COSF 184: Mass Media & Politics in Africa (Winter 2009)

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. 

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. If UCSD copy is unavailable, or we don’t own, the "Search in Circuit" button redoesthe search in combined catalogs of UCSD, SDSU, USD, CSU San Marcos and the San Diego County Library system, with 24-48 hour delivery.

MELVYL Catalog (CDL): The California Digital Library (CDL) maintains MELVYL, a combined catalog 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. Also try the MELVYL Next Generation pilot, which uses the WorldCat but shows UC locations first.

WorldCat:   Combined catalog of more than 12,000 libraries around the United States (nearly all, from Library of Congress to public libraries) and worldwide (selectively). The UC-eLink button  is used to initiate Interlibrary loan; may take longer than within the MELVYL libraries. 

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  , 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.  http://uclibs.org/PID/126936

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.http://uclibs.org/PID/12610

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.http://scholar.google.com

Alt-Press Watch: 1995-present.  Full text of more than 170 alternative newspapers, journals and newsletters in the United States.  http://uclibs.org/PID/113849

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.  http://uclibs.org/PID/4737

Special Focus

Africa-Wide NiPAD: 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 http://uclibs.org/PID/105678

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).
http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/guide.html

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. http://uclibs.org/PID/12775

Communication Abstracts :  1977-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).  http://uclibs.org/PID/34685

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. http://www.cios.org/www/absrch.htm

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. http://uclibs.org/PID/126938

PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service) and PAIS Archive, 1915-present. Lists print and electronic articles, books, and government publications on issues of public policy, including politics, government, economy, marine policy, and law. Global, multilingual scope. http://uclibs.org/PID/20495 and http://uclibs.org/PID/96707

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts: 1975-present. Research within the political science discipline and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy. http://uclibs.org/PID/99693

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).
http://allafrica.com

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
http://uclibs.org/PID/98452

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. http://uclibs.org/PID/20081

Proquest Newspapers:

Historical: including full text/page images of Chicago Tribune (1849-1986), Los Angeles Times (1881-1986), New York Times (1851-2005), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922) Wall Street Journal (1889-1991), and Washington Post (1877-1992)

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).

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)

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. http://uclibs.org/PID/4737

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.
http://www.abyznewslinks.com/afric.htm

Kidon Media-Link: Africa: Section on Africa from Kidon Media Link, a directory of global newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and news agencies. http://www.kidon.com/media-link/africa.php

Africa Yearbooks and Country Studies

NOTE: There are regular and 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. If published and updated on a regular basis, they may also be good for historical timelines.

Some are available online (all or in part). Others are kept by the library only in print.

NOTE ON THE REFERENCE COLLECTION. The call number for most 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 just too many items to browse with much hope of success. But the Reference Collection is focused on selected country handbooks, yearbooks, encyclopedias and bibliographies, and browsing it may save you a lot of time.

Africa South of the Sahara. [Print only]. DT 1 .A21. 1971 - current. Latest in Reference Stacks; older in SSHL Stacks.
Middle East and North Africa [Print only]. DS 49 .M5. - current. Latest in Reference Stacks; older in SSHL Stacks.
Europa World Year Book. . [Print only]. JN 1 E89. 1959 - current. Latest in Reference Desk collection; older in Stacks.
For each country these have sections on social geography, recent history, and economy, followed by a statistical survey and a directory of government, political organizations, media and much more.

Africa Contemporary Survey. [Print only]. DT 1 A142. 1968-2002. All in Reference Stacks; publication died in 2002. 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 the most recent editions of the Country Studies/Area Studies series from the Library of Congress (1980s-90s), with links to newer online reports. 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.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html

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.
http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS552
http://roger.ucsd.edu/record=b2730704~S9

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. (View instructions on setting up your account).

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 Winter 2009.

Contact

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