Library Research Guide for Africana Studies 601: Graduate Seminar
Compiled by Eric Kofi Acree, Librarian
http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/faculty/asrc601.html
The Research Process
Finding Background Information
Finding Books
Finding Periodical Articles
Library Subject Guides
The research process can be defined as a series of steps that one performs to retrieve relevant information. Each topic in which information is needed requires at least two or more separate steps to get that information.
Steps in the research process:
-
Selecting a topic.
- Ascertain the subject field of your topic.
- Determine the discipline into which your subject field fits.
- Decided
what type(s) of information you need:
- Factual or analytical?
- Objective or subjective?
- Primary or secondary?
- Determine
the quantity of information you need:
- Enough for a 15-page paper?
- Support materials for a 3-minute speech?
- One or two sources required by your instruction?
- Decide
how current your information must be:
- Materials that can be used by experts in your subject field?
- Materials that can be used by the "general public?"
- Decide how scholarly or how technical your information must be:
- Choose appropriate access tool(s)--and don't overlook paper ones!
- Determine which access points can be used in the access tool(s) you selected.
- Use the access points available:
- Use the most specific search terms possible
- Use free-text searching and searching by descriptor as appropriate
- Evaluate the references you find using clues in their records.
- Locate the sources you selected after evaluating their records in the access tool(s).
- Evaluate the sources you find after locating them.
- Use the sources--read them, don't just photocopy them!
- Cite the sources you used.
Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Guides and Handbooks
- Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and
African American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis
Gates, editors. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999.
(OLIN REF + DT 14 A37435x 1999)Inspired by W.E.B. DuBois's dream of editing a Pan African encyclopedia of the African diaspora, this single-volume, 2000-page reference work aims to provide broad coverage of its subject. At the same time, its primary focus is on history (political and social), literature, and the arts to which African contributions have been especially notable. Roughly 2/5 of the entries cover Africa, 1/3 Latin America and the Caribbean, 1/3 North America, and the rest cross-cultural topics. The work features maps, charts, tables and photographs, twelve substantive essays by noted scholars, and a selected bibliography. Signed entries cover subjects as King Sunny Ade, Ghanian Coffin Art, and U.S. Reconstruction after the Civil War.
- Africa South of the Sahara. London : Europa
Publications Ltd. 1971 - .
(Olin Ref DT351 A25 +; also Africana)An annual compendium of up-to-date information and data surveying the geography, recent history, politics, and economy of sub-Saharan African countries. Each country profile includes statistical tables and a directory of government agencies, national media outlets, and trade associations. Also contains background articles by experts on the region.
- Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara.
John Middleton, Editor-in-chief. 4 vols. New York : C. Scribner's
Sons, 1997.
(Olin Ref DT351 E53x 1997+; also Africana Ref)Considered the standard multi-volume encyclopedia on the history and culture of sub-Saharan Africa, each signed article contains a bibliography of related readings. Entries on specific events or individuals tend to be shorter, while those on broader subjects (Death, Mourning and Ancestors; Gender; Archaeology and Prehistory; Diaspora) are much longer and quite substantive.
- Cayton, Marx Kupiec, ed. Encyclopedia of American
Social History. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1992.
(Uris Ref HN 57 E56 1992; also Olin Ref)This encyclopedia uses the scholarship of historians, sociologists, geographers and anthropologists to present a different view of American history. The 3-volume set is divided into 14 sections focusing on various aspects of American social history, including periods of social change, patterns of everyday life, family history and science, medicine and technology.
- Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. Black Women in America:
An Historical Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Brooklyn: Carlson, 1993.
(Uris Ref E 185.86 B542x 1993; also Olin Ref)This encyclopedia contains 804 entries, including 641 biographical entries and 163 which deal with general topics and organizations. The subjects of the biographies are individuals who played a role on the national stage. Each entry contains a brief biography. A 23-page chronology is also included.
- History
Resource Center U.S. [Farmington Hills, MI] : Gale Group, c2000.
