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HIST 369:
History, Identity, & Civil War in the Sudan
Fall 2009 · Professor Lidwein Kapteijns

 

Contents:

Find background information
 Find books
Find scholarly journal articles
News & analysis
Evaluating what you find

Your Librarian

Ask Us button

Laura Reiner, x2108
Feel free to contact me for help!

Quick Links

Find background information  

Find books 

Use the Wellesley library catalog to find books, videos, and journals (not individual articles). Try the new Encore interface, or use our "classic" catalog search.

a few tips:

tip: browse the subcategories under these subjects -- there are many narrower categories that may prove helpful

  • if our copy of a book is checked out, click on the NExpress button to request a book quickly (2-4 days)
  • Search WorldCat to find material we don’t own, click on and request through ILL (interlibrary loan)
  • In a hurry? Get a BLC card and borrow the book directly from a nearby library
tip: Boston University Library has an excellent African Studies collection. Get a Boston Library Consortium (BLC) card at any Wellesley College reference desk and borrow books directly from BU (or 18 other area academic libraries).

Find scholarly journal articles 

tips:

  • to find the full text of an article, click on the title for the full record, then look for the Find It! @ Wellesley button to link to the full text (online if we have it, or in print, or to the Interlibrary loan request if we don't own the journal)

  • do your searching early and place interlibrary loan requests NOW for books and articles we don't have -- then, when you're ready to start reading and writing, you'll have a great selection of materials. If you wait, your choices will be very limited.
  • for best results:
    • combine multiple concepts using AND between each concept (music AND politics AND Nigeria)
    • use synonyms to find all the ways your topic is expressed  (film or cinema or movies)
    • use truncation to save time (afric* for Africa, African, Africans, Africana)

Sources for Journal Articles

   = Africa-specific =

  • Current Bibliography on African Affairs - Clapp Reference Collection Z3501 .C8
    •       - the best general index to African journals, as well as related matter from books, dissertatons, official documents, and reports. Alas, not available online.
  • Africabib.org - Davis Bullwinkle, University of Arkansas
          - includes Africana Periodical Literature Bibliographic Database
  • African e-Journals Project - Michigan State University

   = History, Anthropology, Religion =

  • Historical Abstracts
          - index to articles on history around the world, from prehistory to present; limit by the time period of interest
  • Anthropology Plus
          - comprehensive index to anthropology, archaeology, and interdisciplinary studies, late 19th century-present
  • Index Islamicus
          - index of journal articles on Islam and the Muslim world, published 1906-present

   = International Affairs =

   = Women & Gender Studies =

  • Women's Studies International
          - index of articles and books on women's studies, feminism, & gender studies, published 1972-present
  • GenderWatch
          - articles on women's social, religious & political issues, 1974-present

   = Multi-disciplinary =

  • Google Scholar
          - excellent tool for interdisciplinary topics that "fall through the cracks" - use "Find It @ Wellesley" to link directly to our databases
  • Project Muse
          - companion to JSTOR, with more recent content
  • JSTOR
          - full text of scholarly articles in all fields, published up to 3 to 5 years ago (not recent articles)
  • Web of Science
          - despite its name, covers all branches of knowledge
          - trace references back from an article, or find more articles that cite that particular article

Find news & analysis  
  • Africa Research Bulletin. Political, Social, and Cultural Series (1992-present) - Clapp Reference DT1 .A218
          - covers African news sources found nowhere else
  • LexisNexis Academic News (1980s-present; dates of coverage vary)
          - full text newspapers and wire services from around the world
          - select newspapers by country or region under Sources
  • Westlaw Campus Research
          - full text newspapers and wire services from around the world
  • BBC Worldwide Monitoring Service
          - foreign TV and radio news broadcast transcripts in translation
  • Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
          - broadcasts, news agency transmissions, & government statements translated into English, 1974-1996
  • Times of London 1765-1985
          - excellent full-text facsimile for coverage during colonial era (from the Empire's point of view)

key websites

Evaluating what you find 

Criteria to keep in mind when choosing and using soures:

  • Accuracy - Does the author cite her/his sources and are they legitimate?
  • Authority - Who wrote the source? Is s/he credible? What are her/his credentials?
  • Objectivity - Does the author have a bias - political, religious, commercial or otherwise?
  • Currency - Is this information up-to-date or based on outdated sources? Can you tell how current it is?

Wellesley College Library · Information Services · Laura Reiner · last modified: November 2, 2009