Afro American Studies
Librarian
University of Massachusetts
Available by appointment. I can meet via phone, Zoom, or other online venue. To request an online appointment or get any other help, please email iespinal@library.umass.edu or call:
Humanities Research Services Librarian
Library Guide for Black Women in U.S. History
(Afro American Studies 326)
Professor Amy Jordan, Librarians Isabel Espinal & Maria Rios
Databases
Secondary Sources
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, dissertations, and book reviews, many in full text, relating to United States and Canadian history and prehistory, 1954-present.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowCombines key indices (Schomburg, IIBP, etc) to scholarship and primary sources in Afro-American studies.
- ERIC This link opens in a new windowEducation journal articles (EJ references) and ERIC documents (ED references), 1967-present. EDs before 1997 are requestable using the Microforms Request page and usable in the Microforms Vewing Room in the LC.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowUse to access many UMass online journal subscriptions.
Primary Sources
- African American Newspapers This link opens in a new windowSeven nineteenth-century African American newspapers in full text, including advertising, 1827-1902.
- American Memory This link opens in a new windowLarge collection of reproductions of primary source material from U.S. Library of Congress: pictures, pamphlets and recordings. Earliest dates from 1400s.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new windowPapers and articles of 300 US and European anti-slavery activists of color, 1830-1865.
- Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000 This link opens in a new windowPrimary and secondary sources on women's involvement in historical events in the United States. Includes books, pamphlets, papers, and articles.
- Historical Atlanta Daily World This link opens in a new windowFull-text of daily newspaper between 1931-2010.
- Historical Chicago Defender This link opens in a new windowInfluential black weekly newspaper, searchable, in image files, 1905-1975.
- Historical Baltimore Afro-American This link opens in a new windowHistorical Baltimore Afro-American in full text, 1893-2010.
- Historical Pittsburgh Courier This link opens in a new windowThe leading newspaper of the African American community in twentieth-century U.S. Covers 1911-2010.
Citation Management
Use a citation manager such as Zotero or RefWorks to keep track of your research.
Put all your references in one place, create quick and easy bibliographies, build your knowledgebase for the rest of your career. For help, check out the online guides and webinars or Ask a Librarian.
Finding Books
To find books at UMass, you have two options.
1. Start with the Discovery Search, the general search box on the library home page, www.library.umass.edu.
Advantages:
This search gives you access to books and articles and more.
2. Or, use the Five Colleges Library Catalog.
Advantages:
This catalog lets you search in some very specifc ways, for example, by Library of Congress Subject Heading. Be as specific as possible in your searching. Start with a subject search (use keyword if subject yields no results). Search by author, title, subject, keyword, call number, journal title, etc. For materials on a specific subject, enter your term(s) into the Subject or Keyword search boxes.
Sample searches:
To find books outside the five colleges, try
1. WorldCat - The combined catalogs of most U.S. libraries. Material not owned by UMass Amherst can usually be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan.
2. Commonwealth Catalog - Discover and request (with a UMass Amherst Libraries barcode) popular books, audio books, movies and more from a wide array of Massachusetts public and smaller academic libraries.
