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WISER : Information Sources for African Studies

WISER : Information Sources for African Studies. Friday 12th June 2009 Sarah Rhodes and Lucy McCann. Structure of today’s session. How to find relevant Africa resources in Oxford: Identify the key tools to access resources: SOLO, OxLIP+ and e-journals

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WISER : Information Sources for African Studies

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  1. WISER : Information Sources for African Studies Friday 12th June 2009 Sarah Rhodes and Lucy McCann

  2. Structure of today’s session • How to find relevant Africa resources in Oxford: • Identify the key tools to access resources: SOLO, OxLIP+ and e-journals • Explain what you would use each for and how best to search them • Ways to find free Africa web resources outside Oxford • Other key sites useful for research eg Archives and primary sources

  3. Key Starting points for African resources in Oxford • African Studies subject page • www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/african • Key information on one page • Contact information • Collection policy for African Studies • Collection overviews: principal and associated • Links to key websites

  4. African collections in Oxford: Reference • Main research collections and archives are housed at BLCAS at Rhodes House • www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/rhodes • Specialises in history and current affairs (political, economic and social) of sub-Saharan Africa and the Commonwealth • Houses books, journals, theses, government publications, newspapers • Circa 4,000 manuscript and archive collections • Reference only

  5. African collections in Oxford: Teaching • The core teaching collections are held at Social Science Library and History Faculty Library – these can be borrowed by University members. • Other collections of interest include the Law Library, English Faculty Library and Radcliffe Science Library • Information for all OULS libraries can be accessed through the homepage www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/libraries

  6. Use different sources for different types of information • Books: SOLO; COPAC • Known journal titles: SOLO, Oxford e-journals • Articles/reports/conferences: OxLIP+ subject databases and resources: see the listing for African studies • Useful websites: African studies page; BLCAS webpage; Intute web gateway

  7. SOLO: Search Oxford Libraries Online • http://solo.ouls.ox.ac.uk/ • Searches OLIS, Oxford University Research Archive (ORA), Oxford University e-journals • Used to find books, theses and journal titles • Also searches for databases by title (eg Social Science Citation Index) • ‘Articles and databases sampler’ allows searching within some databases by subject

  8. Articles and databases sampler • The sampler will give you a sample of results; you can then search the individual databases for more comprehensive coverage • The quickset of databases for cross searching for African studies comprises: • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts • PAIS International; • ASSIA; • SCOPUS; • Historical Abstracts • (Please note for a full listing of databases you will need to use OxLIP+)

  9. OxLIP+: Oxford Libraries Information Platform • http://oxlip-plus.ouls.ox.ac.uk/ • Gateway to subject databases and e-resources subscribed to by the University of Oxford • Facilitates connection to databases from on and off campus • Allows you to find useful databases for your subjectarea

  10. Key OxLIP+ features • Linked A-Z of databases (full-text, abstracts / indexes, websites) • Search for databases by keyword • Browse by title / subject / type of resource • Cross search a range of databases (see sub-set above) • Access individual databases for more in-depth searching

  11. African Studies on OxLIP+ • 17 databases have been listed for African Studies • Click on subject tab and scroll down to African Studies, click on GO for full listing • Includes access to Aluka, FRANCIS, Empire On-Line (Colonial history), ELDIS etc • Information is available on each database to guide users.

  12. Keyword & subject searching tips: • Keyword searching • Searches for terms anywhere in the field or record • Useful as a starting place but results can be less relevant • Subject indexes • Where possible tap into the subject headings or thesauri provided by the databases Citation searching (available in SCOPUS, Web of Science and Google Scholar)

  13. Oxford e-journals: • http://sfx7.exlibrisgroup.com/oxford/az • Also linked through the SOLO home-page • Journals are listed A-Z ‘by Title’, ‘by Subject’, and ‘by Citation’ • No subset for African related e-journals but, for example, a search by title for Africa retrieves 183 titles • Clicking on individual titles will allow searching by Year, Volume, Issue, Start Page • Full-text articles will be retrieved only for e-journals to which Oxford University subscribes

  14. Africa Web resources outside Oxford • Wealth of information freely available on the web • Key gateways to this can be found through portals which organise web information in a more user friendly way. • Key access points include: • Intute • British Library • Nordic Afrika Institut • Columbia University Libraries • SOAS

  15. Intute: Arts and Humanities – African Studies • http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/african/ • ‘Web resources for the study of the African languages, literature written in those languages, or the history and culture of Africa. Each resource has been evaluated and categorised by subject specialists based in UK universities’. • Within African Studies search by heading: general resources; time period; or resource type • Resource type includes sub-divisions such as Archives; Digital repositories; Academic libraries etc

