Finding Books at UD
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The resources listed below might be able to help you find a topic, narrow it down, find general background information (like dates, event names, etc.), or help you develop keywords for searching. Remember! Background research does not support arguments or provide evidence!
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
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Credo Reference is a general reference database that offers over 500 highly-regarded titles from over 70 publishers. It is a great place to start your research, and there are several ready-reference encyclopedias and fact books relating to African Studies.
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara by Call Number: DT 351 .E53 1997ISBN: 9780684804668Publication Date: 1997-12-01This 4-vol. set covers its people, its cultures, and its complex history. Intended for students and the general reader, the Encyclopedia provides current and accurate information in more than 1,000 articles on the sub-Saharan region. The articles describe such topics as archaeology family and kinship; government; politics and law; and African arts; cultures; and languages.
Encyclopedia of Africa by Call Number: DT3 .E53 2010ISBN: 9780195337709Publication Date: 2010-02-17The Encyclopedia of Africa presents the most up-to-date and thorough reference on this region of ever-growing importance in world history, politics, and culture. Its core is comprised of the entries focusing on African history and culture from 2005's acclaimed five-volume Africana - nearlytwo-thirds of these 1,300 entries have been updated, revised, and expanded to reflect the most recent scholarship.Organized in an A-Z format, the articles cover prominent individuals, events, trends, places, political movements, art forms, business and trade, religions, ethnic groups, organizations, and countries throughout Africa. There are articles on contemporary nations of sub-Saharan Africa, ethnic groupsfrom various regions of Africa, and European colonial powers. Other examples include Congo River, Ivory trade, Mau Mau rebellion, and Pastoralism. The Encyclopedia of Africa is sure to become the essential resource in the field.
Encyclopedia of South Africa by Publication Date: 2011This authoritative, comprehensive reference work covers South Africa's history, government and politics, law, society and culture, economy and infrastructure, demography, environment, and more, from the era of human origins to the present. --from publisher description.- Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara by Call Number: DT 351 .E53 1997ISBN: 9780684804668Publication Date: 1997-12-01This 4-vol. set covers its people, its cultures, and its complex history. Intended for students and the general reader, the Encyclopedia provides current and accurate information in more than 1,000 articles on the sub-Saharan region. The articles describe such topics as archaeology family and kinship; government; politics and law; and African arts; cultures; and languages.
Encyclopedia of Global Studies by ISBN: 9781412994224Publication Date: 2012-01-01The Encyclopedia of Global Studies is the reference work for the emerging field of global studies. It covers both transnational topics and intellectual approaches to the study of global themes, including: the globalization of economies and technologies; the diaspora of cultures and dispersion of peoples; the transnational aspects of social and political change; the global impact of environmental, technological and health changes; and the organizations and issues related to global civil society.
African Folklore by Call Number: GR350 .A33 2004ISBN: 9780415939331Publication Date: 2003-12-08First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East, 2-Volume Set by Call Number: GN645 .E53 2009ISBN: 9780816071586Publication Date: 2009-06-01Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Africa and the Middle East is a new two-volume A-to-Z reference to the history and culture of the peoples of Africa and the Middle East. This fascinating resource includes about 1,400 entries on the major peoples that have maintained a cultural identity in the area - from ancient to modern times - summarizing their history, migration, culture, belief system, social organization, and relationship to other peoples. Students will find entries on the Assyrians and the Asante, as well as entries on 'Iraqis: nationality' and 'Ghanaians: nationality', describing who they are today with cross-references to the various ancestral peoples.It includes: Armenians; Bantu; Berber; Dinka; Egyptians; Fulani; Greeks; Hittites; Iraqis: nationality; Jews; Khoikhoi; Kurds; Ottoman; Persians; Phoenicians; and, South Africans: nationality.
Basic Search Tips
- Place quotation marks around keyword phrases
- "trench warfare"
- "Iranian Coup"
- Capitalize Boolean logic connectors (AND, OR)
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- "American Involvement" AND World War I
- Items at UD appear first in the list of search results. Other items can be requested via InterLibrary Loan.
- Visit our DELCAT Research Guide for additional tips!
- ACLS Humanities E-Book Collection This link opens in a new windowA collection of more than 4,000 titles across the entire range of the humanities, primarily from 1970 to the present. Includes African history and literary criticism.
- African Writers Series This link opens in a new windowIncludes key texts of modern African literature; over 230 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose.
- Black Drama (2nd edition) This link opens in a new windowThis edition of Black Drama contains the full text of 1,462 plays written by 233 playwrights from North America, Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
- Caribbean Literature This link opens in a new windowA searchable collection of poetry and fiction produced in the region during the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the titles are numerous rare and hard-to-find works written in English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and various Creole languages. Future releases will also feature journals, reference works, and interviews with key writers. The database currently has over 24,000 pages. Starting with the literature produced in Spanish and French colonies in the 1800s, the collection offers an extensive selection of 19th- and 20th-century works from every Caribbean country.
- EBSCO eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowebook Collection provides access to full-text scholarly, reference and professional electronic books (e-books) from leading university, academic and professional publishers. These e-books are digital versions of print books from a broad range of subject areas and topics.
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new windowHathiTrust is a partnership of major research institutions and libraries working to ensure that the cultural record is preserved and accessible long into the future. There are more than fifty partners in HathiTrust, and membership is open to institutions worldwide. There are hundreds of collections on numerous topics that are accessible in digital form.
- Springer E-Books This link opens in a new windowSpringer eBooks includes more than 10,000 books online. The University of Delaware Library has acquired Springer eBooks in ten subject areas: Behavioral Science; Biomedical and Life Science; Business and Economics; Chemistry and Materials Science; Computer Science; Earth and Environmental Science; Engineering; Humanities, Social Science, and Law; Mathematics and Statistics; and Physics and Astronomy.
Open Access E-Book Collections:
- Internet Archive's Text ArchiveThe Internet Archive's purpose is to offer permanent access to historical collections that exist in digital format. The Internet Archive Text Archive contains a wide range of fiction, popular books, children's books, historical texts and academic books that you can download for free.
- Open LibraryThe goal of Open Library, a project of the Internet Archive, is to provide a page on the web for every book ever published. At its heart, Open Library is a catalog-- there are over 20 million edition records online, with free access to 1.7 million scanned versions of books. Because of its open source wiki interface, contributors are encouraged to continue to add documentation to the site.
- National Academies PressThe National Academies Press (NAP) was created to publish reports under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the most authoritative views on important issues in science and health policy. You can access the full text of books for free and order a hard copy for a charge.
- World Digital LibraryThe World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.
Browsing the stacks in Morris Library can be extremely helpful when you are looking for additional sources for your research. Most books related to African history can be found on the 3rd floor of Morris Library and fall under the following Library of Congress classifications:
C, D History - General
DT History - Africa
JQ1870 - JQ3981 - African politics
KQ2 - KTZ490 - African Law
PL8000 - PL8844 - African Literature
This is just a sampling of the subjects that you might encounter. Because African Studies is so interdisciplinary, you may need to do a specific subject search in DELCAT, the library's catalog, to find the call number for the book that you need. You can also "browse" the shelves virtually by searching by Call Number through DELCAT.