African and African-American Resources

Students taking classes in African and African-American Studies will need to adopt an interdisciplinary approach to research. You may want to refer to the research guides of other interdisciplinary programs and academic departments, including American Studies, English, History, Psychology, Sociology, and Women's and Gender Studies.

Reference Works

Reference works are helpful when beginning research on an unfamiliar topic. You can browse the Reference Collection (located on the second floor of Chalmers, near Helpline). Some reference works pertaining to African and African-American Studies include:

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience [REF DT14.A37435]

An African Biographical Dictionary [REF DT18.B76 2006]

Black Women in America [REF E185.86 .B542 2005]

Civil Rights in the United States [REF E184.A1 C47 2000]

Contemporary Black Biography [REF DT18.C66]

Dictionary of African Biography [REF DT18.D55]

Encarta Africana [Information Center Cd-Rom]
A multimedia encyclopedia with more than 3000 articles, 2500 videos, audio clips, maps and photographs, and an interactive timeline of Africans and people of African descent.

Encyclopedia of African History [DT20.E53 2005]

Encyclopedia of the Great Black Migration [REF E185.6.E54 2006]

Literary Reference Center
Comprehensive database that provides information on thousands of authors and their works. LRC includes: plot summaries, articles of literary criticism, full text of literary journals, author biographies, book reviews, author interviews, and images of key literary figures. LRC also includes full text of selected classic and contemporary poems and short stories.

Finding Books

Use the CONSORT, OhioLINK, and WorldCat catalogs to find books. The CONSORT catalog can be used to locate books, government documents, microforms, video and sound recordings, and special collections materials available in the Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster libraries.

CONSORT also provides access to OhioLINK, which includes the holdings of 85 libraries throughout Ohio. You may borrow books and documents directly from either CONSORT or . Requested materials typically arrive at Kenyon 2 to 3 working days after the request is made, but delivery may take longer depending upon the time of year -- especially near midterms and finals -- so plan ahead.

WorldCat is a catalog of library holdings throughout the country and world. Contains records for any type of materials: books, sound recordings, video recordings, manuscripts, etc. Click the ILL button from within WorldCat to request an item be sent to you at Kenyon, or request the item using the page. Delivery time will vary depending on where an item is coming from. You can also access the Interlibrary Loan page on the LBIS website.

Research Strategies

Search for books in CONSORT with keywords. Once you've found a relevant book, scroll down to find the SUBJECT headings. Here are some examples of relevant African American subject headings.

Finding Articles

Subject-specific Indexes

African-American Poetry, 1760-1900
Contains the full text of almost 3,000 poems written between 1760 and 1900. Included poets are among those listed in Afro-American Poetry and Drama, 1760-1975, by W.P. French et al.

American Slavery: A Composite Autobiography
A full-text database of slave narratives compiled by the Library of Congress from transcripts of 2,000 interviews of former slaves from seventeen states. The interviews were conducted between 1936 and 1938 by field workers hired by the WPA Federal Writer's Project.

Ethnic NewsWatch [1990- ]
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) and comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.

Primary Sources in African American Studies (Lexis-Nexis)
Features full text resources on African-American history, including federal legislation, court decisions, biographical articles, selected manuscripts, personal narratives, and journal articles.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade [Information Center CD-Rom]
Contains records of 27,233 trans-Atlantic slave ship voyages made between 1595 and 1866. Format allows users to track information by time period and geographic region, and includes interactive maps that allow viewers to chart the trans-Atlantic connections. The accompanying data contains materials about people on board, owners and captains, ships' characteristics, and the geographic trajectory of each voyage

 

General and Related Indexes

Academic Search Complete
A comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource contains more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition, Academic Search Complete offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.

Academic Universe [LexisNexis] (1980 -)
Web-based subset of the traditional Lexis-Nexis service, providing access to full text news, legal, business and reference sources, including The New York Times.

America: History and Life (1964 - )
Includes bibliographic citations and abstracts covering the historical literature of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Sources include journals, books, dissertations, and book reviews.

Gender Watch [1970- ]
A full text database of unique and diverse publications that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas. This database provides an important historical perspective on the evolution of the women's movement and the changes in gender roles. Publications include scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, and NGO, government and special reports.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I (1857-1871)
Includes full text and images of Harper's Weekly, 1857-1871.

MLA International Bibliography
Contains bibliographic citations for journal and book articles, dissertations, monographs, and series covering scholarly work in literature, linguistics, and folklore worldwide from more than 4,400 journals.

PAIS [1972- ]
Indexes and abstracts the world's public affairs literature. Fields covered include political science, international relations, economics, and other social sciences. Types of materials indexed include journal articles, books, government document, and statistical compilations.

Readers' Guide Abstracts
Comprehensive indexing and abstracting of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and Canada.

Readers' Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
Indexing 375 of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States. The database covers the years 1890 through 1982.

SIRS Researcher (Social Issues Researcher) (1989 - )
Provides general full-text covering social, scientific, health, historic, economic, political and global issues.

Finding Primary Sources

Kenyon's collection includes a variety of African-American periodicals, many of which are available on microfilm. For statistical information collected by the government, and other government reports, consult the Government Documents Research Guide.

For more information on primary source research, refer to the Primary Sources page or contact a librarian.

 

Selected Internet Resources  

Remember to evaluate internet resources. 

African American Digital Collections
A guide to web resources created by the Library of Congress.

Writing and Citing

Use RefWorks to create and maintain bibliographies. For assistance with your essays, visit the Writing Center.

For Additional Research Assistance, Contact:

Nina Clements
Librarian & Technology Consultant
740.427.5668