Library research resources for
Anthropology of Modern Africa

Save time with a strategic approach to research:

First, collect a list of leads (authors, titles, relevant keywords or subjects, themes and concepts) from reference sources (bibliographies, research guides, topical encyclopedias, etc.). Use Reference Universe (an index to many reference sources) as a guide, but browse the reference stacks, too. Check for suggested readings, references cited and bibliography sections as you review relevant items. The preface and, if available, chronology sections of these resources can also be valuable starting points for your research.

Second, use these results to narrow your search for books and primary sources in the library catalog. Check the LONG view of any promising records to see subject headings and consider alternative keyword terms. Primary sources such as popular culture images, literary passages and audio/visual "texts" may be more challenging to identify so, if you wish to use these in your work, plan to spend additional time refining your search strategy and applying it to a wide variety of research tools.

Third, use your developing list of leads to search for relevant scholarly articles in the journal index databases (see the research gateway and project starters for general suggestions). Continue to apply your developing list of leads iteratively, using new terms in the research tools that you may have already used with only your initial list. You may find additional sources via the links available on the libraries' Anthropology, African Studies and Art & Art History web pages.

1. Reference resources

Use the newly available Reference Universe (index to reference works) as a way to begin identifying useful resources. Browse the Humanities & Social Sciences (H & SS) Reference area in Library West for overviews of disciplines, topics, countries, cultures, etc. Issues and themes (case studies, surveys of popular culture, maps, etc.) relating to your topic may be collected together in more general materials (i.e. world, Third World or developing areas, indigenous peoples' rights, labor conflicts, housing issues, urbanization). Browse for overviews of African countries and cultures in the DT call number area and consider doing the same in the Political Science (call number J) section and in the DT area of the Architecture and Fine Arts Library book stacks.

Reference resources lead you to more specific academic sources in the book stacks or journal literature (check the suggested readings, references cited, and bibliography sections as you peruse browsed items). In the following examples, many articles are signed by recognized experts. Less authoritative guides generally don't follow this practice, so it can be an indication of quality information. Also note that annotations in bibliographies can save you time in shelf browsing, leading you directly to your primary areas of interest.

Africa bibliography. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 1985- Frequency: Annual
Africa--Bibliography--Periodicals.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): Z3501 .A37

Africa South of the Sahara. London: Europa Publications Ltd.
LIBRARY WEST: DT351 .A37 (Latest 3 eds. in Reference).

Countries and their cultures. Melvin Ember and Carol R. Ember, eds. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): GN307 .C68 2001 and available via Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara. John Middleton, ed. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1997.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): DT351 .E53 1997

Encyclopedia of Black studies. Molefi Kete Asante and Ama Mazama (eds.). Thousand Oaks, CA : SAGE Publications, 2005.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): E185.E554 2005 and available via Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Encyclopedia of leadership. George R. Goethals, Georgia J. Sorenson and James MacGregor Burns, eds. Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage Publications, c2004.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): HD57.7 .E53 2004 and available via Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, 3v. Thomas Benjamin, ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, c2007.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): JV22 .E535 2007 and available via Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Encyclopedia of world cultures. David Levinson, editor in chief. Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1991-1996 & 2002 supplement.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): GN307 .E53 1991 and available via Gale Virtual Reference Library.

The Gale virtual reference library integrates some of the most heavily used encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources in a online database. Contents include: Cities of the world, 6th ed., 4 v., 2002 -- Countries and their cultures, 4 v., 2001 -- Countries of the world and their leaders yearbook 2004, 2 v., 2003 -- Encyclopedia of food and culture, 3 v., 2003 -- Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim world, 2 v., 2004 -- History behind the headlines: the origins of conflicts worldwide, 6 v., 2001 -- World press encyclopedia, 2nd ed., 2 v., 2003 -- Worldmark encyclopedia of the nations, 11th ed., 6 v., 2004.

Ghana. Robert A. Myers. Santa Barbara, CA: Clio Press, 1991. Series: World bibliographical series; v. 124.
Ghana--Bibliography.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): DT510 .M31 1991 and available online via NetLibrary.

Historical dictionary of Ghana. David Owusu-Ansah. 3d ed. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 2005. Series: African historical dictionaries; no. 97.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): DT510.5.O87 2005

N.B. The above two examples for Ghana are representative of 500 titles currently in the library's collection of the World bibliographical series and nearly 400 titles beginning with Historical dictionary of.... Many of the titles in these extensive series are available via NetLibrary.

Historical dictionary of the 1970s. Olson, James S. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor): E839.H57 1999 and online via netLibrary.

Historical dictionary of the 1960s. Olson, James S. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, c1999.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor): E841H58 1999 and online via netLibrary.

Political parties of the world. 6th ed. Bogdan Szajkowski (ed.). London : John Harper ; Farmington Hills, MI : Distributed in the U.S. by Gale Group, 2005.
LIBRARY WEST, Reference (Non-Circulating): JF2051.D39 2005 and available via Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Reference Universe
"Unlike a library catalog, which generally provides data about reference works, this database searches the complete indexes of more than 10,000 reference titles. Nearly 2,000 of these titles are online editions."

