AFR AM 101/201: Research Methods for African American Studies

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OskiCat
Finds materials related to your topic including books, government publications, and audio and video recordings in the libraries of UC Berkeley. OskiCat will show you the location and availability of the items that we own.  Does not include Law Library holdings.

Melvyl
Locates titles found at other campuses in the UC system. Melvyl also allows you to expand your search to libraries worldwide. Clicking on the REQUEST button in the detailed view of a catalog record prompt you to fill out a form to request the item through our Interlibrary Loan office. Requires Proxy login for when accessing off-campus.

WorldCat on FirstSearch
Another catalog to access records of materials in libraries worldwide.  It can be used for interlibrary loan requests.  Good for advanced researchers.

• ebrary
  A database of more than 37,000 complete e-books covering 16 key subject areas including: business and economics, computers and IT, literature and linguistics, history, political science, and more.
  
• Google Book Search
  Searches the full text of books on many subjects, including some from the University of California libraries. The full text of a book can be displayed only if the book is out of copyright (generally, published before 1923) or if the copyright holder has given permission. Includes some important African American periodicals including the NAACP's The Crisis, Ebony, and Jet among others.
  
• HathiTrust
  Pronounced "hah-tee", this cooperative system contains millions of books scanned from UC and other major research libraries, including those digitized by Google and the Internet Archive. Search on information about the book (such as author or title), or words in the text. Full text is available for items that are not protected by copyright. Items in the HathiTrust catalog can be grouped into collections and shared online. For details, see the FAQ page.
  
• Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts)
  Indexes graduate dissertations from over 1,000 North American, and selected European, graduate schools and universities. Dissertations published since 1980, and master's theses since 1988, include brief abstracts written by the authors. Offers full text of most of the dissertations added since 1997.
  
• eScholarship: University of California, Berkeley
  eScholarship provides a suite of open access, scholarly publishing services to the University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide
  
• UC Press E-Books Collection (eScholarship Editions)
  1,400 online titles from the University of California Press covering a wide range of subjects. About 30% of the UC Press books, both in print and out-of-print are represented in this collection.
  

• Black Studies Center (BSC)
  Includes three modules: The Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience which includes interdisciplinary essays on the Black Experience; International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), a database covering some 150 scholarly and popular Black Studies journals, many of them in full text; and the full text backfile of the influential black newspaper The Chicago Defender (1905-1975).
  
• JSTOR
  Includes over 1,000 scholarly journals with access to more than 2 million articles. JSTOR is an archive which means that current issues (generally the most recent 3-5 years) of the journals are not yet available in full-text.
  
• Academic Search Complete
  A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals and other publications in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese; full-text is available for over 5300 journals.
  
• America: History and Life
  Indexes over 2,000 journals published worldwide on the history of the US and Canada from prehistory to the present. Includes all key English language historical journals; selected historical journals from major countries, state, and local history journals; and a targeted selection of hundreds of journals in the social sciences and humanities.
  
• ERIC
  Indexes books, journals, reports, proceedings, statistical data, tests, dissertations, audiovisual materials, and ERIC documents on education research and practice.
  
• Sociological Abstracts
  Indexes over 1,900 journals, books, dissertations, and reviews in the social sciences on sociological topics as well as selected anthropology, criminology, demography, law, social psychology, and urban development.(Search all CSA/Illumina Social Sciences databases.)
  
• Ethnic News Watch
  Indexes over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications. Contains news, culture, and history searchable in both English and Spanish. Also includes a backfile of titles (1960-1989).
  
• Project MUSE
  250 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences covered. Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others.
  

• Oxford African American Studies Center
  More than 7,500 full text articles from major reference works, including the Encyclopedia of African American History, Black Women in America, African American National Biography, the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, and more. Also includes images, maps, charts, tables, timelines, and primary source documents.
  
• Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896-present
  Contains approximately 1,200 references covering the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Movement up through the election of Barack Obama.
  
• American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
  A digitized collection of over 2,300 narratives of former slaves. Interviews were conducted by writers and journalists as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.
  
