History 30, Winter 2008
African Culture in US History
Specialized handbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries can provide quick assistance. Look at items near these call numbers for other potential titles. Check with a Reference Librarian for help in locating additional materials. Remember: the following titles are examples. Perhaps there are other works that would be helpful for your specific topic.
General guides to the literature:
The African Studies Companion: a guide to information sources. 3rd rev. and exp. ed. Riv Ref DT19.8 A47 2003
The African Studies Companion: a resource guide and directory. Riv Ref DE19.8 Z45 1997
The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Riv Ref E185 H326 2001
African-American Culture and History: a student's guide. 4 vols. Riv Ref E185 A2527 2001
The Columbia Guide to African American History Since 1939. Rivera E185.6 C647 2006
More specific sources:
New Encyclopedia of Africa. 5 vol. Riv Ref DT2 N48 2008
Encyclopedia of African History. 3 vol. Riv Ref DT20 E53 2005
Encyclopedia of American Cultural & Intellectural History. 3 vols. Riv Ref E169.1 E624 2001
Black Women in America. 2nd ed. 3 vol. Riv Ref E185.86 B542 2005
American Eras. 8 vols. vol. 5 is "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1850-1877", vol. 8 is "Development of the
Industrial United States, 1878-1899". Riv Ref E169.1 A471979 1997
Encyclopedia of American History. 11 vols. vol. 5 is "Civil War and Reconstruction, 1856 to 1869" and vol. 6
"The Development of the Industrial United States, 1870 to 1899". Riv Ref E174 E53 2003
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: from the colonial period to the age of Frederick
Douglass. 3 vol. Riv Ref E185 E545 2006
Slavery in the United States: a social, political, and historical encyclopedia. 2 vol. Riv Ref E441 S635 2007
Freedom's Lawmakers: a directory of Black officeholders during Reconstruction Riv Ref E185.96 F64 1996
Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery Riv Ref E441 D53 1997
Encyclopedia of Slave Resistance and Rebellion. 2 vol. Riv Ref E447 E53 2007
Encyclopedia of the Underground Railroad Riv Ref E450 H855 2006
Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era. 2 vol. Riv Ref E668 E53 2006
Encyclopedia of Antislavery and Abolition. 2 vol. Riv Ref HT1031 E53 2007
Africa and the West: a documentary history from slave trade to independence. Riv Ref DT353.5 E9 A34 2001
Shamanism: an encyclopedia of world beliefs, practices, and culture. 2 vol. Riv Ref GN475.8 S445 2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. 3 vol. Riv Ref GR111 A47 G74 2006
African Foklore: an encyclopedia. Riv Ref GR350 A33 2004
The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art. Riv Ref GR705 W47 2003
Giants, Monsters, and Dragons; an encyclopedia of folklore, legend, and myth. Riv Ref GR825 R67 2000
Encyclopedia of American Folklife. 4 vol. Riv Ref GR105 E53 2006
Encyclopedia of African-American Literature. Riv Ref PS153 N5 E48 2007
Encyclopedia of African American Women Writers. 2 vol. Riv Ref PS153 N5 E49 2007
The Handbook of African American Literature. Riv Ref PS153 N5 E78 2004
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature. 5 vol. Riv Ref PS153 N5 G73 2005
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Riv Ref PS153 N5 O96 1997
The Companion to African Literatures. Riv Ref PR9340 C65 2000 (try "Oral Tradition and Folklore, West Africa")
Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage. Riv Ref HT1322 E63 2007
"Benito Cereno (1855)" on pp 58-60 (also a bibliography)
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music. 10 vol. Riv Ref ML100 G16 1998 (and Music Ref)
Note: vol. 1 Africa (try hymns, rhythm and meter, timelines, West Africa, Ashanti People, African American Music...)
vol. 2 South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean
vol. 3 The United States and Canada (check the index under gospel, hymns, hip hop, rap...)
vol. 10 The World's Music: General Perspectives and Reference Tools
Women and Music in America Since 1900; an encyclopedia. 2 vol. Riv Ref ML82 W625 2002
All Music Guide to Hip Hop: the definitive guide to rap & hip hop. Riv Ref ML156.4 R27 A45 2003
The Rough Guide to Hip-Hop. Riv Ref ML3531 S33 2005
Encyclopedia of Rap and Hip Hop Culture. Rivera ML102 R27 B96 2006
International Encyclopedia of Dance. 6 vol. Riv Ref GV1585 I586 1998
Check the index under "hip-hop" and "rap music". Also check the cross references under the entry "African Dance Traditions".
In vol. 6 look at "United States of America: African American Dance Traditions", "United States of America: African American Social Dance", and "West Africa".
The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions. Riv Ref BL2462.5 E53 2001
Define your problem
Identify synonyms and keywords that describe your topic
Construct using 'boolean' operators
- OR broadens search results. Use it for synonyms representing a single aspect in the strategy above.
AND narrows search results. Use it to connect the different aspects in the strategy above.
- * usually truncates the root word (some resources use different symbols, always check)
(oral tradition OR folktales OR folk tales OR storytelling)
(Ashanti* OR Yoruba* OR West Africa*)
(animal* OR trickster OR magic*)
Excellent General Resources
Oxford African American Studies Center (new)
Black Studies Center (new)
Use SCOTTY to find materials in the UCR Libraries, such as books and periodical titles, and to see if they are checked out.