  16. British Library: African Collections • http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/apac/africancoll/index.html • ‘Rich resource for the study of Africa. Relevant material can be found throughout the collections, in the form of printed books and serials, newspapers, MSS, archives, sound recordings, music, prints, drawings, photographs and stamps’ • Africa pages deal mainly with sub-Saharan Africa. • Links to bibliographies; e-resources; e-journals

  17. British Library: Africa WWW links • Internet links via the BL Asian and African Studies: world wide web links • http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/bldept/apac/worldwideweblinks/wwwlinks.html • This is an invaluable access point to African resources, covering: • Portals • Bibliographies • Current Affairs • Official publications • Archives • Visual material • African languages • African studies and library networks

  18. Nordic Afrika Institut • The NAI based in Uppsala, Sweden • Hosts a Guide to Africa on the Internet • http://www.nai.uu.se/library/resources/guidetoafrica • Sorts links by country or region; by subject; and other guides and directories

  19. Columbia University Libraries: African Studies • African Studies Internet Resources: • http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/ • This lists electronic resources from Africa organized by region and country. All materials are arranged to encourage an awareness of authorship, type of information, and subject. The scope of the collection is research-oriented, but also provides access to other web sites with different or broader missions. Beginning in early 1999, the site became the "official" African Studies web site for the Web. • This gateway is extremely comprehensive and lists sources by region/country; organisation; and topic.

  20. School of Oriental and African Studies: (SOAS) • The SOAS African collection is extensive and covers the whole continent with the exception of Egypt. Main strengths include vernacular languages; anthropology and ethnic minorities; religion; economics; development issues; politics and government; law; film; the press and media studies. • The subject guide url for Africa is listed below: • http://www.soas.ac.uk/library/subjects/africa • This provides links to key organisations including: • African Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) • Standing Conference on Library materials on Africa (SCOLMA) • Royal African Society

  21. Accessing archive materials • The main tools for accessing primary source materials and archives for Africa in and outside Oxford include: • Online catalogues of Western MSS • Archives Hub • National Register of Archives • A2A (Access to Archives) • Mundus Gateway • Anti-Slavery International • CAMP

  22. Online catalogues for Western MSS • http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/wmss/online/online.htm • Includes collections at Rhodes House and in the central Bodleian • Some full catalogues and some collection level descriptions • ‘Search Electronic Catalogues’ is a facility to search across the catalogues

  23. Archives Hub • http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/ • Provides descriptions of archives in over 150 UK universities and colleges • Circa 700 archives held at BLCAS are listed

  24. National Register of Archives • http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/default.asp • Provided by the UK National Archives: Historical Manuscripts Commission, the NRA consists of indexes to the records of persons, families and corporate bodies mainly held in Britain. It is an essential tool for locating manuscripts and archives in the UK • Search by corporate, personal, family or place name

  25. A2A: Access to Archives • http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/ • Online catalogue for archives held locally in England and Wales

  26. Mundus Gateway • http://www.mundus.ac.uk/ • The Mundus Gateway is a web-based guide to more than four hundred collections of overseas missionary materials held in the United Kingdom. • These materials, comprising the archives of British missionary societies, collections of personal papers, printed matter, photographs, other visual materials and artefacts, are held in a large number of libraries, record offices and other institutions in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

  27. Anti-Slavery International • http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/resources/library.htm • Houses a library of contemporary and historical material relating to slavery world wide and its related subjects

  28. Co-operative Africana Microform Project: CAMP • http://www.crl.edu/areastudies/CAMP/index.htm • CAMP is based at the Center for Research Libraries, University of Chicago • CAMP promotes the preservation through microfilming of publications and archives on and from Africa. • It then makes these available on request to students and researchers at member libraries, of which BLCAS is one. • Materials so acquired and conserved include mainly historic newspapers and journals; government publications; personal and corporate archives; personal papers of scholars, government leaders and journalists; writings in European and African languages. • Contact Rhodes House Library to borrow CAMP material.

  29. Contact details: • Contact e-resources helpdesk eresources@ouls.ox.ac.uk • Ask in your Libraryhttp://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries • Contact the African Studies Subject Librariansarah.rhodes@ouls.ox.ac.uk • Contact the African Studies Archivist lucy.mccann@bodley.ox.ac.uk

  30. We value your feedback • We will be sending an email feedback survey • Any Questions?

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