Libraries

COSF 184: Mass Media & Politics in Africa (Fall 2010)

Given the wide range of research topics in this class, the following is a broad sampling of resources that may be useful. For a complete alphabetical database list, please see SSHL Databases A-Z . For article databases arranged by academic discipline, look at Find Articles by Subject .

Some databases will include direct links to full text; if necessary also use UC-eLinks to locate either electronic or print versions.

 

Library Catalogs

Library catalogs give you access to libraries, starting from UCSD and reaching out to all of the United States. If we don't have it, use Request and our Interlibrary Loan Service will get it for you at no charge. 

ROGER: UCSD Library Catalog: listings of books, government publications, maps, audiovisuals, periodicals, and other materials owned by UCSD.  NOTE: Articles aren't included, but includes links to full text electronic journals and any other cataloged resources where we have digital access.  Use "Request" to renew, recall or put holds on books that are on order or being processed.

San Diego Circuit: Searches the combined catalogs of UCSD, SDSU, USD, CSU San Marcos and the San Diego County Library system. If UCSD doesn't have the book available, Circuit request will normally get it for you in 24-48 hours, delivered to the campus library of your choice. You can also execute the "Search in Circuit" option while in a Roger result screen.

MELVYL Next Generation (University of California and the World): Searches combined catalogs of all UC Libraries: books, government documents, periodicals subscriptions (but not content of periodicals), and more. "Request" button automatically initiates Interlibrary loan service; delivery ranges from a 2-3 days (Southern California campuses) to 7-10 days. This new version is part of the WorldCat, a combined catalog of more than 12,000 libraries around the United States. If UC libraries don't have it, the search can be extended across North America. It may sometimes take a little longer, but delivery is still free.

 

Research Databases

NOTE: For a complete alphabetical database list, please see SSHL Databases A-Z. To use (most of them) from off campus, remember to set your browser for Remote Access.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: Some databases link directly to some of the full text, but don't know about other E-Journals to which UCSD has access. Other databases only show citations and abstracts. Be sure to also try UC-eLinks , found in results of most database searches, to locate either electronic or print versions.

General and Cross Disciplinary

Academic Search Complete : The starting point for research on all subjects. Has more than 8200 general magazines and scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and life and physical sciences.

Web of Science: 1955-present. Lists articles in thousands of scholarly and scientific journals in all fields, including 1100 journals in arts & humanities; 5300 in social sciences.

Google Scholar: Accustomed to the easy Google search box, but flooded by too many irrelevant results? Google Scholar focuses on just the academic and scientific research literature. Using the version at UCSD, your results willinclude "UC E-Links", which will help you find the articles that regular Google users might be asked to pay for.

Alt-Press Watch: 1995-present.  Full text of more than 170 alternative newspapers, journals and newsletters in the United States.

Ethnic Newswatch:   1960-present. Full text of U.S. ethnic community newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. The signficant number of African-American newspapers included may turn up coverage of Africa not found elsewhere.

Special Focus

Africa-Wide Information: 19th century-present. Incorporates African Studies and South African Studies databases. Sources include books, periodicals and magazines articles,newspapers, pamphlets, maps, reports, theses, much more. Nearly 2 million records

Historical Abstracts : 1954-present. International database for research on history of all regions (except the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the current decade.

Communication Abstracts :  1963-present. Abstracts articles, reports, papers, books from a variety of publishers and research institutions in all areas of communication studies (mass, interpersonal and new communication technologies). 

ComAbstracts: Lists articles in 80 key journals in the field of communication. Starting dates vary: most begin with the first issue; several go back to the early 20th century.Also use Communication Abstracts to cover a larger group of journals. There is some overlap with Communication Abstracts.

Business Source Complete: Article database covering scholarly journals and trade magazines in business, management, advertising & marketing, and more. Also includes country, company, industry, and market reports. Dates of coverage vary, some journals back to early 20th century.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts: 1975-present. Research within the political science discipline and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. 

Africa South of the Sahara: Selected Internet Sources: Not a database in itself, this is a collection of Africana resources arranged by country, region and topic by subject experts of the Electronic Technology Group of the African Studies Association (USA).

News Sources

AllAfrica.com: Online distributor of African news and information, posting over 1,000 stories daily in English and French, and a searchable archive of 900,000 articles (including the Africa News Service back to 1997).

Access World News: Dates vary. More than 1500 sources worldwide, including 650 in the U.S. Largely newspapers, local news video for the U.S.; newspapers for Canada, UK and other English-speaking countries. For the rest of the world mostly wire services, BBC news digests

LexisNexis Academic:  Includes thousands of full-text newspapers, broadcast news transcripts, wire services & other news sources, in the U.S. and internationally. Also newsletters, magazines, trade journals, law journals, court decisions. Coverage dates vary.

