Library

Africana

Below are suggested resources to use when researching an Africana topic. For research strategies and techniques, visit the resources linked from the menu at the left.

Getting Started | Finding Articles | Getting Fulltext | Demographics

 

Getting Started

Before jumping in and looking for research, it is a good idea to have a refined topic and to know a little about it. Start with broad resources like encyclopedias, bibliographies, and handbooks to start to get a sense of what is available on your topic in the universe of information.

 

Finding Articles

Search the following indexes to find articles on the topic of Africana. See individual Resources by Subject guides for more specific indexes covering topics within the broader field of Africana.

  • Academic Search Complete:

    An enormous periodical database covering the academic areas of ethnic and cultural studies, social sciences, humanities, education, language and linguistics, arts and literature, etc. Over 4,000 fulltext titles are included and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. Useful for finding articles and interviews by and about important figures, book reviews, and critical essays.

  • America: History and Life:

    Nearly 400,000 bibliographic entries about the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Coverage of subjects like American History, Popular Culture, American Studies, Literature/Folklore, Genealogy, Multicultural Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Education, Music, Art, and Law. Coverage: American Continents, prehistory - present. Materials published since 1955.

  • Ethnic News Watch:

    An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) and comprehensive full text database of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic, minority and native presses. Coverage: 1990-present

  • Expanded Academic ASAP:

    From arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology, this database meets research needs across all academic disciplines. Access scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers - with full text and images! Coverage: 1980-present

  • Historical Abstracts:

    Bibliographic guide to world history from 1450 to present (excluding North America). A special emphasis is placed upon the inclusion of English-language journal and book titles published throughout the world. Coverage: Historical periods, 1450-present. Materials published since 1973.

  • JSTOR:

    Primarily covers back-runs of scholarly journals. Full-text access to nearly 600 core scholarly journals covering 44 specialized subject areas. Coverage is spread out over the last 150 years but there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR. In Advanced search, select these discipline groups: African American Studies - 8 journals; African Studies - 10 journals.

  • Project Muse:

    MUSE allows searching of full-text articles from journals in the humanities, including religion, literature, philosophy, cultural studies, women's studies, film and the arts. MUSE is also the sole source of complete, full-text versions of titles from many of the world's leading university presses and scholarly societies. Coverage is generally from about 1994 to the present, depending on the journal.

  • Sociological Abstracts:

    Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Includes abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews drawn from over 1,700 serials publications, abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Records added after 1974 contain in-depth and nonevaluative abstracts of journal articles. Coverage:1963-present.

Getting Fulltext

Because not all indexes are fulltext--or 100% fulltext--you may have to look elsewhere to find an article for which you have a citation. Consult the resources below to find out how to get access to the articles you need.

Demographics and Statistics

Statistics and demographics are important to many research projects, but they can be hard to find. Try some of the resources below when looking for statistics. If you still cannot find what you need, contact a librarian.

Page updated: April 24, 2007

 

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