• Black Drama
  Contains the full text of 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than by more 100 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. The database is includes drama of the Harlem Renaissance and drama, the Black Arts Movement and 20th century African and Caribbean drama. Complements the other Alexander Street Press database Black Drama, 2nd edition.
  
• Black Drama, 2nd edition
  Contains almost 1,500 plays by more than 200 playwrights. Includes information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
  

Find Dissertations by searching Dissertations and Theses (Dissertation Abstracts) Full Text, which includes full-text of most dissertations since 1997. It indexes over 1.5 million dissertations completed in North American (including UC) and European universities from 1861 to the present. Listings after 1980 include abstracts, and some feature 24-page excerpts. 

Consult the comprehensive list of African American Theses and Dissertations, 1907-2002 at UCB. Also see Find Dissertations and Theses for other specialized sources, and dissertations completed at a UC campus can also be found in Library catalogs, which have limit to dissertations/theses search options:

Other Full-text Access: Online full-text of UC dissertations (from 1996) can be found by searching Dissertations & Theses @ University of California and also appear in Library catalog search results. UC Berkeley dissertations in print prior to 1996 may be found by searching the Library catalogs. Dissertations done at other UC campuses prior to 1996 or ouside the UC system must be obtained through Interlibrary Loan or using the "Request" option in Melvyl.

• American Slave: A Composite Autobiography
  A digitized collection of over 2,300 narratives of former slaves. Interviews were conducted by writers and journalists as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s.
  
• Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
  Indexes articles from Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), Los Angeles Times (1881-1986), New York Times (1851-2004), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal (1889-1990), and Washington Post (1877-1991).
  
• Ethnic News Watch
  Indexes over 200 ethnic, minority, and native press publications. Contains news, culture, and history searchable in both English and Spanish. Also includes a retrospective backfile of titles (1960-1989).
  
• Sixties: Primary Documents and Personal Narratives
  Documents the key events, trends, and movements in 1960s America. Includes 70,000 pages of letters, diaries, and oral histories; more than 30,000 pages of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, advertisements, and rare audio and video materials.
  
• Slavery and Anti-Slavery
  Includes more than 1.5 million pages, 7000+ books, 80+ serials, 15 manuscript collections as well as court records and reference materials documents related to the antebellum era.
  
• Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (Voyages)
  Primary resource documenting the African slave trade. Includes detailed information concerning over 35,000 voyages from 1514 to 1866 with names, statistics, images and other information.
  
• American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
  Consists of more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical Library of Congress collections. The primary source and archival materials relating in the project cover topics from art and architecture to performing arts to technology and applied sciences.
  
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries
  Include approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries by more than 1000 women. Represented are all age groups and life stages, all ethnicities, many geographical regions. Also includes biographies and an extensive annotated bibliography.
  
• Online Archive of California (OAC)
  A searchable and browseable resource that brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives.
  
• Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (WASM)
  Collects and analyzes more than 1,000 documents and almost 400 images on the history of women and social movements in the United States between 1600 and 2000. Also includes links to other websites and a dictionary of social movements and organizations.
  

The UC Berkeley Libraries has extensive microform (microfilm and microfiche) collections, containing valuable information for researchers. The following lists of African American microform holdings include much primary source material.

• African American Studies Microform Collections
• Caribbean Microform Collections
• Guide to NAACP Microfilm Collection

The Newspapers and Microforms Room(40 Doe Library) has machines that read, print, and scan images from microfilm and microfiche.

Microfilm and microfiche owned by the UC Berkeley Libraries can be found through OskiCat; use Advanced Keyword Search to limit your search to "All Microforms." In the News/Micro collection, microfilm rolls and microfiche cards are shelved with their own numbering system; click here for a PDF of the collection's floorplan.

• Academic Search Complete
  A multidisciplinary index to articles in more than 10,900 journals. Database allows searches to be limited to book reviews under "document type" limiter.
  
• Black Studies Center (BSC)
  Includes the International Index to Black Periodicals covering hundreds of scholarly and popular African American Studies journals, with many of them in full text. Numerous titles include book reviews.
  
• JSTOR
  Includes over 1,000 scholarly journals with access to more than 2 million articles, including book reviews from African American Studies journals among other subjects. JSTOR is an archive which means that current issues (generally the most recent 3-5 years) of the journals are not yet available.
  
