• INTRODUCTION
• FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
• SELECTED PRINT REFERENCE SOURCES
• FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND
• FIND ARTICLES AND MORE
• FIND WEBSITES

INTRODUCTION

This subject guide covers comprehensive resources related to African American literature, culture, politics and history. Other related subject guides include: African- American History, U.S. History and African History

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Reference Books are located on the Main Level of Lavery Library.

Reference books provide background information to help you understand your topic, narrow your topic, or prepare an outline of your topic. They also help define terms related to your topic, provide assistance in the selection of subject terms for your database searches, and contain factual information, such as, statistics, biographies, and maps.

SELECTED PRINT REFERENCES SOURCES:

Literature and Research Guides
E185.H326 2001 REF
The Harvard Guide to African-American History

Encyclopedias
E185.E54 1996 REF
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History

PS153.N5.B556 1992
Black Literature Criticism: Excerpts From Criticism of the Most Significant Works of Black Authors Over the Past 200 Years

E185.5.O74 2001 REF
Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African-American Associations

E185.61.E544 1998 REF
The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights In America

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

PS153.N5O96 1997 REF
The Oxford Companion To African-American Literature

E185.A37 1997 REF
The African-American Almanac

Biographies
PS153.N5.A34 2001 REF
African-American Writers

E185.96.D53 1982 REF
Dictionary of American Negro Biography

E185.86.N68 1998
Notable Black American Men

E185.96.N68 1996
Notable Black American Women

Statistical Sources
E185.86.B52 1999 REF
Black Americans; A Statistical Sourcebook

E185.5.S83 1997 REF
Statistical Record of Black America

E185.H543 1995 REF
Historical Statistics of Black America

Historical Newspaper Indexes
E449.A57 REF
Antislavery Newspapers and Periodicals

E185.5.J33
Antebellum Black Newspapers

FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND
The key to the library's extensive book collection is the Library Catalog. It may be searched by Author, Title, Subject, or Keyword. Subject headings are established by the Library of Congress. If you have any trouble selecting a Subject heading for your topic, try a Keyword search or check the listings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings red books (Z 695 .L69 2001 REF) in the Reference area near the main floor computers.

Subject Headings which may be useful to you for African American Studies are:

African Americans—History
African Americans—Literary collections
Blacks—Literary collections
African American families
African Americans—Politics and government

If you would like to browse in the African-American Studies section of the library, the main call numbers for:

African-American culture are: NX512's
African-American history are: E185's
African-American literature are: PS153's

Circulating books are all located on the upper level.

Link to the Library Catalog from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu

Find books in Other Libraries by selecting Library Catalog from the library's home page, then select Other Library Catalogs.

Search the world for books by selecting WorldCat from the databases listed under Research Databases. From the library's home page, select Research Tools, select Research Databases, then select WorldCat from the alphabetized list.

To order a book from another library use the online Interlibrary Loan form, accessible from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu.

FIND ARTICLES AND MORE
Lavery Library subscribes to an extensive collection of Research Databases that may be used to search for articles on your topic in periodicals, newspapers, and book chapters. Periodicals include both scholarly journals and popular magazines. When researching for courses in your major, it is usually recommended that you use scholarly articles, also referred to as peer reviewed or refereed articles. Databases will often allow you to limit your search to scholarly articles.

If the article cited on the database that you are using does not appear in full-text on the database, check Periodical Holdings to determine if the periodical is either full-text on another database or available in hard copy in the library's collection. From the library's home page, select Research Tools, then select Research Databases.

Research Databases are listed both alphabetically and by subject on the library's home page. When starting research in African American Studies, the following databases are recommended:

America History and Life
JSTOR
Expanded Academic
Proquest Databases
Sociological Abstracts
Alternative Press Index

Link to Subject Listing of databases available for Humanities and Art

FIND WEBSITES
When using websites for research it is very important to evaluate their authority and content. Use the following checklist to evaluate sites before using them as references.

Evaluating Web Sites Checklist

Your liaison librarian has provided a list of quality websites for African American Studies. They are available on the library's home page under Selected Websites.

To search for additional websites, start with Google - http://www.google.com.