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The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Libraries Ask Us

Afro American Studies

A general guide to library research in Afro American Studies.

Videos and CDs

Audio/Visual

Videos

CDs and Other Recordings

  • The library has many blues and jazz CDs and other format recordings. You may search by the title of the album or by the performer (using an author search). When in doubt, try a keyword search.
  • Many blues recordings are linked from the Research guide for The Blues.

Harlem Renaissance Resources

Library Guide for Afro American Studies 652/234:
Literature of the Harlem Renaissance

Reference Sources

Reference materials are a great way to start your research. Most of these sources are located in the Reference Department's collection on the Main floor of the Du Bois Library (one flight down from the entry level).

  • Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience Ref DT 14 .A37435 2005
  • Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940 Ref PN451 .D5 v. 51
  • Black American Poets and Dramatists of the Harlem Renaissance Ref PS153.N5 B5335 1995
  • Black American Prose Writers of the Harlem Renaissance Ref PS366.A35 B58 1994
  • Black American Writers: Bibliographical Essays Ref PS153 .N5 B55
  • Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History Ref E185 .E54 1996
  • Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance Ref NX512.3.A35 E53 2004 Table of Contents is online.
  • The Harlem Renaissance: a Gale Critical Companion Ref PS153.N5 H245 2003
  • The Harlem Renaissance: an Annotated Reference Guide for Student Research Ref Z5956.A47 R64 1998 Also available online.
  • The Harlem Renaissance: an Historical Dictionary for the Era NX511.N4 H37 1984 (9th floor) 
  • Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900-1945 Ref PS153.N5 R65 1990
  • Who's Who in African-American History Ref E185.96 .W46 1994

Finding Books

Audio/Visual

Videos

CDs and Other Recordings

  • The library has many blues and jazz CDs and other format recordings. You may search by the title of the album or by the performer (using an author search). When in doubt, try a keyword search.
  • Many blues recordings are linked from the Research guide for The Blues.

Journals (for browsing)

Internet Resources

 

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Prepared for Afro American Studies 652/234 Spring 2005 Professor Steve Tracy. Spring 2006 Professor A Yemisi Jimoh
Library guide by Isabel Espinal, Afro American Studies Librarian

Databases

Tips for Databases:

  1. From off-campus locations, an OIT Computer Account is required to access licensed databases.
  2. Use RefWorks to manage your citations and create your bibliography.
  3. After you've run a search, use the button (if the database has it) to retrieve articles.
  • Academic Search Premier (includes full-text journal articles) - Good for scholarly journal articles.
  • African American Biographical Database
  • African American Song - Audio database which documents African American music, including jazz, blues, gospel, ragtime, folk songs, and narratives. Browse by category of music, region, genre, instrument, artist, ensemble, and time period. A playlist option is available.
  • America: History and Life
  • Arts and Humanities Citation Index (in ISI Web of Science)
  • Black Studies Center - combines several resources for research in Black Studies: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), The Chicago Defender, and the Black Literature Index. IIBP provided indexing and abstracting of 150 African, American and Caribbean periodicals, with full text of forty core journals. The Chicago Defender was at one point the most widely-read black newspaper in the country, with more than two thirds of its readership based outside Chicago.
  • Black Thought and Culture Contains 619 sources with 246 authors which includes the nonfiction published works of leading African Americans. Includes many writers of the Harlem Renaissance.
  • Biography Resource Center
  • Book Review Digest
  • Ethnic Newswatch - Full-text articles from the newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic communities in the United States.
  • Expanded Academic Index (includes full text) - Good for academic book reviews.
  • International Index to Black Periodicals - Indexing and abstracting of 150 African, American and Caribbean periodicals, with full text of forty core journals.
  • JSTOR (full text) - Good for scholarly journal articles.
  • MLA International Bibliography - For literature research.
  • Project MUSE (full text)
  • Sociological Abstracts
  • Web of Science - Allows multidisciplinary searches combining arts, humanities, social science and science. Good for seeing who cited whom. Good for academic book reviews. (Go to "Full Search", then "General Search", then "Set Search Limits" to "Book Reviews".)