Guide to African American reference
Guide to Afro-Caribbean reference
Time: Tues. & Thurs. 9:30 am - 10:50 am
Place: 1040 Foreign Languages Building
Fall 2012
Instructor: Thomas Weissinger
Office: 246F Main Library
Office Hours: Tues. & Thurs. 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
Office Phone: 333-3006
E-mail: tweissin@illinois.edu
Website: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/afx/afro.htm
Afro 102 will focus on research and documentation of the African American experience. The course examines significant repositories of African American culture in public libraries, historically black colleges, and predominantly white universities. The course also acknowledges the associations of influential bibliophiles (book collectors) and their contributions in establishing unique and rare collections of African American literature and history. These bibliophiles were pivotal in establishing major Black heritage collections at Howard University, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, Atlanta University and Fisk University, to name a few. Contemporaneous with the establishment of many of these collections was development of seminal research tools for the purpose of identifying and locating publications about the Black experience. In this regard the course reviews a selection of African American studies research tools. In particular, students will participate by examining and describing major digital resources through weekly classroom demonstrations.
1. To study the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of African American bibliophiles and bibliographers in the field of African American studies.
2. To introduce students to the major repositories of African American history and culture in the United States.
3. To develop an understanding of the importance of organized collections of documentary material about the African American experience for research.
4. To teach students how to select and use research tools efficiently.
5. To develop an understanding of broader issues which enhance or impede one's ability to do research on African American topics.
No textbooks are required.
Most readings are available digitally in the Library's Online Research Resources (ORR) collection. Others are only available in the stacks and can be located using the Library's online catalog. Since this is a research course, you are expected to find the articles and bring copies to class.
Video and database assignments 20%
Three Quizzes 60%
Written assignment 20%
In addition to regular attendance and classroom participation, you are expected to stay current on the weekly reading assignments. Please be courteous: put away cell phones during class. Laptops are permitted for note taking only.
Students will develop an annotated bibliography of no less than 50 citations. This project is worth 20% of your final grade. It should include a brief summary of a research topic in African American Studies and an annotated bibliography. The citations of the annotated bibliography must be relevant to the topic described in your summary. You will be graded on relevance, accuracy, currency, authoritativeness (are the scholars you cite frequently mentioned by others?), and variety of formats. You are required to use the RefWorks citation manager and ensure that all citations are formatted in the Chicago style.
Aug. 28. Introductions.
Aug. 30. Videotape: Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed. Readings: Schomburg, Arthur A. (1925) " The Negro Digs Up His Past." Survey Graphic (March): 670-672;
Sept. 4. Bibliographic records and the Chicago Manual of Style. Online catalogs & WorldCat.
Sept. 6. Readings: Weissinger, Thomas. (2002) " Black Studies Scholarly Communication: A Citation Analysis of Periodical Literature." Collection Management 26: 45-56.
Sept. 11. Readings: Weissinger, Thomas. (2010) " The Core Journal Concept in Black Studies." Journal of Academic Librarianship 36 (2): 119-124.
Sept. 13. Readings: Nyana, Sylvia A. (2010) " Information Use in African American Studies Doctoral Dissertations at Pennsylvania State University, 2000-2007." JPAS - Journal of Pan African Studies 3 (10): 31-40.
Sept. 18. Reading: Zulu, Itibari M. "The Ancient Kemetic Roots of Library and Information Science" Online at http://www.jpanafrican.com/edocs/e-DocAKRLIS.pdf.
Sept. 20. Bibliographies.
Readings: 1) Tucker, Mark. (1991) "'You Can't Argue with Facts': Monroe Nathan Work as Information Officer, Editor, and Bibliographer." Libraries and Culture 26 (1): 151-16 ; and 2) Moses, Sibyl E. (1996) " The Influence of Philanthropic Agencies on the Development of Monroe Nathan Work's Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America." Libraries & Culture 31 (Spring): 326-41.
Sept. 25. Abstracting and indexing services.
Readings: 1) Newman, Richard. (2000) "The First Black Index: Albert P. Marshall and A Guide to Negro Periodical Literature." Harvard Library Bulletin 11: 81-87 [E-Reserve]; and 2) Hankins, Rebecca. (2009) " Uncovering Black Feminist Writers, 1963-1990: An Evaluation of their coverage in research tools." Reference & Users Services Quarterly 48 (3): 270-286.
Sept. 27. Black Newspapers.
Videotape: The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.
Oct. 2. Readings: Pinnick, Timothy N. (2008). Finding and Using African American Newspapers. Wyandotte, OK: Gregath Pub. Co., 2009, pp. 2-32.
Oct. 4. Quiz #1
Oct. 9. Biographical Dictionaries.
