First Year Seminar 20:
Africa: Power & Representation
Fall 2006
- Historical & Contemporary Background
- Current News from African Countries
- A Few Useful Reference Sources
- Help from the Library and Other Useful Tips
Historical & Contemporary Background
Five College Library Catalog: All the books owned by the Five College
libraries listed, if you want to look at in-depth history and politics.
Encyclopedia of African History (Ref DT 20 E53 2005): Multi-volume
encyclopedia devoted to history of Africa. More specialized and
scholarly than a general encyclopedia. Good information for background
for your reading.
The
World Factbook: Current, brief information (mostly statistics)
about individual countries, compiled by the CIA. Very good for regional
and individual country maps.
Africa South of the Sahara (Ref DT 351 A37) Latest is 2006
volume. Annual survey country by country.
Key Events in African History (Ref DT 20 E35 2002): Topical
chapters survey key events, movements, issues. Brief bibliographies.
Encyclopedia of World Cultures. Volume 9: Africa and the Middle East (Ref GN 307 E53 1991 Vol. 9): Brief essays on peoples from Africa and the Middle East, organized by name of people. Look up ethnic groups from Africa here.
Current News from African Countries
AllAfrica.com A non-profit service that collects content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, which are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced by AllAfrica.
Do you want to get an RSS
feed (a continuous news feed) from AllAfrica.com to support
your projects on individual countries?
Download RssReader and install program on your own computer. Don't forget to read Short
Introduction to RssReader.
Do you want another choice of reader? Try the list at RSS Info
Google A favorite search engine. To add to retrieval about Africa from non-African sources, check here too. Just don't ever rely on Google alone
A Few Useful Reference Sources
Britannica
Online: For basic information, a good encyclopedia is often
best.
OED
Online A large dictionary on historical principles also
available in 20 volumes in the Reference Collection at Frost (Ref
PE 1625 O87 1989)
Blackwell
Dictionary of Political Science or Concise
Oxford Dictionary of Politics Definitions of specialized
political and political science terms
Handbook
of International Financial Terms Because contries in Africa
are always the ojects of international finance
Help from the Library and Other Useful Tips
Ask for help! Reference
and research advice from the experts. Or just Ask
Us on email.
Do you want to cite the sources you used? Use Citing References: MLA Style for the way to cite in
the humanities; for social sciences, try Using
the American Psychological Association (APA) Format
Don't forget all the computers in the Library. You can print from them too.
The Writing Center and Information Technology are always standing by...
Do you have questions about research in this course? Contact Margaret Adams Groesbeck (email:magroesbeck; voice: x2098)