WISER : Information Sources for African Studies

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WISER Information Sources for African Studies

• Friday 12th June 2009
• Sarah Rhodes and Lucy McCann

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Structure of todays session

• How to find relevant Africa resources in Oxford
• Identify the key tools to access resources SOLO,
  OxLIP and e-journals
• Explain what you would use each for and how best
• to search them
• Ways to find free Africa web resources outside
  Oxford
• Other key sites useful for research eg Archives
  and primary sources

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Key Starting points for African resources in
Oxford

• African Studies subject page
• www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/african
• Key information on one page
• Contact information
• Collection policy for African Studies
• Collection overviews principal and associated
• Links to key websites

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African collections in Oxford Reference

• Main research collections and archives are housed
  at BLCAS at Rhodes House
• www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/rhodes
• Specialises 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 collections
• Reference only

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African collections in Oxford Teaching

• The 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
• Information for all OULS libraries can be
  accessed through the homepage
• www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/libraries

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Use different sources for different types of
information

• Books SOLO COPAC
• Known journal titles SOLO, Oxford e-journals
• Articles/reports/conferences OxLIP subject
  databases and resources see the listing for
  African studies
• Useful websites African studies page BLCAS
  webpage Intute web gateway

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SOLO Search Oxford Libraries Online

• http//solo.ouls.ox.ac.uk/
• Searches OLIS, Oxford University Research Archive
  (ORA), Oxford University e-journals
• Used to find books, theses and journal titles
• Also searches for databases by title (eg Social
  Science Citation Index)
• Articles and databases sampler allows searching
  within some databases by subject

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Articles and databases sampler

• The sampler will give you a sample of results
  you can then search the individual databases for
  more comprehensive coverage
• The quickset of databases for cross searching for
  African studies comprises
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
• PAIS International
• ASSIA
• SCOPUS
• Historical Abstracts
• (Please note for a full listing of databases you
  will need to use OxLIP)

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OxLIP Oxford Libraries Information Platform

• http//oxlip-plus.ouls.ox.ac.uk/
• Gateway to subject databases and e-resources
  subscribed to by the University of Oxford
• Facilitates connection to databases from on and
  off campus
• Allows you to find useful databases for your
  subject area

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Key OxLIP features

• Linked A-Z of databases (full-text, abstracts /
  indexes, websites)
• Search for databases by keyword
• Browse by title / subject / type of resource
• Cross search a range of databases (see sub-set
  above)
• Access individual databases for more in-depth
  searching

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African Studies on OxLIP

• 17 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.

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Keyword subject searching tips

• Keyword searching
• Searches for terms anywhere in the field or
  record
• Useful 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)

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Oxford e-journals

• http//sfx7.exlibrisgroup.com/oxford/az
• Also linked through the SOLO home-page
• Journals 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
  183 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

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Africa Web resources outside Oxford

• Wealth of information freely available on the web
• Key gateways to this can be found through portals
  which organise web information in a more user
  friendly way.
• Key access points include
• Intute
• British Library
• Nordic Afrika Institut
• Columbia University Libraries
• SOAS

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Intute Arts and Humanities African Studies

• http//www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/african/
  
• 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.
• Within African Studies search by heading general
  resources time period or resource type
• Resource type includes sub-divisions such as
  Archives Digital repositories Academic
  libraries etc

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British Library African Collections

• http//www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/apac/africancoll/i
  ndex.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

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British Library Africa WWW links

• Internet links via the BL Asian and African
  Studies world wide web links
• http//www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/apac/worldwidewebl
  inks/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

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Nordic Afrika Institut

• The NAI based in Uppsala, Sweden
• Hosts a Guide to Africa on the Internet
• http//www.nai.uu.se/library/resources/guidetoafri
  ca
• Sorts links by country or region by subject and
  other guides and directories

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Columbia University Libraries African Studies

• African Studies Internet Resources
• http//www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/
  
• This lists electronic resources from Africa
  organized by region and country. All materials
  are arranged to encourage an awareness of
  authorship, type of information, and subject. The
  scope of the collection is research-oriented, but
  also provides access to other web sites with
  different or broader missions. Beginning in early
  1999, the site became the "official" African
  Studies web site for the Web.
• This gateway is extremely comprehensive and lists
  sources by region/country organisation and
  topic.

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School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)

• The SOAS African collection is extensive and
  covers the whole continent with the exception of
  Egypt. Main strengths include vernacular
  languages anthropology and ethnic minorities
  religion economics development issues politics
  and government law film the press and media
  studies.
• The subject guide url for Africa is listed below
• http//www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/africa
• This provides links to key organisations
  including
• African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK)
• Standing Conference on Library materials on
  Africa (SCOLMA)
• Royal African Society

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Accessing archive materials

• The main tools for accessing primary source
  materials and archives for Africa in and outside
  Oxford include
• Online catalogues of Western MSS
• Archives Hub
• National Register of Archives
• A2A (Access to Archives)
• Mundus Gateway
• Anti-Slavery International
• CAMP

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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

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Archives Hub

• http//www.archiveshub.ac.uk/
• Provides descriptions of archives in over 150 UK
  universities and colleges
• Circa 700 archives held at BLCAS are listed

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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

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A2A Access to Archives

• http//www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/
• Online catalogue for archives held locally in
  England and Wales

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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.

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Anti-Slavery International

• http//www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/libr
  ary.htm
• Houses a library of contemporary and historical
  material relating to slavery world wide and its
  related subjects

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Co-operative Africana Microform Project CAMP

• http//www.crl.edu/areastudies/CAMP/index.htm
• 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.

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Contact details

• Contact e-resources helpdesk eresources_at_ouls.ox.ac
  .uk
• Ask in your Libraryhttp//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libra
  ries
• Contact the African Studies Subject
  Librariansarah.rhodes_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk
• Contact the African Studies Archivist
• lucy.mccann_at_bodley.ox.ac.uk

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