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Researching Development and Social Change in Africa

Basic Information

Library's website
Library Regular Hours: Mon-Thur 8am-midnight; Fri 8am-7pm; Sat 11am-7pm; Sun 11am-midnight
Reference Resources
- In-person at the desk; On the telephone (346-1818); Online via email or live chat
- Contact the Anthropology Librarian Barbara Jenkins, jenkins @uoregon.edu
The University Libraries
- Knight Library: Social Sciences and Humanities
- Science Library (Basement, Onyx Bridge): Physical Sciences
- Architecture and Allied Arts (200 Lawrence Hall): Architecture, Visual Arts, Art History, Urban Planning

Getting Started

Current Trends and Ideas in Development and Social Change in Africa
Browsing current issues of academic journals is an excellent way to stay current in the field. Please see the Select Journal Bibliography for a complete list of journals that cover relevant topics.

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. To search our catalog just for reference materials, use the Advanced Catalog Search Feature and limit location to KNIGHT REF. Some useful reference materials are:

African Studies

Encyclopedia of African History (Knight Reference DT20.E53 2005)
Africana : the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience (Knight Reference DT14.A37435 2005)
Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara (Knight Reference DT351.E53 1997)
Africa South of the Sahara (Knight Reference Table 6 DT351.A37)
This source includes detailed profiles of individual countries with statistical information.
Middle East and North Africa (Knight Reference Table 6 DS49.M5)
This source includes detailed profiles of individual countries with statistical information.
Browse the DT section of the Knight Reference collection for other books on the continent as well as materials on countries within Africa.

Anthropology

Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology (Knight Reference GN307.E52 1996)
Browse the GN section of the Knight Reference collection for other books

International Development/ Policy

International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration (Knight Reference H97.I574 1998)

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. You can start with an "any field" or keyword search and then look at and click on subject headings assigned to books that you find useful. Subject headings are based on a specific structure, and once you understand this structure, you can also start with a subject search. Some sample headings are:
- Africa, East -- Economic conditions
- Africa, Sub-Saharan -- Urbanization
- Kenya -- Social life and customs
- Sustainable Development -- Africa
You can also search for a culture or ethnic group using the name of that group as a subject heading in the following format:
- Igbo (African People)
- Masai (African People)
- Hutu (African People)

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 Development/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 the 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.

International Development/Policy

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
The database provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. Coverage is from 1975 to the present, with monthly updates.
PAIS: Public Affairs Information Service
PAIS International provides references to journal articles, books and book chapters, conference proceedings, government documents, and statistical directories in the area of public affairs. Topics covered include government, international relations, environment, political science, public administration and more. PAIS International is updated monthly.
CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online
CIAO publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 forward that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences. Most publications listed on the CIAO site provide the fulltext of the publications.
SourceOECD
SourceOECD provides access to information produced by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Information includes a variety of statistical databases and the full texts of many OECD books and periodicals, in the fields of economics, labor, energy, social issues, and international trade and development.

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.
Web of Science
Web of Science provides access to the Social Science Citation Index and the Science Citation Index Expanded, from 1996 to the present. The database can be used to search for articles and to look for cited references.

Finding Fulltext Articles

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

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.
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.
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 International Studies
Research in Geography
Research in Political Science
Research in Anthropology
Advanced Research in Anthropology

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Maintained by Barbara Jenkins, jenkins@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 01/18/2007