2. The library catalog and beyond

Use the library catalog to identify relevant books in our collections and use the catalog records of relevant books as tools for locating additional sources for your research. The catalog is also a good tool for identifying journal titles or retrieving links for e-journals and e-books. Note that for government documents, the issuing agency is generally considered the author. Advanced searches can narrow your results to specific formats such as audio recordings, video, etc. Several categories of materials that may be primary sources for your work are listed below, but also consider also using finding aids to the manuscript and archival collections housed in the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections. We currently have access to both Archives USA and ArchiveGrid, databases of manuscript and archive resources throughout the country, which may be useful if you pursue advanced work with primary sources.

For example, search for culture and customs of Africa (select "'anywhere") and then experiment by limiting your results using the facets column on the left. Use the Subject: Geographic Area feature to see what's available for your country case study. This feature allows you to narrow broad searches and helps avoid problems when you try to limit searching too narrowly or too soon in the process. You may wish to try terms such as dress, monuments, insignia, regalia to see what results you find.

Newspapers and magazines published in Africa during the 1950s and '60s.

Drum. Johannesburg, South Africa: Drum. Request Retrieval STORAGE AP9 .D785

East Africa and Rhodesia. London, Africana. Weekly. Request Retrieval STORAGE 967.6E13 and LIBRARY WEST Microfilm (3rd Floor) -- AP9.E13 .Positive

The Herald [microform] Salisbury < Harare, Zimbabwe> : Rhodesian Print. & Pub. Co., 1978- Library West Microfilm (3rd Floor) AN9.Z55 R56

The Star [microform] Johannesburg : Argus. Library West Microfilm (3rd Floor) DT1701 .S72 MOST CURRENT ISSUES IN PAPER

Transition: A journal of the arts, culture and society. Kampala, Uganda: Transition. 1961-1975/76. STORAGE 967.005T772 [Available online via JSTOR].

We yone. Freetown [Sierra Leone]: Proprietors We Yone.
Library West General Collection DT516 W3 &
Library West Microfilm (3rd Floor) DT516 .W3

West Africa. [ London, West Africa Pub. Co. Ltd.]
Library West Periodicals [Request 0-999 from Storage] 916.605 W522

Videos and music recordings

Use the library catalog advanced search function to limit searches to "video (all formats/VHS/DVD)"; "CD"; or "music." The Anthropology, African Studies and Art & Art History web pages with their links to discipline specific journal indexes may provide you with good leads as well.

Sources for images

African political ephemera such as posters, ballots and the like may be identified in the library catalog and journal index searches. We own a large microfilm collection relating to Africa, including missionary and colonial government archives as well as a title that may prove particularly useful in the course: Twentieth century political ephemera from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, which covers much of English-speaking Africa (East, West, Central and South). Digital viewers allow the scanning of microfilm images for research purposes.

Museums and collecting hobby or interest groups and societies can be excellent sources of information, images and leads for further work. The UF College of Fine Arts Visual Resource Center has a good set of links to museum sites. Specialized academic sites available to UF faculty, students and staff include AP Images (news photo archive) and Camio (for art). Consider free sites such as Flickr, You Tube, Magnum (actually a commercial site for stock photos) and the Prelinger Internet archive.

Web searches for "([country name]" AND (currency OR "bank notes" OR "paper money")) may be effective in Google Images and other search engines, but commercial currency exchange sites may clutter your results. One acceptable site is Banknotes of Africa. Similar searches for postcards, photographs, stamps, flags, posters, murals and signs, political ephemera and collectibles of all kinds can yield surprisingly useful and interesting results. Use your best judgement to assess the quality and reliability of all websites.

Newspaper archives

Alternative Press Index Archive (1969-1990). Baltimore, Md.: Alternative Press Center; [Dublin, Ohio]: OCLC.

ProQuest allows searches of their full collection of Historical Newspapers at once: New York Times (1851-2001); Wall Street Journal (1889-1986); Washington Post (1877-1988); Atlanta Constitution (1868 - 1939); Chicago Tribune (1849 - 1986); Christian Science Monitor (1908-1991); and The Chicago Defender (1905 - 1975).

Consider using specialized databases of political cartoons, such as the British Cartoon Archive from the University of Kent.

African literature

Search the library catalog for African authors of speeches, novels, poetry and other creative works. Like visual and audio works, these written texts can be excellent sources of political commentary, rhetoric and relate to popular culture in ways that other sources may not. The Literature Resource Center is a good place to identify the authors associated with particular countries.

3. Journal index databases

AnthroSource and JSTOR work together linking recent journals in the former and an archive of earlier issues in the latter.

Gale's Literature Resource Center is an excellent source of information on African authors including biographies, interviews, bibliographies of their own writings and criticism.

Historical Abstracts covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present, including world history, military history, women's history, history of education, and more. This authoritative database provides indexing of more than 1,700 academic historical journals in over 40 languages back to 1955. History and social science researchers have used Historical Abstracts to discover significant and groundbreaking work for more than 50 years. No other history research tool matches its scholarly standards or comprehensive coverage. In 2006, Historical Abstracts began adding retrospective coverage for the most important historical journals in JSTOR. By project’s end, coverage for these journals will extend back to the late-19th century.

PAIS International: Public affairs, public and social policies, international relations

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

The research gateway (use the "find database" tab and the "by subject" function for recommended databases by discipline) and the broader project starters pages provide suggestions on which databases will be best for your topic. As noted above, you may find additional sources via the links available on the libraries' Anthropology, African Studies and Art & Art History web pages.