(Library Catalog and Gateway -- Networked Resources)Provides an integrated collection of primary documents, secondary reference sources, and journal articles covering all areas of U.S. history from pre-colonial times to the present day. Includes full-text coverage of approximately 65 periodicals of interest to students and historians as well as access to the citations for history journals from the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
- Low, W. Augustus and Virgil A. Clift, eds. Encyclopedia
of Black America. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981.
(Uris Ref E 185 E57; also Olin Ref, Africana)The first comprehensive volume summarizing major and minor events of the history of black people. Entries fall into three categories: articles, biographies and cross references. The category for articles is divided into clusters, arranged alphabetically; examples include Africa, African Legacy/Survivals, Afro-American History, Civil Disorders, Civil Rights, Education, Literature, Music, Newspapers, Race, and Slavery. Biographies comprise the second category and are more concise than the articles. They number about 1400. The major limitation of this source is that the date of material does not extend beyond 1976-1977.
- Ploski, Harry A. and James Williams, comps. and eds.
The Negro Almanac: A Reference Work On the Afro-American. 5th
ed. New York: Gale Research, 1989.
(Uris Ref E 185 N39; also Olin, Africana)A comprehensive reference work on the history and culture of Afro-Americans. A sizeable number of illustrations and statistical charts comprise each section. An extensive bibliography covers such areas as culture and society, slavery, Africa, literature and related fields.
- Salzman, Jack, David Lionel Smith and Cornel West,
eds. Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History.
5 vols. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1996.
(Uris Ref E 185 E54 1996; also Africana Ref)The 2,200 entries in this set cover the beginning of the seventeenth to the end of the twentieth century. The entries include biographies, descriptions of events, historical eras, legal cases, areas of cultural achievement, professions, sports, and places. Each entry includes a list of references. Volume Five includes an appendix which provides extensive statistical information. Cross-references within the entries make it easy to follow related topics. Newly revised and updated edition available in Africana Library on CD-Rom.
- Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. Notable Black American
Women. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
(Uris Ref E 185.96 N89; also Africana)Arranged alphabetically, this source includes 500 biographies of historically important Black American women, from colonial times to the present. Areas of endeavor are diverse, and include abolitionists, entertainers, activists, philanthropists, and writers. Articles contain references for further reading.
Guides
to Primary Sources
Provides abstracts and comprehensive indexing of all significant
articles in eight major black newspapers: the Afro-American, American
Muslim Journal, Amsterdam, Chicago Defender, Call and Post, Journal
and Guide, Los Angeles Sentinel, and the Michigan Chronicle.
Searchable full texts of the following 19th-century African-American
newspapers: Freedman's Journal, Colored American,The North Star,
Frederick Douglass Paper, National Era, and Provincial Freeman.
This book is an introduction to Afro-American history through
the use of historical documents that originated in the black community.
"The material is arranged chronologically in fourteen sections,
covering the entire range of American history. Each section has
a brief historical introduction and contains from three to five
documents. Each document, in turn, is introduced by a short note
giving its specific historical context." (Introduction) Each section
concludes with an annotated bibliography, and a general bibliography
is located at the end of the book.
This is an annotated bibliographic guide to civilian records in
the U. S. National Archives that are concerned with the black population
in America. The actual records are housed in federal archives buildings
and record centers. Arrangement in record group order makes use
of the index necessary.
(Olin Ref Z1361 N39 A1151++ and ...Suppl.1 ++)
(Olin Ref +AI3 I365; also Africana AI3 I38)
(Disk E 185.5 A245; Electronic Text Center, Olin Library Reference)
(Olin Ref E184.6 F84 1988)
(Olin Ref Z1361 N39 N545; also Africana)
General Bibliographies
- Davis, Nathaniel. Afro-American Reference: An
Annotated Bibliography of Selected Sources. Westport: Greenwood,
1985.
