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Masks and Meaning: African Art and Society
Research Tips

Quick Facts

Starting your research

Getting a General Overview
If you are just starting your research and are looking for an overview or ideas on a topic, the Knight or AAA reference collections can be a useful place to start. Encyclopedias, dictionaries and other reference materials can spark ideas and provide a starting point for further research. These resources are also useful for the bibliographies found at the end of most entries. Some useful reference materials are:

  • The Continuum encyclopedia of native art : worldview, symbolism, and culture in Africa, Oceania, and North America (AAA Reference E98.A7 W49 2000)
  • Encyclopedia of African History (Knight Reference DT20.E53 2005)
  • Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (Knight Reference DT351.E53 1997)
  • Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (Knight Reference GN307.E52 1996)

You can also look at the selected bibliography created for this class. This bibliography contains a list of selected journals and books on various aspects of African art.

Finding Books

When starting a search, you should always check the library's catalog. Remember to use different search terms, at varying levels of specificity. If your topic is very narrow and specific, try searching for materials that are one layer more general, as there may be materials in those books about your area. You can also consult the Selected Bibliography for a list of books and articles on various topics in Anthropology Museums.

  • UO Library Catalog
    Provides access to over 2.5 million books and 17,000 journals. Undergraduates can have books out for 2 weeks; graduate students, staff and faculty get materials for 6 months.
  • Summit
    If a book you want is checked out or otherwise not available through the University of Oregon, you can request it through Summit, a 30-university Pacific Northwest consortium whose catalog is found at. This free service will find and deliver the book to any UO library in 2-3 days.
  • WorldCat
    Worldcat provides access to library catalogs from around the world AND you can request materials from most of them. The database contains more than 40 MILLION bibliographic records describing books, journals, maps, musical scores, manuscripts, etc. Use WorldCat to ensure that you haven't missed any books in your research.

Books as Research Tools
Books are useful beyond the author(s)' coverage of a topic. You can use a book to further your own research.

  • Look at the book's bibliography. An author who writes about your topic undoubtedly used articles and books that may be of interest to you. Always look to see what materials the author(s) cited.
  • Look in the library catalog and other databases for other works by the author(s) of the book you've found. Chances are they've done other work in the same or a similar area.
  • Browse the shelf around a book that you've found. Since books are organized by topic, you're likely to find other useful materials in the surrounding area.
  • Use a book's subject headings to expand your search. These subject headings are labels created by the Library of Congress and assigned to a book by a cataloger when it is added to our collection. Subject headings are based on a specific structure, and once you understand this structure, you can also start with a subject search. Below are sample subject headings:
    • Place -- Topic
      • Africa -- sculpture
      • Africa, west -- music
      • Kenya -- Social life and customs
    • Topic -- Place
      • Animals in art -- Africa
      • Masks -- Senegal
      • Sculptors -- Nigeria.
    • Cultural or ethnic group
      • Igbo (African People)
      • Masai (African People)
      • Hutu (African People)
  • If you dont' know the appropriate subject heading, start with a "any field" or keyword search and then look at and click on subject headings assigned to books that you find useful. Use these tools for a more powerful search:
    • Art and Africa searches for both words in a record
    • "African sculpture" searches for the word as a phrase
    • Niger or Mali or Mauritania searches for any of the words
    • art* searches for all words beginning with "art" (i.e. art, arts, artists, etc.)

Finding Articles

Library users commonly make the mistake of looking for articles in the library catalog. The catalog does not include individual articles, but rather journal titles. To find articles, you can use one of the many electronic or print databases or indexes available through the library. Below are some important indexes that contain citations, abstracts to articles, book reviews, essays, etc. These are divided into four main areas: African Studies, Anthropology, International Develpoment/Policy and General. If you are unsure which from the below list are the appropriate databases for your topic, you can either ask a reference librarian or browse databases by subject at http://libweb.uoregon.edu/dc/indexes/index.php.

