Afro American Studies  Tags: afro_american african_american black_studies  

To find books at UMass, use the Five Colleges Library Catalog and click on the UMass link. Be as specific as possible in your searching. Start with a subject search (use keyword if subject yields no results). You can use broad categories to browse for sub-topics or to later limit (by date, words in subject or words in title) for more focussed results.

If UMass doesn't have the book(s) you need, try the other Four Colleges.

TIP: Use WorldCat and Other Library Catalogs when UMass and Five College system are not sufficient. Use the same Library of Congress subject headings above.

Reading Call Numbers

The Library Catalog provides a call number and location for each item. The call number consists of an alphanumeric string based on the Library of Congress classification system. Learn how to read a call number.

Note: If the Call Number of a book says "UM Reference," you will find it in the Learning Commons, lower level of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library. Otherwise, for BOOKS and PERIODICALS in the UM W.E.B. Du Bois Library, use the chart below.

Call Number begins with:        Floor:

Two books by graduates of the Afro American Studies department were selected as Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2008. Both books began as dissertations in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

A critical history of Soul train on television Call # PN1992.77.S664 L44 2008 , 12 th floor. Watch interview with author Christopher P. Lehman, who completed his PhD in Afro American Studies from UMass in 2002.  

Call Number Locations

Information on Afro American studies can be found throughout the Library of Congress's classification system (the one we employ in the University Libraries). The subject of the work is the most important determinant as to where an item will be found, but the following Library of Congress call numbers mark areas where a significant number of books, journals, and other materials can be found:

E 184.5 - E 185.98 History of African Americans in the United States
14th floor

PS 508 .N3 Collections of literature by African Americans
11th floor

PS 628 .N4 Collections of plays by African Americans
11th floor

PS 591 .N4 Collections of poetry by African Americans
11th floor

PS 153 .N5 Literary history and criticism of works by African Americans
11th floor

Z 1361 .N39 Bibliographies on African American subjects
21st floor