(Olin Ref Z1361 N39 D27; also Africana Ref)The main focus here is on the African-American experience in the United States, although sections on the Caribbean and South America are also included.
- Black Studies on Disc [New York?]: G.K. Hall,
1989 -.
(Africana Ref Z1039 B56 B62)An annual compact disk index. Information on materials by and about African Americans, Africa and peoples of African ancestry. Includes catalog of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and citations from the Index to Black periodicals, since 1989.
- Interdisciplinary Bibliographic Guide to Black
Studies. New York: G.K. Hall, 1975- .
(Olin Ref Z 1361 N39 N5331+; also Africana Ref)Annual acquisitions -- mostly monographs -- of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Arranged alphabetically and includes subject headings, author and title entries. Serves in part as an annual supplement to the Dictionary catalog of the Schomburg collection of Negro Literature and History.
Cornell
University Library Catalog and the Olin Library Card Catalog
The Cornell
University Library Catalog includes the holdings of all 17 libraries
on the Ithaca campus, in addition to those of the Geneva Experiment
Station. The catalog contains records for books, computer files, government
documents, manuscripts and archives, maps, musical scores, periodicals,
serials, sound recordings, and visual materials received and cataloged
since 1973. There are also records for most pre-1973 items, and for
items that are on order or in process.
Connect
to the Cornell University Library Catalog
Some materials
in the humanities and social sciences acquired prior to 1973 have records
that have not yet been converted to digital form. Access to these records
is through the card catalog located in Olin Library. The card catalog
contains cards for authors, titles, and subjects filed in an alphabetical,
word-by-word arrangement.
The Cornell University Library uses Library of Congress subject headings
as the standard for subject searching. Unlike searching by keyword,
where any term or wording of a topic can be entered into the computer,
subject searching requires you to use the exact wording of an
official Library of Congress subject heading in order to retrieve search
results.
When to
Check the Card Catalog
Additional Catalogs
RLIN (Eureka Telnet). Stanford, Calif. : Research Libraries Group, 199- . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
RLIN, the Research Libraries Information Network, is an information management and retrieval system used by hundreds of comprehensive research libraries, archival repositories, museums, academic, public, law, technical, and corporate libraries to build an international database of bibliographic information. The RLIN database indexes books, journals, and other materials held by full-member RLG libraries.
WorldCat (OCLC Web). Dublin, OH : Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (Library Catalog and Library Gateway/e-Reference Collection)
OCLC WorldCat is a catalog of the holdings of books, journals, and other materials held by OCLC member libraries. (OCLC is Online Computer Library Center.)
Dissertation Abstracts online (WebSPIRS Web : 1861- ). Ann Arbor, MI : University Microfilms International. (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
Dissertation abstracts online is a definitive subject, title and author guide to virtually every American dissertation accepted at an accredited institution since 1861. An increasing number of papers accepted abroad are also included.
Periodical indexes and abstracts identify and locate articles in magazines, journals and newspapers. Periodical indexes provide the authors, titles, and sometimes abstracts, of relevant articles, along with the name of the periodical, volume, pages and date. Some online periodical indexes also provide the full-text of the article. When full-text articles are not provided, use the Cornell Library Catalog to determine which library owns the periodicals you need.
America: History and Life. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 1964-. (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection); also Olin Ref + Z 1236 A2 A5)
Indexes and abstracts national, regional, and international journals, book and media reviews, dissertations, and books covering American and Canadian history from pre-history to the present. Includes materials from archival, library, and historical society collections. This publication is an outgrowth of the earlier Historical Abstracts which covers world history from 1450.
ATLA Religion Database. American Theological Library. 1949 - . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
Comprehensive database designed to support religious and theological scholarship in graduate education and faculty research. The file contains citations from international titles and multi-author works in and related to the field of religion. It also includes a full range of index citations to journal articles, essays in multi-author works, book reviews, and Doctor of Ministry projects from ATLA's print indexes: Religion index one (RIO), Religion index two (RIT), and: Index to book reviews in religion (IBRR).
