Download - WISER : Information Sources for African Studies Tuesday 31st May 2011 Sarah Rhodes and Lucy McCann
WISER : Information Sources for
African Studies
Tuesday 31st May 2011
Sarah Rhodes and Lucy McCann
Structure of today’s session
How to find relevant Africa resources in Oxford:
o Identifying and searching the key tools used to access resources via the African Studies LibGuide (including SOLO, OxLIP+ and e-journals)
Locating web resources for African Studies
Finding key sites useful for research eg Archives and primary sources
Key Starting points for African resources in Oxford
African Studies subject page www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/africanKey information on one pageContact informationCollection policy for African StudiesCollection overviews: principal and associatedLinks to key websites
African Studies LibGuide http://ox.libguides.com/african-studies Gateway to different resources and formats relevant for
African Studies inc. books, journal articles, theses, news resources, film and archives.
African collections in Oxford: Reference
Main research collections and archives are housed at BLCAS at Rhodes House
www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/rhodesSpecialises in history and current affairs
(political, economic and social) of sub-Saharan Africa and the Commonwealth
Houses books, journals, theses, government publications, newspapers
Circa 4,000 manuscript and archive collectionsReference only
African collections in Oxford: Teaching
Core teaching collections are held at Social Science Library and History Faculty Library – these can be borrowed by University members.
Other collections of interest include the Law Library, English Faculty Library and Radcliffe Science Library
All Bodleian libraries can be accessed through the homepage:
www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/libraries
African Studies LibGuide
http://ox.libguides.com/african-studies
SOLO: Search Oxford Libraries Online
http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Searches OLIS, Oxford University Research Archive (ORA), Oxford University e-journals
Use to find books (both print and electronic), theses, journal titles and database titles (eg Historical Abstracts)
Search results can be saved to your e-shelf
OxLIP+: Oxford Libraries Information Platform http://oxlip-plus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/
Gateway to University-subscribed subject databases and e-resources including full-text, abstracts / indexes, websites
Provides access to key abstract, journal articles and citation indexes for African Studies eg. Worldwide Political Science Abstracts; PAIS International;
ASSIA; SCOPUS; Historical Abstracts; CSA Illumina
Also facilitates connection to databases from off campus via your SSO
African Studies on OxLIP+
20 databases have been listed for African Studies
Click on subject tab and scroll down to African Studies, click on GO for full listing
Includes access to Aluka, FRANCIS, Empire On-Line (Colonial history), ELDIS etc
Information is available on each database to guide users.
Keyword and subject searching tips
Keyword searchingSearches for terms anywhere in the field or recordUseful as a starting place but results can be less
relevant Subject indexes
Where possible tap into the subject headings or thesauri provided by the databases
Citation searching (available in SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar)
Oxford e-journals http://ejournals.bodleian.ox.ac.uk Electronic journal titles also appear on SOLOJournals are listed A-Z ‘by Title’, ‘by Subject’,
and ‘by Citation’No subset for African related e-journals but, for
example, a search by title for ‘Africa’ retrieves 365 titles
Clicking on individual titles will allow searching by Year, Volume, Issue, Start Page
Full-text articles will be retrieved only for e-journals to which Oxford University subscribes
LibGuide links directly to key African e-journal titles
Africa Web resources outside Oxford Use the African LibGuide to access additional resources:
http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/african-studies Or try the gateways below which facilitate access to African
Web information by collating and organising resources by regions, topic, or format. British Library:
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/africa/africa/internetlinks/wwwlinks.html
Intute: http://www.intute.ac.uk/
Nordic Afrika Institut: http://www.nai.uu.se/library/resources/guidetoafrica
Columbia University Libraries: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/
SOAS:http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/africa
British Library: African Collections
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/africa/africa/aresources.html
‘Rich resource for the study of Africa. Relevant material can be found throughout the collections, in the form of printed books and serials, newspapers, MSS, archives, sound recordings, music, prints, drawings, photographs and stamps’
Africa pages deal mainly with sub-Saharan Africa.Links to bibliographies; e-resources; e-journals
British Library: Africa web links
Internet links via the British Library Asian and African Studies: world wide web links
http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelpregion/africa/africa/internetlinks/wwwlinks.html
This is an invaluable access point to African resources, covering: Portals Bibliographies Current Affairs Official publications Archives Visual material African languages African studies and library networks
Intute: African Studies
Intute provides ‘Web resources for the study of the African languages, literature written in those languages, or the history and culture of Africa. Each resource has been evaluated and categorised by subject specialists based in UK universities’.
http://www.intute.ac.uk/humanities/ http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/ Search humanities or social sciences for African Studies
Within African Studies filter by resource type such as archives; research centre and projects; datasets; resources guide and directory etc.
Accessing archive materials
The main tools for accessing primary source materials and archives for Africa in and outside Oxford include:Online catalogues of Western MSSDatabases of Foreign Office and Colonial Office
Confidential PrintsArchives HubNational Register of ArchivesA2A (Access to Archives)Mundus GatewayAnti-Slavery InternationalCAMP
Online catalogues for Western MSS
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/online.htm
Includes collections at Rhodes House and in the central Bodleian
Some full catalogues and some collection level descriptions
‘Search Electronic Catalogues’ is a facility to search across the catalogues
Foreign Office and Colonial Office Confidential Prints
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/official_papers/fo_prints
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/official_papers/colonial-office-confidential-prints
databases can be searched by jurisdiciton, date, document number and keyword
Archives Hub
http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/ Provides descriptions of archives in over 150 UK
universities and collegesCirca 700 archives held at BLCAS are listed
National Register of Archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp Provided by the UK National Archives: Historical
Manuscripts Commission, the NRA consists of indexes to the records of persons, families and corporate bodies mainly held in Britain. It is an essential tool for locating manuscripts and archives in the UK
Search by corporate, personal, family or place name
A2A: Access to Archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/Online catalogue for archives held locally in
England and Wales
Mundus Gateway
http://www.mundus.ac.uk/The Mundus Gateway is a web-based guide to more
than four hundred collections of overseas missionary materials held in the United Kingdom.
These materials, comprising the archives of British missionary societies, collections of personal papers, printed matter, photographs, other visual materials and artefacts, are held in a large number of libraries, record offices and other institutions in England, Northern
Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Anti-Slavery Internationalhttp://www.antislavery.org.uk/english/resources/library.
aspx
Houses a library of contemporary and historical material relating to slavery world wide and its related subjects
Co-operative Africana Microform Project: CAMPhttp://www.crl.edu/areastudies/camp CAMP is based at the Center for Research Libraries,
University of Chicago CAMP promotes the preservation through microfilming of
publications and archives on and from Africa. It then makes these available on request to students and
researchers at member libraries, of which BLCAS is one. Materials so acquired and conserved include mainly
historic newspapers and journals; government publications; personal and corporate archives; personal papers of scholars, government leaders and journalists; writings in European and African languages.
Contact Rhodes House Library to borrow CAMP material.
Contact details:
Contact e-resources helpdesk [email protected]
Ask in your Libraryhttp://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries
Contact the African Studies Subject [email protected]
Contact the African Studies Archivist
We value your feedback
We will be sending an email feedback survey
Any Questions?