For additional tips on using SCOTTY, click here.
Keyword: benito cereno (now compare it to a subject search: benito cereno)
slave ship* (* is the truncation symbol used in SCOTTY)
african oral tradition
Subject: African American women, Women - Southern States - History
Ashanti (and all the variations, cross references, and subheadings)
slave songs (No hits? Try "Search as Words")
Title: Hiphop Literacies
Limit/Sort: by year, material type, language, etc...
Other useful subject headings to consider (check out the more specific subheadings, too):
Africa - Folklore
Oral Tradition - Africa
Dance - Africa, Dance - African ; Dance - Black
Rap Music - History and Criticism
Slave Narratives - United States
Slaves' Writings, American
Women Africa West
Look for books with bibliographies and references to extend your research further. Sometimes an entire work is a bibliography. For example, under the heading "Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877) bibliography", is the title Reconstruction in the United States: an annotated bibliography. Under the heading "Slavery United States History Sources" are the titles Slave Testimony: two centuries of letters, speeches, interviews, and autobiographies and A Documentary History of Slavery in North America.
The catalog for the entire UC system is called Melvyl.
Consider the electronic image, sound, and text resources available to you that are listed on our various pages under "Databases By Subject", e.g., "Images", "Music & the Arts", and the "Online Texts" portion of "History". Be sure to check these titles and descriptions. To name just a few:
North American Women's Letters and Diaries
In the First Person
American Memory (Library of Congress)
Prints and Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress)
African American Song
Black Drama (1850-present)
Sometimes there are guides to these various resources. For example,
American Periodicals, 1741-1900: an index to the microfilm collections... Riv Ref Z6951 H65 [Note that this collection is also available full-text online.]
American Diaries, an annotated bibliography of published American diaries and journals. vol. 1 covers Diaries Written from 1492-1844. vol. 2 covers Diaries Written from 1845-1980. Riv Ref Z5305 U5 A74 1983
Slavery, a bibliography and union list of the microform collection. Materials in this guide/index are located at UC Santa Barbara. Riv Ref Z7164 S6 M53 1980
At the UCR Libraries, newspapers will be found in paper (recent), microfilm, and electronic formats. Most of the electronic newspaper indexes we carry will also offer electronic full-text of the newspaper articles. Not all newspapers are available electronically, nor are all of them indexed. To see what newspaper index databases UCR carries, go to the Libraries Home Page, click on "Databases by Subject", and select the category of "Newspapers". For example:
African American Newspapers
Early American Newspapers, Series I, 1690-1876
Historical Newspapers Online (4 resources)
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
London Times Digital Archive
Note that newspaper articles are considered primary sources, whereas magazine and journal articles and books are considered secondary sources (unless they are interviews, reports of eyewitness accounts, autobiographies, or diaries, etc.).
Journals and Magazines
Magazine and journal articles may be available in several formats: electronic, print, and, less commonly, in microformat (e.g., microfilm or microfiche). Once you have your citations, to find the print versions of your articles, see the "Location of Materials" section below. Electronic versions of articles might be available via a link in SCOTTY, a direct link from the various article index databases, or through the button appearing next to the citation in an article index database.
If you know the name of a resource you wish to use, you can go to the "Databases A-Z" list from the Libraries' web site. Or, you can go to "Databases By Subject" and select the categories listed there. Examine the resources in the following categories: "History", "Images", "Music and the Arts", "Women and Gender Studies", "Literature and Languages", "Ethnic Studies", "Philosophy and Religion"... For example:
African-American Poetry, 1750-1900
America: History and Life
International Index to Music Periodicals Full Text
MLA International Bibliography
RIPM: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals (1800-1950)
Gerritsen Collection, Women's History Online, 1543-1945
Scotty and Melvyl are freely accessible from home.
To utilize the Library's subscription databases, see Connect from Home.
Locate Materials (UCR), Borrow Items (Elsewhere), Technology in the Library
Arrangement of items in the library are usually: alphabetical, numeric, or by call number. For most of the books, the Libraries uses the Library of Congress call number and classification system, sometimes referred to as "LC". The call number is an address that tells you where the book is located. (For practice with call numbers, go to the following links, basic and advanced. Click here for an explanation of how to read a call number.)
Periodicals (aka magazines and journals) are arranged in two major ways: recent issues are in alphabetical order in the Current Periodicals Room (in Rivera, that's in the basement); older issues are in call number order interfiled with the books in the regular collection ("stacks"). Look for periodical titles at UCR in the SCOTTY catalog.
Use a floor map to identify the location codes and call numbers within the libraries (available at public service desks), or click here to see the maps available on our web site (Rivera and Science).
Remember: your UCR ID card is your library card. Circulation Services can tell you about your borrowing privileges and local transactions. Consult them to see if your UCR card will allow you borrowing privileges at other libraries.
Interlibrary Loans is another service you can use for items UCR does not own. For information about this service, click here. Another similar service is LINK+.
Follow this link for help with technology in the library, including printing, saving your documents on the public workstations, laptops (DCHP, wireless, and library laptops to check out), scanning, and more.
Document Your Sources
A word about plagiarism.
Citing your work.
For information on the different ways you can get help, click here.