Ask Us! We're Here to Help
Chat with a librarian
Our live chat is active from 10am-4pm Monday-Friday during semesters, otherwise you can leave an offline message!
View common questions about the library, including information about borrowing items, accessing online resources, using library space, and more!
Stay up-to-date with the latest library news, events, and research tips!
OneSearch
Welcome
Welcome to the library guide for African American Studies! In this guide, you'll find curated resources that are relevant to research in the African American Studies discipline, research tips, and information on library services.
Multidisciplinary Library Databases
Use your NetID and password to access library databases off campus.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Full text scholarly journal, trade publication, magazine and newspaper articles, books, book reviews, reports, and Associated Press video content, covering all subject areas.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full text of all 2,800+ academic journals on JSTOR that span more than 60 disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, along with millions of primary sources across four collections: Global Plants, 19th Century British Pamphlets, Struggles for Freedom: Southern Africa, and World Heritage Sites: Africa. Also explore 3+ million images from ARTstor and over 10,000 open access books. Note: The library does not license any collections of fee-based books from JSTOR.
Specialized Library Databases
- African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text digitized newspapers from the 1800s, written by African Americans for African Americans. Also provides early biographies, vital statistics, essays and editorials, poetry and prose, and advertisements.
- Black Abolitionist Papers This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 15,000 digitized primary sources including correspondence; speeches, sermons, and lectures; articles, essays, and editorials from more than 200 newspapers; and poems and other miscellaneous documents from African Americans involved in the abolition movement between 1830-1865, with the majority of content coming from the U.S., Canada, and the British Isles.
- Chicago Defender Historical This link opens in a new window
(1909-1975) Full text digitized newspaper covering politics, society, and events of the time from an African-American perspective
- History Vault This link opens in a new window
Full text of several million pages of digitized primary source materials drawn from the National Archives, presidential libraries, and the archival papers of key organizations and individuals, presented in eight modules: (1) Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Federal Government Records, (2) Black Freedom Struggle in the 20th Century: Organizational Records and Personal Papers, Part 1, (3) NAACP Papers: Board of Directors, Annual Conferences, Major Speeches, and National Staff Files, (4) NAACP Papers: The NAACP's Major Campaigns--Education, Voting, Housing, Employment, Armed Forces, (5) Slavery and the Law (1775-1867), (6-7) Southern Life and African American History, 1775-1915, Plantations Records, Parts 1 and 2, (8) Vietnam War and American Foreign Policy, 1960-1975. Note: Beginning July 2024, History Vault moved to a new interface. The former version is available from History Vault (Legacy).
Developing a Research Question
- Select a topic that interests you and do some pre-research. If you need ideas:
- Look at course readings and class notes.
- Find information using Google, Wikipedia, CQ Researcher, or Credo Reference.
- Consider the scope of your topic. If it is too narrow, you might have trouble finding enough information. If it is too broad, you can be overwhelmed with information.
- Think about your assignment prompt while determining the scope of your topic. It is important to consider the size of the assignment and the length of time you have to complete it in thinking about scope.
- Find more on narrowing your topic.
- Turn your focused topic into a research question. Know that your research question may change slightly depending on what sorts of resources you find. While you should have a topic or question in mind, allow the sources you find, along with your interests, to help shape and refine your topic further.
Questions to guide the development of your research question:
- Is it focused enough to be covered in my paper or project?
- Is there enough literature available on this topic?
- What is the question that my research is answering?
- Am I genuinely interested in this topic?
- Is my topic going to be new and interesting to my audience?
- How do you determine if a resource has quality, useful information?