Black Studies

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This groundbreaking online collection provides more than 60 searchable African newspapers published in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Featuring English and foreign-language titles from Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, African Newspapers, Series 1, offers unparalleled coverage of the issues and events that shaped the continent and its peoples between 1800 and 1922.  From repercussions of the Atlantic slave trade, life under colonial rule and the results of the Berlin Conference to the emergence of Black journalism, the Zulu Wars and the rejection of Western imperialism, these newspapers provide a wide range of viewpoints on diverse cultures.

The African Writers Series is the electronic edition of the historic African Writers Series published by Heinemann Educational between 1962 and 2003. The online edition includes over 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose over these four decades by such authors as Nelson Mandela, Chinua Achebe, Tayeb Salih, Steve Biko, Ama Ata Aidoo, Nadine Gordimer, and Buchi Emecheta.

The database is fully searchable at the full-text level and is also integrated within Literature Online (see separate entry in this Databases A-Z list).

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Archives Unbound presents topically-focused digital collections of historical documents that support the research and study needs of scholars and students at the college and university level. Collections in Archives Unbound cover a broad range of topics from the Middle Ages forward-from Witchcraft to World War II to twentieth-century political history. Collections are chosen for Archives Unbound based on requests from scholars, archivists, and students.

There are currently 382 collections in Archives Unbound, covering a large range of subject areas, and new collections are added every year. To see a full list of all the collections and what they cover click on the Collections box and you can either view as alphabetical list or browse by category. Alternatively, click here.

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American National Biography (ANB) offers portraits of more than 19,000 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the nation. From missionaries to musicians, social workers to statisticians, cowboys to chemists, and Vikings to astronauts, the portraits in the ANB reflect the rich diversity of American life from pre-colonial times to the present day. New biographies are added to the ANB on a regular basis, and revisions are made to already published entries, giving you access to the most up-to-date and accurate information available.

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From its roots as an Anglican evangelical movement driven by lay persons, this resource encompasses publications from the CMS and the latterly integrated South American Missionary Society. Documenting missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter. 

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The focus of this second module is on the publications of CMS medical mission auxiliaries, the work of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society among women in Asia and the Middle East, newsletters from native churches and student missions in China and Japan, and 'home' material including periodicals aimed specifically at women and children subscribers. Articles, often in the form of letters authored by missionaries abroad, are enhanced by detailed illustrations and photographs of their surroundings, the mission community and the people among whom they worked.

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The East African Newspapers collection provides insight into this region during the 20th and early 21st centuries, a time of great change for Africa. In East Africa, this time witnessed the growth of decolonization as independence movements swelled, and local, autonomous self-governance took hold throughout the region. This period was also punctuated by famine, drought, political uprisings, border disputes, and war as countries worked to navigate the post-colonial landscape. The collection includes 3 key newspapers: Daily Nation (Kenya), The Ethiopian Herald, and The Monitor (Uganda).

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Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

1922-1993

Developed cooperatively with scholars worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.

Each subject area has an Editor in Chief, Editorial Board, and team of peer reviewers overseeing the development and updating of articles ensuring balanced perspective with scholarly accuracy and a robust updating program to keep researchers informed of advances in their field.

At the time of launch, each subject area includes approximately 50 articles; with an additional 50 to 75 articles added each year. New article topics are selected to ensure each subject area offers full and balanced coverage as determined by the Editor in Chief and Editorial Board, scholarly feedback, and research demand.

Practical Action is a specialist peer-reviewed and evidence-based online book and journal collection for International Development policy, practice and research professionals. The collection reflects the learning of multiple agencies and development professionals across a variety of specialist subject areas.

Access on and off campus.  The Library's subscription to this resource expires 31 July 2024.

This digital archive brings the 1960s alive through diaries, letters, autobiographies and other memoirs, written and oral histories, manifestos, government documents, memorabilia, and scholarly commentary. With 125,000 pages of text and 50 hours of video at completion, this searchable collection is the definitive electronic resource for students and scholars researching this important period in American history, culture, and politics.

Access on campus or off campus. For off campus access please use the University VPN - Access to the University network via the VPN.

Containing over 28,000 digitised pages this database contains a wide range of documents concerning the African slave trade during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The papers focus primarily on Jamaica and the West Indies, but also cover the experience of other nations and regions. Through a combination of statistics, correspondence, pamphlets, and memoirs, they offer insights into the commercial and colonial dimensions of slavery and the views of its advocates and opponents.

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Containing over 54,000 digitised pages from Bodleian's Commonwealth and African manuscripts and archives, this database contains documents relating to the UMCA’s (Universities’ Mission to Central Africa) activities in Tanzania and Malawi during the period 1857-1965. The papers provide an insight into the spread of Christianity in Central Africa. Made up of 5 volumes it includes ‘Central Africa’ magazine, missionaries’ correspondence and journals as well as miscellaneous correspondence, press cuttings, books and conference papers.

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An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines published in North America. Issues are scanned in high-resolution colour and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Essence and Seventeen are just some of the titles included. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.