Research Guides (LibGuides): PO350: African Politics: Finding Information

Primary Sources

What is a primary source? In short, it is the firsthand account of history. This can include all types of materials - newspapers, letters, diaries, videos, etc.

We have a number of databases that focus on primary source materials that may be interesting for you to use - either for information or media/image sources. See the word cloud below (Powered by Wordart.com).

Primary Sources

Library of Congress: Digital Collections
The Library of Congress has incredible collections of documents, images, multimedia, and more about many facets of American history.
Smithsonian Collections
"The Smithsonian's collections represent our nation's rich heritage, art from across the globe, and the immense diversity of the natural and cultural world."
DPLA Primary Source Sets
Sets of primary source documents and related activities to explore a variety of topics in US history
Digital History
Breaks content down into eras and topics. Includes primary sources, voices, and multimedia.

These are more subject-specific:

The 13th Amendment: Library of Congress Web Guide
Provides links to many online digital collections related to the 13th amendment.
Digital Library of the Caribbean
The Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) is a cooperative digital library for resources from and about the Caribbean and circum-Caribbean. dLOC provides access to digitized versions of Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials currently held in archives, libraries, and private collections.
Forced Labor: 1939-1945, Memory and History
After registering in the online archive, you can search and listen to the complete interviews, coming with transcripts, German translations, photos, and further material.
Library of Congress: Indian Removal Act
Includes links to primary source documents, maps, and more.
Native American Heritage Month
Includes exhibits and collections from multiple government bodies (including the National Archives and Smithsonian), as well as audio and video.
The Gilder Lehrman Collection
The Collection includes more than 60,000 letters, diaries, maps, pamphlets, printed books, newspapers, photographs, and ephemera that document the political, social, and economic history of the United States. The Collection ranges from 1493 through the twentieth century and is widely considered one of the nation’s great archives in the Revolutionary, early national, antebellum, and Civil War periods.
Documenting the American South
Documenting the American South (DocSouth) is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to southern history, literature, and culture. Currently DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Slave Voyages Database
The SlaveVoyages website is a collaborative digital initiative that compiles and makes publicly accessible records of the largest slave trades in history. Search these records to learn about the broad origins and forced relocations of more than 12 million African people who were sent across the Atlantic in slave ships, and hundreds of thousands more who were trafficked within the Americas. Explore where they were taken, the numerous rebellions that occurred, the horrific loss of life during the voyages, the identities and nationalities of the perpetrators, and much more.

How can you find additional primary resources?

A Google search can normally bring these resources to light. Try this trick:
- Add "site:.edu" after your search term to limit to university resources, like LibGuides or university library collections.
- Add "site:.gov" after your search term to limit to U.S. government resources. You can also add .eu for European resources, or look up the domain for any particular country.
- Add "site:.org" after your search term to limit to organization sites. Note: not all organizations are credible!! However, many museums use this domain.
Ask a librarian!

Additional Sources: Databases & Journals

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
This large multi-disciplinary database provides full text for more than 4,770 journals, including full text for over 4,000 peer-reviewed titles.

NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES

New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
The New York Times (1851-2013) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Included are journals, magazines, and newspapers from ethnic and minority presses, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives.
Life Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Complete digital version of Life Magazine from 1936 through 2000
Time Magazine Archive This link opens in a new window
Complete digital version of Time Magazine from 1923 through 2000.

BLOGS

the Black Perspectives Blog of the African American Intellectual History Society

Curated by an editorial board of respected scholars, Black Perspectives posts relatively short posts about the Black transatlantic past and present.

African Studies LibGuide
Research resources for the study of Africa

PressReader This link opens in a new window
Access to 7000 newspapers and magazines, including international sources.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Nexis Uni provides access to the full text of hundreds of major business and legal journals, magazines, and U.S. and international newspapers. Company financial, country, tax, medical, federal and state legal information, and accounting information can also be accessed.
Global Issues in Context This link opens in a new window
Global Issues in Context covers a wide variety of subject areas, including sociology, current events, civics, politics, science, economics, cultural/religious studies, women's studies, human rights, English composition and many more.

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to full-text academic electronic journals in various disciplines including economics and finance, political science, history, literature, anthropology, mathematics, sociology, statistics, and education.
Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
The Cambridge Histories is a globally respected series of over 400 volumes spanning fifteen subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, with a concentration on political and cultural history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, music and the arts.
Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture, & Law (HeinOnline) This link opens in a new window
This HeinOnline collection brings together legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world.
U.S. History in Context This link opens in a new window
History Resource Center: U.S. provides integrated access to over 4,000 historical (primary) documents, articles from more than 30 reference titles, and over 110 full-text journal covering themes, events, individuals and periods in U.S. history from pre-Colonial times to the present.
Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Statistics of the U.S. in five categories: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, economic sectors, and governance and international relations.
World History in Context This link opens in a new window
From ancient Europe to Latin America and from the Far East to the Renaissance, World History in Context is a collection of reference, full-text articles from leading scholarly publications, an array of primary sources, and images, maps and charts which provide expansive geographic and chronological research materials for the study of world history.
History Reference Center This link opens in a new window
This database features full text for thousands of primary source documents and informational texts.

LIBGUIDES of RELEVANCE

American Civil War at 150
Be sure to check out the Web Resources tab to learn about several excellent online repositories.
The U.S. South
This page highlights several websites with narratives, newspapers, and other sources of information.
African Studies LibGUide
Includes information on current affairs, media, and research resources.

SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new window
SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database.
Women & Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000) This link opens in a new window
Intended to serve as a resource for students and scholars of U.S. history and U.S. women's history. Organized around the history of women in social movements in the U.S. between 1600 and 2000.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
This is a database of unique and diverse publications that focus on how gender impacts a broad spectrum of subject areas. With its archival material, dating back to 1970 in some cases, GenderWatch is a repository of important historical perspectives on the evolution of the women's movement, men's studies, the transgendered community and the changes in gender roles over the years.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
JSTOR provides access to full-text academic electronic journals in various disciplines including economics and finance, political science, history, literature, anthropology, mathematics, sociology, statistics, and education.
Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion, & Culture This link opens in a new window
This online collection serves as reference works for an inter-disciplinary audience, and contains over 900 downloadable essays taken from the Cambridge Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture (more than 90 volumes).
Oxford Reference Online (ORO) This link opens in a new window
The Premium Collection offers a huge range of fully-indexed, extensively linked, up to date, and cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions series.
Global Issues in Context This link opens in a new window
Global Issues in Context covers a wide variety of subject areas, including sociology, current events, civics, politics, science, economics, cultural/religious studies, women's studies, human rights, English composition and many more.
ERIC [Educational Resources Information Center] (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
ERIC is an internet-based digital library of education research and information sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. ERIC contains citations for articles from education literature and journals from 1966 to the present, and links are provided to the full text of the articles when available. By using this EBSCO version, rather than the public ERIC site, you can easily link to the full text of additional articles if the library has access to them.

STATS & DATA

Census - People
The US Census data that pertains to people, populations, and households.
UN Data
Statistics from United Nations members states on a variety of topics
Freedom House
This organization has a clear agenda, but they do bring together interesting data related to different types of freedom, separated geographically and by issue.

ART & ARCHITECTURE

Art & Architecture (Oxford Reference Online) This link opens in a new window
Oxford Reference provides definitions and in-depth, specialist encyclopedic entries across the broad disciplines of Art and Architecture.
Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Includes Grove Art Online and Oxford Art Reference in one location.

Art & Visual Rhetoric LibGuide

MUSIC

Cambridge Companions to Music This link opens in a new window
Cambridge Companions to Music provide clear and accessible information on composers, instruments or musical topics. Each volume provides essays by leading authorities offering comprehensive coverage and indispensable reference material.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Includes: Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Grove Music Online, Oxford Companion to Music, and Oxford Dictionary of Music.

DANCE

International Bibliography of Theater and Dance Full Text This link opens in a new window
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text is the definitive research tool for the study of theatre and the performing arts. This database was initiated by the American Society for Theatre Research, and contains more than 450 full-text titles, including more than 140 full-text journals, and more than 300 full-text books & monographs.
Oxford Dictionary of Dance This link opens in a new window
This dictionary covers all aspects of the diverse dance world from classical ballet to modern, from flamenco to hip-hop, from tap to South Asian dance forms and includes detailed entries on technical terms, steps, styles, works, and countries, in addition to many biographies of dancers, choreographers, and companies.

Dance LibGuide

Health Business FullTEXT This link opens in a new window
Health Business FullTEXT provides full text coverage for nearly 130 administrative journals covering the business of health care administration.
PubMed (MEDLINE) This link opens in a new window
Article citations, often with abstracts, from more than 4,000 national and international periodicals, books and dissertations in medicine, nursing, dentistry, and related topics; online equivalent to Index Medicus.
Consumer Health Complete This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive resource for consumer-oriented health content, Consumer Health Complete is designed to support the information needs of patients and to foster an overall understanding of health-related topics. This resource provides content covering all key areas of health and wellness, from mainstream medicine to the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated medicine.
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
PsycINFO, from the American Psychological Association (APA), contains nearly 2.3 million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines, dating as far back as the 1800s.

Health Sciences LibGuide
Be sure to check out the websites included for great information.

STATS & DATA

World Health Organization: Data
Welcome to the Global Health Observatory, WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for more than 1000 indicators for its 194 Member States.
UN Data
Statistics from United Nations members states on a variety of topics
OECD iLibrary
Examines national health systems from 1960 forward for OECD member countries in a general, demographic, economic, and social context.

Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Communications and Mass Media Complete combines two previous resources related to communication and mass media (CommSearch and Mass Media Articles Index). It provides full text for over 200 journals and contains citation coverage for more.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Business Source Complete is the world's definitive scholarly business database. Includes books, case studies, company profiles, economic reports, industry reports, SWOT analyses, in addition to nearly 2,000 peer-reviewed journals.

Business Database Help LibGuide
We have access to over a dozen specialized business databases. Teresa Williams, our LSB Librarian, has created this awesome chart to help you know which database will meet your information need.

STATS & DATA

Historical Statistics of the United States This link opens in a new window
Statistics of the U.S. in five categories: population, work and welfare, economic structure and performance, economic sectors, and governance and international relations.

Data.gov
"Data, tools, and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile applications, design data visualizations, and more." Browse by topic.
UN Data
Statistics from United Nations members states on a variety of topics

Research Tips

Keywords

What you put into the search box matters quite a bit. Here are some tips:

Use nouns whenever possible. Adjectives and verbs can be tricky
If you're using phrases, put them in " " to tell the search to find the words together, in that order
Explore alternate terms. For example - freedom: independence, self-governance, self-determination, etc.

Finding Too Much?

Be more specific with your topic. For example - "Auschwitz Concentration Camp" instead of Holocaust
Narrow down your: group of people, geography, time span, or scope

Keep a search log with your group so you can know who's searched where, for what terms.

Save your sources so you have access to any citation information later, but be sure to save more than just browser URLs! Those can break and leave you stranded with no way to get back to the source.

PO350: African Politics: Finding Information

Primary Sources

Primary Sources

Additional Sources: Databases & Journals

Research Tips

CONTACT

QUICK LINKS