Individual Newspapers:

Current: Full text (but not page images) of the Los Angeles Times (1985-present), New York Times (1999-present) and Wall Street Journal (1982-present).

Historical: including full text/page images of Chicago Tribune (1849-1987), Los Angeles Times (1881-1987), New York Times (1851-2007), Wall Street Journal (1889-1993), and Washington Post (1877-1994)

Black Historical Newspapers: Cover-to-cover article and page images of Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1910-1975), Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005), New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993)

Times Digital Archive, 1785-1985 (London Times): Searchable full text and page images of the entire newspaper, including articles, editorials, advertising and images. 

Ethnic Newswatch:   1960-present. Full text of U.S. ethnic community newspapers, newsletters, and magazines. The signficant number of African-American newspapers included may turn up coverage of Africa not found elsewhere.

ABYZ News Links: Africa: Section on Africa from ABYZ News directory, which Links to newspapers, broadcast and other news media around the world, by country. It includes local, national, and also "foreign sources" published on each country.

Kidon Media-Link: Africa: Section on Africa from Kidon Media Link, a directory of global newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and news agencies.

Africa Yearbooks and Country Studies

NOTE: Detailed surveys of Africa: the continent, regions, and individual countries. They are good for background on history, politics, institutions, organizations, and social and economic issues, and may also provide statistical views of everything from population and education to ownership of telephones and televisions and access to the Internet. When published and updated on a regular basis, they may also be good for historical timelines

NOTE ON THE REFERENCE COLLECTION. The call number for most (not all) African Studies books is "DT", and each country also gets its own set of numbers. For example, Nigeria would be DT 515. For the books collection in Geisel/SSHL, there are usually far too many volumes to walk through and browse with much hope of success. That’s what the Roger catalog is for – to search for books on specific subjects. But the Reference Collection on the second floor contains a much smaller set of selected country handbooks, yearbooks, encyclopedias and bibliographies, and browsing it may save you a lot of time.

Europa World Plus. Also in print JN1 E89 from 1959-2009 under the name Europa World Year Book. For every country of the world, there are sections on social geography, recent history, and economy, followed by a statistical survey and a directory of government, political organizations, media and much more. Europa also publishes separate volumes focusing on regions of the world, with the latest year online:

Africa South of the Sahara. Also in print DT 1 .A21 from 1971 - 2009.
Middle East and North Africa. Also in pring DS 49 .M5. - current. Latest in Reference Stacks; older in Geisel Stacks.

Africa Contemporary Survey: Annual Record and Documents. Print only. DT 1 A142. 1968-2002. All in the Geisel stacks, 5th floor; publication died in 2002, but provides rich coverage from the Sixties to the 21st Century. Begins with essays on current Africa issues, followed by reviews of each country, and concludes with documents on the region.

Country Studies Handbooks from the Library of Congress: Online versions of Country Studies/Area Studies series from the Library of Congress (1980s-90s), with links to newer online reports. Here are those on Africa. Description & analysis of historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems.  Print copies (including earlier editions) are also available in the library.

CIA World Fact Book. Latest edition of annual survey, with profiles of all countries and territories from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. No longer produced in print, but editions back to 1982 are available either in print on online.
Online archive of annual volumes back to 1990
Print volumes in library back to 1982

Accessing Electronic Resources from Off-Campus

Most electronic reserves, electronic journals, electronic books and databases are restricted for the use of UCSD or UC faculty, staff, and students. When you are off campus you must be authenticated (verified as currently affiliated with UCSD) by the proxy in order to use these resources. For setup instructions go to .http://libraries.ucsd.edu/services/remote.html

Other Resources

Ask a Librarian:  Depending on the day and time, get help by email, live chat, phone, or in person at the Reference Desk.

My Library Account:  Roger, the UCSD library catalog, has a "My Library Account" feature that allows you to view items that you have borrowed, renew items, request books, and more.

The Reference Shelf: A collection of information sources on the web such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, handbooks, manuals, guides, and other general resources selected and arranged for the use of the UCSD community. On the UCSD website since 1993.

Selected resources in Communication and African Studies: A collection of resources selected by UCSD Library specialists, part of UCSD's Sage Database of e-resources in all disciplines.

A web-based bibliographic service that enables you to collect, create, and manage citations, share them, build them into your papers. Free for all UCSD people. First time users will need to set up an individual account. Refworks classes scheduled for Fall 2010.

 

Contact

Elliot Kanter
Librarian: Communication, Judaic Studies, U.S. History
858-534-1263
ekanter@ucsd.edu