• Book Review Digest Plus
  Indexes book reviews of English-language fiction and nonfiction books for children and adults, from over 8000 leading magazines from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Includes several thousand full text reviews. For book reviews published from 1905 to 1982 go to Book Review Digest Retrospective which can be searched separately or simultaneously.
  
• Book Review Digest Retrospective: 1905-1982
  Some 1.5 million reviews of more than 300,000 books. For access to book reviews written since 1983, search Book Review Digest Plus which can be searched separately or simultaneously.
  
• Book Review Index
  More than 5 million citations to book reviews from thousands of publications.
  
• Project MUSE
  Interdisciplinary, full text index; African American Studies is one of many humanities subjects covered by this database. Project Muse is useful for reviews published since 1993. To check coverage dates see Browse Journals. SEARCH TIP: From the Search screen use the pull down menu to select Author Reviewed or Title Reviewed.
  
• New York Review of Books
  Online collection of reviews and essays from the New York Review of Books covering all areas of intellectual thought including science, philosophy, history, politics, and literature. Search the entire collection going back to 1963 or go directly to the current issue.
  
• Periodicals Archive Online (formerly PCI Full Text)
  An online periodical archive that provides access to some 475 digitized journals in the humanities and social sciences. A sister database, Periodicals Index Online, provides additional indexing for articles in over 4,700 periodicals.
  
• Readers' Guide Retrospective
  Covers more than 500 leading American magazines and journals from 1890 to 1982.
  
• Film and Television Literature Index with Full Text
  Indexes 150 scholarly and popular periodicals from 30 countries cover-to-cover and 300 other periodicals selectively for reviews and articles on the topic film and television. Search by keyword, production title and more or browse by some 2000 subject headings.
  
• FIAF: International Index to Film Periodicals
  Indexes scholarly and popular journals, books, book reviews, and proceedings worldwide on a wide range of topics within the fields of film and television studies. Includes complete data from all volumes of the International Index to Film Periodicals (1972 to the present), the TV-related companion (1979 to the present), the annual volumes of the International Index to Film.
  

By following these guidelines, you avoid plagiarism, which is a serious violation of the Code of Student Conduct.

How do you cite sources?
The means to identify sources is to provide citations within your text linking appropriate passages to relevant resources consulted or quoted. This can be done through in-text parenthetic notes, footnotes, or endnotes. In addition, a bibliography or list of works cited, is almost always placed at the end of your paper. The citation system and format you use will be determined by the citation style you choose.

Below are links to guides for the three major styles used for most academic papers or research in the humanities, social sciences, and some scientific disciplines:

• APA Style Guide (Purdue) - From the American Psychological Association. Often preferred in the fields of psychology and many other social sciences.
• MLA Style Guide (Purdue) - From the Modern Language Association of America. Often preferred in the fields of literature, arts, humanities, and in some other disciplines.
• Turabian & Chicago Styles Guide - From the work of Kate Turabian at the University of Chicago and the University of Chicago Press. Often preferred in history and many other disciplines.

How do you choose a style?
Ask your instructor which style sheet he or she wishes you to use and if there are other special formatting instructions you should follow.

Where do I find the most authoritative information about these styles?
If you have questions or citations not covered by the Library's guides, please consult one of the following official style manuals. If you consult other, less official manuals or online style guides that purport to explain these style, please be aware that these sometimes contain errors which conflict with the official guides:

APA Style

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2010 (call number: BF76.7.P83 2010, multiple libraries). Official APA style guide.

 

American Psychological Association's style guide FAQ

 

MLA Style

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009 (call number: LB2369.G53 2009, multiple libraries). A somewhat simplified guide, adequate for undergraduate and most other research papers.

 

MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2008 (call number: PN147.G444 2008, multiple libraries). For graduate students, scholars, and professional writers (more depth on copyright, legal issues, and writing theses, dissertations, and scholarly publishing).

 

Turabian Style

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 6th edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996 (call number: LB2369.T8 1996, multiple libraries).

 

Chicago Style

The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003 (call number: Z253.U69 2003, multiple libraries).

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