ERIC. Boston : SilverPlatter, 1966- . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
ERIC abstracts journal articles and other literature on education. Many materials, such as curriculum guides,instructional materials, conference papers, program descriptions, and project reports are available in Mann Library's ERIC Microfiche. ERIC indexes materials on education, child development, classroom techniques,computer education, counseling, testing, educational administration, higher education, reading skills, communication skills, career education, science education, social studies, urban education, rural education, teacher education, measurements, evaluation, vocational education, adult education, mathematics education, environmental education, elementary education, handicapped children, gifted children, educational management, and library and information science.
Note: Items identified with an ED (for Eric Document) may be available in E-Subscribe or by ED number in Mann Library's ERIC Microfiche collection.
Ethnic Newswatch. (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and Native American press. Fully searchable. Covers back to 1990. Provides the option of choosing either English or Spanish language interface.
Film Literature Index. New York: Filmdex, 1973- . (Olin Ref PN 1993 F479)
A quarterly author and subject index to international periodical literature about film. Some 300 periodicals are indexed. Includes coverage of television and video related topics.
Health
Reference Center-Academic. Foster City, CA.: Information Access
Co., c1998 - .
(Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference
Collection)
This database provides indexing and full text of journals covering a broad range of health subjects and issues. Subject coverage includes: pre-natal care, dieting, drug abuse, AIDS, biotechnology, cardiovascular disease, environment, public health, safety, paramedical professions, sports medicine, substance abuse, and toxicology.
Index to Black Periodicals. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1950- . (Olin Ref Z 1361 N39 I38; also Africana)
A yearly author and subject index to about 25 Afro-American periodicals of general and scholarly interest. The journals which are included cut across such disciplines as psychology, sociology, education, history and popular culture, etc. It was formerly called the Index to Periodicals By and About Blacks, and is the best source available for articles from black journals. Black Studies on disc is available at Africana. It contains entries from the Index to Black Periodicals from 1989.
International Index to Film Periodicals. New York: Bowker, 1972- . (Olin Ref PN 1993 I61+)
An annual publication compiled by the International Federation of Film Archives. It indexes about 60 to 85 periodicals that are exclusively devoted to film.
International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA full text). Alexandria, Va.: Chadwyck-Healey, Inc.; Ann Arbor, MI: Bell and Howell Information and Learning Company, 1999 - . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
IIPA Full Text covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry--including dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more. Each full text in the file contains an abstract.
Historical Abstracts. Santa Barbara: Clio, 1954 - . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection; also Olin Z6205 H67 through 1999)
Indexes and abstracts of 2,000 national, regional, and international journals, transactions, proceedings, book and media reviews, dissertations, and books covering all branches of world history from 1450 to the present. Includes materials from archival, library, and historical society collections. Since 1964 the U.S. and Canada are no longer included (see America: History and Life)
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. Dates of coverage vary. (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
A web-based database providing access to full text resources on topics including current and general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting, auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations. Resources include TV and radio news transcripts. Updated daily.
Library Literature (OCLC Web) Bronx, NY : H.W. Wilson Co., 1984 - . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
Indexes library and information science periodicals, monographs, selected state library journals, conference proceedings, library school theses and pamphlets. Provides coverage of topics such as automation, CD-ROMs, cataloging, censorship, circulation procedures, classification, copyright, education for librarianship, employment opportunities for librarians, library schools, online searching, personnel management, preservation of materials, and publishing trends. The database also cites book reviews.
Medline. Wellesley Hills: SilverPlatter, 1966- . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
This, produced by the National Library of Medicine, is the primary international index to every aspect of biomedicine in over 3,000 journals. It includes research articles as well as letters, editorials, biographies, and obituaries. Use the thesaurus, called Medical Subject Headings in the print form, to determine the proper search terms. The print version, Cumulated Index Medicus (Mann Ref Z 6660 I38), includes an index of review articles and a separately-bound List of Journals Indexed that serves as a key to abbreviated journal titles.
