African Biography on the Internet - Columbia University Libraries

allAfrica.com
A news site provided by the Population Media Center. It lists top headlines & has pull-down boxes for regions/countries and topics. There is access to French articles, also.

Art and Archeology of Africa - Columbia University Libraries

Black Population [in the United States]: 2000
Issued August '01 by the U.S. Census Bureau. For the complete index of the most recent publications of Census files, go to http://www.census.gov/prod/2001pubs/

Business & Economic Information on Africa - Columbia University Libraries

City College Libraries Reference & Research
Covers 51 Black subject categories and includes a large number of government documents.

CLNet Diversity Page
A list of general-interest Internet resources that will be useful to minorities including African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Women, & Gay & Lesbian Studies. Sources linked to African American topics range from the "AfroAmerican Newspaper Home Page", "Faces of Science: African-Americans in the Sciences", & the "Universal Black Pages."

FBI - Freedom of Information Act
Provides previously inaccessible files on civil rights figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, & the Ku Klux Klan. It is searchable & indexed by name & subject.

Films and Videos on Africa - Columbia University Libraries

Final Call
The online edition of the official publication of the Nation of Islam, providing access to the current issue, as well as to background information on stories covered. The site includes coverage of both national and international news, columns, perspectives and features from the point of view of the Nation of Islam organization. The home page can also be accessed by going directly to http://www.noi.org.

Gateway to African American History
A site under the auspices of the State Department " ... established  to assist its international audience in acquiring information on the rich and varied contributions of African Americans to the culture and history of the United States and the world."

Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall Law Library
The Marshall Law Library has been digitizing the historic documents of this important Commission, which since 1957, has attempted to examine issues dealing with race, ethnicity, religion, and, more recently, sexual orientation.

Human Rights & Governance in Africa - Columbia University Libraries

Javanoir
A selected guide to African American resources on the Internet.

LII Black History Month
Another site offered by the Librarians Internet Index. The page lists additional URLs on a variety of topics dealing with African American resources.

Malcolm X Project at Columbia University
Provides a comprehensive biography of Malcolm X & multimedia research aids to accompany study of his autobiography

Martin Luther King, Jr. Research Institute
A Stanford University site which offers print and audio files of excerpts from King's speeches.

Music and Dance of Africa - Columbia University Libraries

NAACP Online
Provides information on the association's history and programs, press releases, position statements, membership information, locations of regional offices.

Paul Robeson [on the Web]
An excellent, thematically arranged site covering his life, including film, theater, and political activism. "For anyone interested in Robeson or wanting to know his humanitarian dimensions."

Quarterly Black Review [of Books]
The current issue (only - There are no backfiles) appears online with signed reviews of nonfiction, fiction, children's books and poetry, a featured interview, and QBR Guide to Black Classics.

Reading Women Writers and African Literatures
A resource for Francophone African women writers. Short biographies/bibliographies, family portraits, searches by country, overviews of critical essays, lists of works in French & those translated into English are some of the features of this site. It will be most useful to those with a reading knowledge of French, but the modified English version is more than adequate.

U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
This site offers a FAQ page, committee, & task reports. A good source when researching federal civil rights policy.

WIDNET
Sponsored by the Women in International Development NETwork, this site has statistics on women-related issues, articles on women's topics, as well as resources and organizations available to women. It is a bilingual site with the information available in English and French.

WWW Virtual Library: African Studies
This is another multi-subject site and can link the user to "African Related Organizations" and the Internet Living Swahili Dictionary Project http://www.yale.edu/swahili/

Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress
Presents 10 plays written by Hurston but unpublished & unproduced until they were rediscovered in the Copyright Deposit Drama Collection in 1997. They reflect her life experiences, travels & research, especially her study of folklore in the African-American South.

Professional development

Black Collegian Online
The current issue only of this career-opportunities publication. [Wellesley subscribes to the print edition: qLC2781 .B45].

Scholarly Associations on Africa and Other Directories

United States NGOs, Research & Policy Institutes
Another Columbia University site for information on these organizations dealing with African countries.

Wellesley College LibraryWCISJacqueline Fitzpatrick • last modified: March 19, 2008