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Walter E. Helmke Library IPFW

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Research Tools


 

HIST E336 History of East Africa 


Start Here for background information

Encyclopedia articles often lead researchers to the most important scholarly books and articles on your topic.

Encyclopedia of African History (Reference DT20 .E53)

  • A-Z reference resource on the history of the entire African continent.
  • Entries range the earliest evolution of human beings in Africa to the beginning of the twenty-first century

New Encyclopedia of Africa, 2nd ed., 5v, 2008

  • Addresses the entire history of African cultures from ancient civilizations to the emergence of 53 independent countries
  • Covers current issues facing sthe continent such as global development, the AIDS crisis, and international terrorism

Encyclopedia of twentieth-century African history (Reference DT29 .E53 2003)

  • Excellent for a quick reference
  • Very little depth to the entries

more E-reference collections...

If you know what topic you are interested in then select one of the specific resources below.

Country Studies

Background Notes (Department of State)

  • Current country facts about the land, people, history, government, political conditions, economy, and foreign relations
  • Includes independent states, some dependencies, and areas of special sovereignty

Select country dictionaries that includes an excellent bibliography of resources

Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia (Reference DT381 .S55 2004)

Historical Dictionary of Somalia (Reference DT401.2 .M85 2003)

Historical Dictionary of the Sudan (Stacks DT155.3 .V64 2002)

World Factbook provides current information from the CIA concerning the geography, people, government, economy, and military of each nation.

Government and Politics

 Political Handbook of the World (Stacks JF37 .P6 1975 to 2006)

 An African Biographical Dictionary (Reference DT18 .B76 1994)

African States and Rulers (Reference DT31 .S7859 1999)

Maps and Atlases

Atlas of African Affairs (Reference G2445 .G7 1984)

Historical Atlas of Africa (Reference G2446.S1 H5 1985)

Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection

Precolonial

The Encyclopedia of Precolonial Africa (Reference DT2 .E53 1997)

Religion

The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions (Reference BL2462.5 .E53)

Encyclopedia of Religion

Slavery

Africa and the West: a documentary history from the slave trade to independence (Reference DT353.5.E9 A34)

Research guides and bibliographies

The African Experience (Reference DT14 .A37)

Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed (Reference DT19 .S68 2003)


Find Books for more details

Take a look in IUCAT Catalog (Indiana University's online library catalog) for books, journals and government information. Experienced researchers use Boolean operators and other search techniques for the most precise search results, which is a big timesaver!

Search Tips

To find primary sources try a keyword search and then add one of the special subject terms to your search: correspondence, diaries, interviews pamphlets, personal narratives, sources or statistics.

View a 1 minute demonstration

Remember you can use Request Delivery to order books from any IU library. Also look in other library catalogs (using WorldCat). You can make use of DDS (Document Delivery Services) to get copies of relevant texts if IU libraries does not have them!


Find Articles for recent scholarship and detailed analysis

 Academic Search Premier

  • Use this source for researching the issues of education and diseases
  • Millions of articles in more than 8,000 journals, with nearly 4,000 titles available full text
  • Excellent for finding current articles in journals and magazines
  • Selected full text coverage from 1975 to present

 JSTOR

  • Find full text scholarly articles in journals
  • Typically, coverage of a journal starts with its first issue and ends 2-7 years ago
  • Remember to narrow by date, discipline and type of document to get precise results
  • Click to view a 1 minute demonstration

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)

  • Excellent for international research
  • Full-text research including working papers from research organizations, proceedings from conferences, books, journals, and policy briefs
  • Includes a country atlas with political and economic outlooks

International Index to Black Periodicals

  • Citations and abstracts from scholarly journals and newsletters from the United States, Africa and the Caribbean
  • Full text coverage of core Black Studies periodicals.
  • Search tip - Select to search the citation only for more precise results

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

  • Contains journals, peer-reviewed journals, books, and chapters/essays
  • Some full text available
  • Covers 1975 to present
  • Search tip - Use the proximity operator "near" to get more precise results for example "uganda near corruption"

Search Tips

Can't find the full text? Try the FIND IT button.
You can learn more about FIND IT in a total of 5 minutes with the FINDIT tutorial

All the electronic resources you see here can be accessed in the A to Z section on the library homepage.


Find Primary Sources to support your thesis

A complete list of recommended primary sources can be found here

Newspapers

LexisNexis Academic

  • Full text news reports from around the world available from the 1990's to the present
  • Search tip - Click the sources tab and select the your country or region to search only select newpapers

allAfrica.com

Aggregates, produces, and distributes news from across Africa posting over 700 stories daily in English and French and offering a diversity of multi-lingual streaming programming as well as a 400,000-article searchable archive (which includes the archive of Africa News Service dating from 1997).

BBC News - Africa provides the latest news from Africa as reported from the BBS, including country profiles.

Inside Africa provides news from CNN's weekly program.

NewsLink: African Newspapers links to newspapers issued by African countries.

more News & Current Events...

Statistics

OFFSTATS

Demographic Yearbook (United Nations) (Reference HA17 .D45 2002) includes population, mortality, marriage, and divorce statistics.

Statistical Yearbook (United Nations) (Reference HA12.5 .U63 2004) includes population, education and literacy, health and nutrition, and economic statistics.


Websites for additional information

 Africa South of the Sahara is an annotated guide to Africa related internet resources for students, faculty, librarians, teachers, journalists, business people and others.

African Studies Center: Africa Web Links an Annotated Resource List is created and maintained by the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center.

African Union is the official Web site of the Organization of African Union (OAU).

Afrika.no the Index on Africa is supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.

United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa highlights the UN's support for peace and African development. Includes research reports, country profiles, UN news on Africa, and links to other information on Africa.


Cite your Sources

Use the built in functions for creating, saving, and printing list of sources in databases. Then, check your list of references with the style guide below.

Kate Turabian's A Manual For Writers Of Term Papers, Thesis, And Dissertations. The latest edition of Turabian is located at the Service Desk (Reference LB2369 .T8)

A sample of Turabian style footnotes and reference list entries is available on the Web.


And Finally, Ask a Librarian

Librarians and skilled information assistants are always available to assist you. Visit the Service Desk to meet an information assistant who will help you get started. You are welcome to make an appointment with Your Subject Librarian if you need more in-depth assistance.


Indiana University - Purdue University Fort Wayne

tritts@ipfw.edu

2101 E. Coliseum Blvd.
Fort Wayne, IN 46805-1499
260-481-6513
Fax: 260-481-6509

Summer Tritt M.L.S.


Reference & Information Services Librarian; Liaison to History, Political Science; Government Documents Coordinator
Helmke Library, LB 158

Created by: L. Agne
Date created: 2009-01-15

 
Ask Your Librarian
Summer Tritt

Summer Tritt

260-481-6513

tritts@ipfw.edu


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