African Studies

  • Africa Journals Online  
    AJOL offers the tables of contents and abstracts of articles from approximately 50 journals in agricultural sciences, science and technology, health and social sciences, published in Africa.
  • Quarterly Index of African Periodical Literatures
    Published by the Library of Congress Office in Nairobi, Kenya, this index covers 300 selected periodicals from 29 African countries. The index is organized into broad subject areas covering all aspects of African periodical literature (Economics, Education, Law, Literature, Politics, Transportation, etc.). Five additional indices are provided: an author index, geographic index (of the article's content), subject term index, title of article index, and a title of journal index.
  • International Index to Black Periodicals
    The International Index to Black Periodicals Full Text includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers, and newsletters from the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean--and full-text coverage of 40 core Black Studies periodicals (1998 forward). Retrospective coverage includes 120,000 citations from over 56 publications, with records dating back to 1902.
  • International African Bibliography (Knight Reference Z3503.I5; most recent in Current Periodicals Room)
    This print index covers 1971 to the present.
  • African Studies Abstracts: the abstracts journal of the African Studies Centre, Leiden (Knight Reference Z3503.A36)
    This print index includes abstracts for African studies materials. We have in our collection 1997-2002.
  • Index Islamicus (Knight Reference Z3013.Q34)
    This print resource indexes articles about the Middle East and North Africa. It includes periodicals from 1976 to the present.

Anthropology

  • Anthropological Literature  
    Anthropological Literature is a bibliographic index to articles and essays on anthropology and archaeology, including museology. Updated quarterly, Anthropological Literature indexes articles two or more pages long in works published in English and other European languages from the 19th century to the present.
  • AnthroSource
    This is a fulltext source for publications by the American Anthropological Association.
  • Sociological Abstracts
    Sociological Abstracts provides access to the latest research in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. It includes citations since 1963 (abstracts begin in 1974) for articles in over 1,500 journals, conference papers, books, and dissertations. The database is updated 6 times a year.

Art

  • Art Abstracts and Art Index Retrospective
    This database in two parts, indexes periodicals dating back to 1929, with Art Index Retrospective covering 1929 to 1983 and Art Abstracts indexing from 1984 on. These indexes are strongest for English language publications, and include many smaller or more regionally oriented U.S. publications that may not be indexed in other databases.

General

  • Academic Search Premier
    Academic Search Premier contains indexing for more than 8,000 publications, with full text for approximately 4,600 of these titles. ASP focuses on academic, social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multi-cultural journals. In addition to the full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for nearly 4,500 journals. Over 3,500 of the full text journals are peer reviewed, while more than 1,600 of the indexed journals are peer reviewed. Full text backfiles go as far back as 1965.
  • Arts and Humanities Search 
    Arts & Humanities Search references articles from approximately 1,100 arts and humanities journals, from 1980 to the present. It is updated weekly and is the online equivalent of the Arts & Humanities Citation Index.

Finding full-text articles

Once you have identified an article citation, there are several ways to locate the journal in print or online.

  1. In the database you're using, click on the button on the article that you'd like to see and follow the links to the online copy or to the UO Library Catalog.
  2. Search the UO Library Catalog under "Journals and Serials\" for the title of the journal not the article, then use FindText to locate additional electronic access.
  3. Use the FindText page linked on the library's homepage, to find the full text of an article online, if available from UO, or to find other means of accessing the journal in print or through interlibrary loan.

Some databases will take you directly to the full-text version of an article; in others, you will have to navigate to the correct issue. Be aware that different databases cover different years and, therefore, it is important to use FindText to locate other online and print copies of an article. If we do not have an article electronically or in print, you can submit an interlibrary loan request.

Other Useful Guides

Research in Anthropology
Advanced Research in Anthropology
Research in Art and Art History
Research in African Studies
How to Find Art Images

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Maintained by Barbara Jenkins, jenkins@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 01/22/2007