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 eresources@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Ask in your Libraryhttp://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries

Contact the African Studies Subject Librariansarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Contact the African Studies Archivist

lucy.mccann@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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