MLA Bibliography. Modern Language Association of America. 1963 - . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
The largest and most comprehensive online database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics, literatures, folklore, theater, and drama. Indexes approximately 4,000 journals and series as well as some books; entries appear both for collections of essays and for their contents. Updated ten times per year. Online access is restricted to the Cornell community. Also available in print as the MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures, from 1921 to the present, in Olin Library (Olin Ref +Z 7006 M68).
New York Times Index. New York: Times, 1851- . (Olin Ref 1851-)
This semi-monthly subject index to the New York Times is cumulated annually. Includes brief synopses of articles. Citations include date, page, and column number. Narrow topics are often cross-referenced to an article under a broader topic. Can be used to follow the course of a particular event over a period of time. The NY Times index is also useful for locating material in other newspapers, without indexing, since it provides information about the dates of events.
PAIS International. 1972 - . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
Contains citations to public policy literature of economics, government, law, international business, political science, public administration, and other social sciences. It includes references to journal articles, books, government documents, reports and pamphlets in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. Covers many periodicals in these subjects not indexed elsewhere. Available in print in Olin Reference as: Public Affairs Information Service, Bulletin, 1915 - . [+ Z 7163 P97].
Periodical Abstracts [ProQuest]. Ann Arbor: Bell & Howell, 1986- . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
Indexes and abstracts approximately 2000 general interest magazines and scholarly journals. It also includes citations and abstracts to selected television and radio programs. Many of the articles found by searching in this database are available in full text electronic formats. Pull down menus allow you to customize your searches by date range, type of resource (newspaper or magazine and journal articles), and by retrieval format (citation, full text, or PDF file which includes graphics). The Database Selection menu allows you to search different sections of the database, including a limit for Peer reviewed articles (scholarly articles).
Batty, Linda. Retrospective Index to Film Periodicals, 1930-1971. New York: Bowker, 1975. (Olin Ref PN 1993 B33+)
Indexes 14 journals plus articles on film that have appeared in The Village Voice, a weekly newspaper covering art, film, music, and theater. The index is divided into three sections: films, titles, subjects and reviews.
Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Philadelphia: ISI, 1956 - . (Library Catalog or Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
A component of ISI's Web of Science citation databases covering over 2,000 journals in the social sciences (some selectively), SSCI is a web based databases of bibliographic information, indexed to be searched by subject, author, journal, and/or author address. SSCI can also be searched for articles that cite a known author or work. Cited reference searching allows use of a given work as if it were a subject term, to identify more recent articles on the same topic. The print version allows for similar searching, in one of three component sections (Source Index, Citation Index, and Permuterm Subject Index). Also available in print in Olin Reference, REF + Z 7161 S68.
Sociological Abstracts. San Diego: Sociological Abstracts, Inc., 1952- . (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection 1963- ; also in print, Olin Ref Z7163 S67+)
Indexes and abstracts the world's leading journals in sociology. This database is updated six times a year. There is extensive coverage of sociolinguistics.
Women's Resources International. Baltimore, MD: National Information Services Corp., c1991, 1996 -. (Library Catalog and Library Gateway, e-Reference Collection)
An interdisciplinary database which includes Women Studies Abstracts (1984-present), and Women's Studies Database (1972-present) which provide references to journal articles and other materials pertaining to all aspects of women's studies. Also includes the resource, New Books on Women and Feminism (1987-present), Women of Color and Southern Women (1975-present), The History of Women and Science, Health, and Technology: A Bibliographic Guide to the Professions and Disciplines (1970-1995), Women's Health and Development: An Annotated Bibliography (1995), Women, Race, and Ethnicity: A Bibliography (1970- 1990), WAVE: Women's Audiovisuals in English: A Guide to Nonprint Resources in Women's Studies (1985-1990). NISC will add new databases as they become available.
This section is intended to provide you with a wide range of subject guides developed by librarians in various disciplines.