Readings: Meier, August. (1960) " A Scholar Discovers the Negro World: Some Observations on Richard Bardolph's 'The Negro Vanguard'." Journal of Negro Education 29 (1): 100-106.
Oct. 11. Encyclopedias.
Videotape: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African & African American Experience.
Oct. 16. Readings: 1) Contee, Clarence G. (1970) "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Encyclopedia Africana." Crisis 77 (9): 375-379 [E-Reserve]; and 2) Harris, Robert L., J. (1976) " Daniel Murray and the Encyclopedia of the Colored Race." Phylon 37 (3): 270-282.
Oct. 19. Quiz #2.
MAJOR COLLECTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANA
Oct. 23. Readings: Kaiser, Ernest. (2000) " Library Holdings on African Americans." In E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach, editors. Handbook of Black Librarianship. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, pp.247-276.
Oct. 25. Two Academic Library Collections.
Readings: 1) Battle, Thomas C. (1988). "Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University." Library Quarterly 58 (2): 143-151; and 2) Shockley, Ann Allen. "Special Collections, Fisk University Library." Library Quarterly 58 (2): 151-163.
Oct. 30. Two Public Library Collections.
Readings: 1) Joyce, Donald Franklin. (1988) " Vivian G. Harsh Collection of Afro-American History and Literature, Chicago Public Library." Library Quarterly 58 (1): 67-74; and 2) Dodson, Howard. (1988) " The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library." Library Quarterly 58 (1): 74-82.
BIBLIOPHILES & COLLECTORS OF AFRICAN AMERICANA
Nov. 1. Readings: Albritton, Rosie L. "The Founding & Prevalence of African-American Social Libraries & Historical Societies, 1828-1918." In Tucker, John Mark, ed. Untold Stories: Civil Rights, Libraries, and Black Librarianship. Champaign, IL: Publications Office, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, 1998, pp. 23-46.
Nov. 6. Black Bibliophiles.
Readings: 1) Ards, Angela (1996). " Professional and Amateur Collectors Indulge a Passion for Black History & Culture." QBR: The Black Book Review 3 (3): 41+; and 2) Bowers, Detine L. (1992) " Disintegrating Roots: African-American Life and Culture Returns to the Auction Block." Black Scholar 22(4): 2-5 [Auctions and estate sales for Alex Haley, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. papers].
Nov. 8. Readings: John E. Bruce. Crowder, Ralph L. "The Popularization of African American History: John Edward Bruce as Historian, Bibliophile, and Black History Advocate." In John Edward Bruce: Politician, Journalist, and Self-trained Historian of the African Diaspora. New York: New York University Press, 2004, pp. 91-133.
Nov. 13. Readings: William C. Bolivar & Arthur B. Spingarn. Readings: 1) Welburn, William C. (2007) " To 'Keep the Past in Lively Memory': William Carl Bolivar's Effort to Preserve African-American Cultural Heritage." Libraries & the Cultural Record 42 (2): 165-179; 2); Spingarn, Arthur B. "Collecting a Library of Negro Literature." Journal of Negro Education 7 (1): 12-18.
Nov. 15. Readings: Culpepper, Betty M. (1990) "Moorland-Spingarn Research Center: A Legacy of Bibliophiles." In Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney, W. Paul Coates and Thomas C. Battle, eds. Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservators of Black History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, pp. 103-114.
Nov. 20 & 22. Thanksgiving Break.
Nov. 27. Dorothy Porter. Readings: 1) Madison, Avril Johnson and Dorothy Porter Wesley. (1995) "Dorothy Burnett Porter Wesley: Enterprising Steward of Black Culture." The Public Historian 17 (1): 15-40; and 2) Porter, Dorothy B. (1976) " Bibliography and Research in Afro-American Scholarship," Journal of Academic Librarianship 2 (May): 78-81.
Nov. 29. Arthur Schomburg. Readings: 1) Clarke, John Henrik (1992). "The influence of Arthur A. Schomburg on my concept of Africana Studies." Phylon 49 (1-2): 4-9; and 2) Readings: Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney. (1990) "Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938), Black Bibliophile and Collector." In Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney, W. Paul Coates, and Thomas C. Battle, editors. Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, pp. 35-45.
Dec. 4. Videotape: John Henrik Clarke: a Great and Mighty Walk.
Dec. 6. Carter G. Woodson. Readings: 1) Goggin, Jacqueline and J. Franklin Jameson. (1985) "Carter G. Woodson and the Collection of Source Materials for Afro-American History." American Archivist 48 (3): 261-271. [E-Reserve].
Dec. 11. Quiz #3.
University LibraryFor comments on this page contact: African American Research Center
Last modified by: Thomas Weissinger on 11/29/12
