Libraries

African American Studies Trial Databases

Image of a laptop computer, with an illustration of Africa on the screen, and the text Trial Databases For AFRICAN American Studies.

In honor of Black History Month the University Libraries have arranged for trials to three very interesting databases for African American Studies. The trials run through February 28, 2009.

The databases are:

African American Biographical Database, a resource of first resort when one is looking for biographical information, including photographs and illustrations. From the rich and famous to the obscure and unsung, AABD includes profiles and full-text sketches providing both biographical detail and illuminating narratives.

Black Studies Center combines several resources for research and teaching such as the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience, The HistoryMakers® Videos with full transcripts for interviews of contemporary African Americans, International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP), Historical Black Newspapers, and the Black Literature Index. Also included are over one thousand specially selected doctoral dissertations.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers-Black Newspapers offers primary source material essential to the study of American history. One may use this material to examine major movements from the Harlem Renaissance to the Civil Rights Era as portrayed in publications such as the Chicago Defender, the Baltimore Afro-American, the New York Amsterdam News, the Pittsburgh Courier, the Los Angeles Sentinel, the Atlanta Daily World, the Norfolk Journal and Guide, the Philadelphia Tribune, and the Cleveland Call and Post.

For more information about these excellent resources please contact Jeff Matlak, Electronic Resources Librarian, at 309-298-2720 or JG-Matlak@wiu.edu.