Library

Library Catalogs

Bowdoin College Library Catalog
Books, videos, government documents, etc. in Bowdoin's library.

NExpress
A combined catalog containing the library holdings of Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Wellesley, Williams, Middlebury, and Northeastern. Requests take 2-3 days.

MaineCat
Includes the holdings of most Maine libraries. Requests take 2-5 days

WorldCat
A combined database of many library catalogs worldwide. Request items found in WorldCat through our Interlibrary Loan service.

Some of these databases contain the full text of the journal articles they index. Others provide citation only. Use either the “Check Availability” link in the database or the “Find Journals” function in the Library Catalog to determine journal availability at Bowdoin when full text is not present in the database.

Historical Abstracts
Online—1960 to present.
Comprehensive index of history scholarship covering Africa, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Publications orginate throughout the world, from 1960 to present.

Africa Bibliography
Print--Main Per Index 1984 to present
Covers the areas of social and environmental sciences, development studies, humanities, and the arts. The whole continent and associated islands are covered, but not the African diaspora.

Current Bibliography on African Affairs
Print--Main Per Index 1968 to present
"Compiled as a quarterly guide for study and research in the field of African Studies and related subjects." Source materials are both African and international.

AfricaBib.org Bibliography of Africana Periodical Literature Database
http://www.africabib.org/africa.html
“English language database indexing 280 English language and multi-lingual periodicals that specialize in African Studies or cover the African continent. Intent is to index Africana materials from the mid-nineteenth century to present.”

Academic Search Premier
Online—date coverage varies, starting at 1980.
Indexes 1800 peer reviewed journals in the social sciences, humanities and science, as well as general interest magazines and a few major American newspapers. Provides fulltext articles for about 60% of the citations.

JSTOR
Online—date coverage varies.
JStor contains the full text in digitized image form of about 120 journals, including decades-long runs of many history journals. Includes: History in Africa, The Journal of African History, International Journal of African Historical Studies, African Studies Review and many others.

Index to Black Periodicals
Print--Main Per Index 1984 to present.
Continues Index to periodical articles by and about Blacks, 1973-1983, Index to periodical articles by and about Negroes, 1950-1973.

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)
Online—1972 to present
Print--Main Periodical Index 1915-1994
Citation index for "publications on all subjects that bear on contemporary public issues and the making and evaluation of public policy, irrespective of source or traditional disciplinary boundaries." Sources include articles, books, government documents and NGO reports.

Reference Sources

This is a selective list of reference books providing an overall background for African history. Please search the catalog or browse the appropriate subject sections in the Reference area to find reference books for specific countries or topics.

Encyclopedia Of Twentieth-Century African History
Main Ref DT29 .E53 2002

Encyclopedia of African History
Main Ref DT 2004

The Middle East and North Africa, Europa, 1965-present
Main Libr, Main Ref DS49 .M5

Africa South of the Sahara, Europa, 1971- present
Main Ref DT351 .A37

International historical statistics : Africa, Asia & Oceania, 1750-1993 / B.R. Mitchell
Main Ref HA4675 .M551 1998

Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960, 5 vols.
Main Ref DT31 .G35

Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara, 4 vols.
Main Ref DT351 .E53 1997

Africa contemporary record; annual survey and documents
Main Ref DT1 .A35

The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery / Junius P. Rodriguez, general editor
Main Ref HT861 .H57 1997

Primary Sources

For more about primary versus secondary sources please see the CBB guide.
http://www.cbbnet.org/teaching/sources.html

Library Holdings

Declassified Documents Reference System (DDRS).
Post WW II
For U.S.-Africa relations from the 1940s on. Contains declassified memos, diplomatic correspondence, national security policy statements, and intelligence estimates.

Nineteenth Century, General Collection
Main Micro Fiche 1151
Collection of microfiche texts of unpublished books, essays and reports from the nineteenth century, held in the British Library. The perspective on Africa will be primarily British.

Nineteenth Century
Online index to the library’s microfiche collection which contains books and pamphlets published in English in all parts of the world except North America.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) 1975-1996
Main Micro Gov Doc PrEx 7.10
Daily news reports from all areas of the world, collected by the CIA.
Substantial section from Africa.

FBIS Electronic Index 1975-1996
Online
Index to the Daily Reports published by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service

World News Connection 1995-present
Online
Fulltext database of the FBIS Daily Reports from 1995 on.

On the Web

Africa South of the Sahara- primary sources, from Stanford
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/history/hisprimary.html

World History- Africa
Center for History and New Media, George Mason University,
http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/whmfinding.php?function=find&area=areasubsahafr

Web Sites

Voice of the Shuttle
http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2713#id145

The Story of Africa
Tells the history of the continent from an African perspective.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/africa/features/storyofafrica/

Africa South of the Sahara
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/history.html

African Studies Resources-- History and Cultures of Africa, from Columbia University Libraries
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/cult.html

Internet African History Sourcebook
Numerous links with good content; not all are up to date.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html