Finding Journal Articles
Black Studies is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship. Due to it's interdisciplinary nature, you will find scholarship and sources for the field are indexed in a wide range of databases. The databases listed below are a great starting point when conducting research in Black Studies, but they are not the only databases to find information. In each of the theme tabs you will find additional databases to try based on your research needs.
If you cannot find what you need by using this guide, do not hesitate ask a librarian!
Electronic Reference Collections
- Credo ReferenceProvides access to a collection of aggregated and integrated reference books from high-quality publishers.
- Gale eBooks
Gale eBooks offers a broad cross-curricular collection of non-fiction titles, supporting science, geography, history, language arts, business and other subjects.
- Oxford Reference OnlineSpecialty encyclopedias, handbooks, thesauruses and dictionaries; emphasis on American Literature and Western Civilization.
- SAGE Reference E-BooksGrowing collection of topic and subject encyclopedias online. Note: To search only UIC subscribed titles, please click the Available to me button on the right.
Finding books
The following techniques can improve your success in searching the catalog for books:
- Use author and title searches for books cited in readings. For example, your syllabus may list Jane Rhodes, Framing the Black Panthers: The Spectacular Rise of a Black Power Icon.
- Use Proper Nouns. Proper nouns like Fred Hampton or Jim Crow era usually narrow a search and can lead to primary sources.
- Subject Headings. The display of subject headings can suggest search terms and perspectives on your topic. Subject headings bring together books on your topics.
- If one term does not work, try a few others. Experiment with different vocabulary related to your topic. Brainstorm ideas for relevant keywords and use background sources such as encyclopedias for suggestions.
- If the UIC copy is unavailable or if UIC does not have what you need, search I-Share. The I-Share catalog tells you what 70+ academic libraries in Illinois have and you can request online most of the books.