Library Resource Guide for: AFRICANA STUDIES

Individual Databases for Africana Studies

Abstracting and Indexing with Full-Text:

AccessUN    
1944-present; provides access to current and retrospective United Nations documents and publications.

African Writers Series    
For over 40 years, Heinemann's African Writers Series has published the key texts of modern African literature. It has a unique importance in the history of postcolonial writing. Release Seven of this online edition includes over 230 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose, including works by Chinua Achebe, Ama Ata Aidoo, Steve Biko, Buchi Emecheta, Nadine Gordimer, Bessie Head, Doris Lessing, Nelson Mandela, Dambudzo Marechera, Christopher Okigbo, Okot p'Bitek and Tayeb Salih.

SocINDEX with Full Text    
1895-present; SocINDEX with Full Text is a comprehensive sociology research database. This product contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, SocINDEX with Full Text provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,390 "selective" coverage journals. Includes extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources. Searchable cited references are also provided. SocINDEX with Full Text offers coverage from all subdisciplines of sociology, including abortion, anthropology, criminology, criminal justice, cultural sociology, demography, economic development, ethnic & racial studies, gender studies, marriage & family, politics, religion, rural sociology, social psychology, social structure, social work, sociological theory, sociology of education, substance abuse, urban studies, violence, welfare, and many others.

Abstracting and Indexing with Links to Full-Text:

AnthroSource    
Current plus archive to 2006; AnthroSource is an online resource serving the research, teaching, and professional needs of anthropologists. Developed by the American Anthropological Association (AAA), AnthroSource brings 100 years of anthropological material online to scholars and the public.

Abstracts and Indexes:

African Studies Abstracts Online
ASA Online succeeds the printed abstracts journal of the African Studies Centre in Leiden (Netherlands). ASA has been in print since 1968, first under the title Documentatieblad, then as African Studies Abstracts (1994-2002). It provides a quarterly overview of journal articles and edited works on Africa in the field of the social sciences and the humanities available in the Library of the African Studies Centre.

Alternative Press Index  
1991-present; international and interdisciplinary, Alternative Press Index provides access to nearly 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines that report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political and social change.

Alternative Press Index Archive  
1969-1990; international and interdisciplinary, Alternative Press Index Archive provides access to nearly 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines that report and analyze the practices and theories of cultural, economic, political and social change.

Anthropological Literature  
1984-present; indexes articles on anthropology and archaeology, including art history, demography, economics, psychology, and religion.

Historical Abstracts  
1954-present; article abstracts and citations of books and dissertations on the history of the world from 1450 to the present. Excludes the U. S. and Canada.

Literature and Culture of Francophone Africa and the Diaspora/Littérature et Culture de l'Afrique Francophone et de la Diaspora
Current; a bilingual site that features selected internet resources on primarily Francophone African & Diasporic cultural expression.

PAIS Archive    
1915-1976; retrospective companion to PAIS International which includes periodicals, books, hearings, reports, gray literature, government publications, and Internet resources. Subjects include politics, public policy, government, international relations, law and ethics, human rights, economics, business, finance, and other social sciences. SEARCH PAIS International (1972-present) and the PAIS Archive simultaneously.

PAIS International    
1972-present; includes periodicals, books, hearings, reports, gray literature, government publications, and Internet resources. Subjects include politics, public policy, government, international relations, law and ethics, human rights, economics, business, finance, and other social sciences. SEARCH PAIS International and the PAIS Archive(1937-1976) simultaneously.

Race Relations Abstracts  
1976- present;Race Relations Abstracts indexes essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Race, Ethnicity & Education and Ethnic & Racial Studies.

Social Sciences Citation Index  
1973-present; source for information in all major social sciences disciplines. Useful for retrieving recent articles which cite a known earlier article.

Biography:

Contemporary Africa Database
A product of the Africa Centre, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, with the aim to provide information on African people, organisations and history, on a single website. The database is divided into three sections: (1) People: A Who's Who of prominent Africans now living or who have died since 1950, in all fields of expertise, for example artists, political luminaries, scientists, business-people etc (online). (2) Institution Africa: A directory of African institutions including governments, pan-African bodies, non-governmental organisations, and significant businesses (online). (3) Chronology Africa: A chronology of important events and dates in the contemporary African calendar, for example political events, festivals, birthdays, commemorations. (Build-date 2005). The project is ongoing and the database in continuously updated.

Comprehensive Databases:

LexisNexis Academic    
Current; said to be the world's largest full-text, online database, containing more than a billion full-text articles, citation abstracts, and documents. Emphasis is on current news and legal and business information. Link to A-Z list of resources on LexisNexis Academic.

Full Text:

Black Drama    
1850-present; when complete, Black Drama will contain the full text of 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. Nearly a quarter of the collection will consist of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Femi Euba, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.

Journals Online:

Academic Search Premier    
Current; multi-discipline, full text database, designed for the academic community. Includes full text coverage for just under 4,700 journals, including 3,600 peer-reviewed journals.

African Journals Online
Multidisciplinary index of 350 journals published in Africa with the goal of "making African-origin research output...available to Africans and the rest of the world".

Ethnic NewsWatch and ENW: A History    
1980-present; Ethnic NewsWatch is an interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) and comprehensive full text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press beginning in 1990. ENW: A History covers the years 1960-1989. The experiences and contributions of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Peoples, Asian Americans, European Americans, Jewish Americans and Arab Americans illuminate three critical decades in U.S. and world history.

JSTOR    
Provides image and full text online access to back issues of selected scholarly journals in history, economics, political science, demography, mathematics and other fields of the humanities and social sciences. Consult the online tables of contents for holdings, as coverage varies for each title.

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Statistics:

Polling the Nations  
1986-present; Polling the Nations is a compilation of more than 14,000 surveys conducted by more than 700 polling organizations in the United States and more than 80 other countries. Each of the records reports a question asked and the responses given, the polling organization responsible for the work, the date the information was released, the sample size, and the universe, i.e., the groups or areas included in the interview.

World Development Indicators    
Current; published by the World Bank, WDI contains statistical data for over 550 development indicators and time series data from 1960-2003 for over 200 countries and 18 country groups. Data includes social, economic, financial, natural resources, and environmental indicators.