Reference Resources  |  Finding Books  |  Finding Articles  |  Local Collections  |  Selected Web Sites  |  Help

REFERENCE RESOURCES

Reference sources are a good way to start your research, especially if you don't know very much about your topic. You can familiarize yourself with the history, key concepts, people, and jargon related to your topic using the following resources. Many of them include further readings or a bibliography after each entry that will lead you to other sources of information. These sources and more can be found in the Reference section, located on the 2nd floor of the Daley Library.

General Overview
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
DT14 .A37435 1999

The African-American Almanac  (10 volumes)
E185 .A253 2001

The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference
E185 .N49 1999

Reference Library of Black America  (5 volumes)
E185 .R44 2000


History
African American History in the Press, 1851-1899: From the Coming of the Civil War to the Rise of Jim Crow as Reported and Illustrated in Selected Newspapers of the Time (2 volumes)
E185.2 .A25 1996

Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (5 volumes)
E185 .E54 1996

Historical Statistics of Black America (2 volumes)
E185 .H543 1995

The Timetables of African-American History:  A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in African-American History
E185 .H295 1995


Literature
African American Writers (2 volumes)
PS153.N5 A344 2001

African-American Writers:  A Dictionary
PS153.N5 A3444 2000

Harlem Renaissance and Beyond:  Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1950
PS153.N5 R65 1989

Modern Black Writers
PN841 .M58 2000

top

 

 

FINDING BOOKS

Use UICCAT, UIC's online catalog, to find books at the UIC Library that you can check out.

Perform a Boolean Search (use "and" to combine terms) to find books about topics in African American studies. For instance:

• blacks and film
• politics and race and "African American"

African American studies is a broad subject area, and Boolean searching in UICCAT may retrieve too many (or irrelevant) results. There are many different Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that cover aspects of African American studies.  For example:

• African Americans--Biography
• Civil rights demonstrations--Alabama

By using the exact subject heading, you can focus your search so that you retrieve only books that fall within a particular subject category. A good way to do this is by looking at the "LC Subjects" area in the "Detailed Record" of some relevant books in UICCAT (once you've done a preliminary keyword search). Alternately, you can consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings (a red multi-volume set located at the Reference Desk, 2nd floor of the Richard J. Daley Library), or ask a librarian.

top

 

 

FINDING ARTICLES

Use these article indexes to locate articles on your topic. Click here to see an alphabetical list of all the databases and indexes UIC subscribes to. From this page you may also access indexes and databases relating to African American studies. Keep in mind that UIC does not own all the journals and magazines listed in these indexes. Check UICCAT to see if the Library owns the journal you need.

Online Indexes

African-American Biographical Database
Biographical sketches drawn from sources such as Chadwyck-Healey’s Black Biographical Dictionaries 1790-1950 and Black Biography, 1790-1950: A Cumulative Index.

African-American Studies
Manuscripts, court cases, statutes, speeches, autobiographies, images, government documents and secondary sources (including journal articles) dating from 1619 to the present.  Most items are full-text.

America: History and Life
Historical coverage of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

Ethnic NewsWatch
News, culture, and history from the ethnic, minority and native press (full-text, English and Spanish).

Humanities Abstracts
Broad range of humanities fields:  archeology, art, classics, film, folklore, food, journalism, linguistics, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion, space, world history, and world literature.

MLA Bibliography
Covers scholarly materials in literature, language, linguistics, folklore and film, with coverage from 1963 to the present.

PAIS International
Political, social, and public policy issues:  economics, politics, business, finance, law, international trade, public administration and, government.  Documents published in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish are included.

Social Sciences Abstracts
Scholarly articles from a broad range of social sciences fields:  anthropology, economics, geography, law, political science, psychology, sociology.

Print Indexes
The following article indexes are located on Index Table 1 South on the 2nd floor of the Daley Library.

Index to Black Newspapers (1978-1985)
AI3 .I365

Black Newspapers Index (1986-present)
AI3. I366

Index to Periodical Articles By and About Blacks (1960-1983)
AI3 .O422

Index to Black Periodicals (1984-present)
AI3 .O423

top

 

LOCAL COLLECTIONS

The Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection of Afro-American History and Literature
The largest African American history and literature collection in the Midwest is housed at the Chicago Public Library Woodson Regional Library.

Northwestern University Library Africana Collection
The largest separate Africana collection in existence.  Subject coverage includes art, history, literature, music, religion, communications, management, cooking, and more. 

Chicago Historical Society
Museum and research center dedicated to collecting, interpreting, and presenting the rich multicultural history of Chicago and Illinois.

DuSable Museum of African American History
The only major independent institution in Chicago established to preserve and interpret the historical experiences and achievements of African Americans.

The HistoryMakers
A video oral history archive dedicated to preserving African American history.  The collection focuses on African American history, education, music, law, the arts, science, technology, media, medicine, entertainment, fashion and beauty, business, the military, politics, and sports. 

top

 

SELECTED WEB SITES

UIC Department of African American Studies 

Chicago Renaissance
Images and documents from the Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection.

African American Odyssey
Part of the American Memory collection at the Library of Congress. 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
A national research library devoted to collecting, preserving, and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world.  A branch of the New York Public Library.

top

 

QUESTIONS?  ASK A LIBRARIAN!

Call us:
(312) 966-2726 (Daley Library Reference Department)
(312) 996-9163 (LHS Reference Consultation Office)

Chat live with a librarian:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/digital/chatform.shtml

E-mail us your question:
http://www.uic.edu/depts/lib/digital/emailform.shtml

Stop by in person:
Daley Library Reference Desk, 2nd floor
LHS Reference Consultation Office, 1st floor

 

top

 

aa/ref/6-02; aa/ref/1-03rev.; ss/ref/10-04rev; rs/ref/4-05rev.