Guide to African American reference
Guide to Afro-Caribbean reference
Researching the African American Experience
AFRO 102
Time: Mon. & Wed. 11:00 - 12:20
Place: 226 Wohlers
Spring 2009
Instructor: Thomas Weissinger
Office: 246F Main Library
Office Hours: Mon. & Wed. 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Office Phone: 333-3006
E-mail: tweissin@illinois.edu
Website: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/afx/afro.htm
Course Description: Afro 102 will focus on research and documentation of the African American experience. It acknowledges the associations of influential bibliophiles and the impact of their activities on the preservation and establishment of unique and rare collections of African American literature and history. It examines significant repositories of African American culture in public libraries, historically black colleges, and predominantly white universities. Included among such repositories are the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Vivian G. Harsh Collection of the Chicago Public Library, and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. Many of the same bibliophiles, bibliographers or research librarians were responsible for developing seminal research tools to identify and locate materials about the Black experience. The course will review a selection of African American studies research tools. These will include both general information sources, providing some coverage of African American topics, and subject-specific sources that focus exclusively on African American topics.
Goals and Objectives:
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 teach students evaluative skills to assess the usefulness of reference tools.
6. To develop an understanding of broader issues which enhance or impede one's ability to do research on African American topics.
Texts:
Course Requirements:
Grades for the course will be weighted as follows:
Library assignments 25%
Two Reading Quizzes 25%
Written assignments 50%
In addition to weekly readings, there will be weekly assignments and required classroom participation.
Writing assignments:
Students will write two papers during the semester. Together these papers will be worth 50% of your final grade. The first is an analysis of a topic the student chooses to research. It should describe and explain the significance of the topic for scholars who have written on the subject. The paper should be 2 full pages in length. The final project will be to create an annotated bibliography of 50 citations. The citations must support the topic described in the first paper. You will be graded on accuracy, currency, authoritativeness, relevance to scope, and variety of formats. All citations must be written in the Chicago style. See "Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation." (Linked)
READINGS & LECTURES
1/21 Introductions. Online catalogs & WorldCat.
1/26 Videotape: Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed.
1/28 Magazines
Readings : 1) Trice, Dawn Turner. (2005) " Ebony, Jet are Old School but Still Relevant." Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2005. (2) Sheehan, Charles. " Magazine's Stories were 'Gospel' for Many Blacks." Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2005.
2/2 Journals
Readings: 1) Anderson, Talmadge. (1984) " An Ideological Treatise on Black Publications and Black Writers: The Evolvement of the Western Journal of Black Studies," Serials Librarian, 9 (1): 7-15; and 2) Weissinger, Thomas. (2002) " Black Studies Scholarly Communication: A Citation Analysis of Periodical Literature." Collection Management 27 (nos. 3/4): 45-56. (Linked)
2/4 Periodical Indexes & Journal Aggregators.
2/9 Readings: 1) Burkett, Randall K. (2008) " The Joy of Finding Periodicals 'Not in Danky'." Library Trends 56 (3): 601-617.
2/11 Video-- Satia Marshall Orange on Albert P. Marshall
Readings: Newman, Richard. (2000) " The First Black Index: Albert P. Marshall and A Guide to Negro Periodical Literature." Harvard Library Bulletin 11: 81-87.
2/16 Black Newspapers
Videotape: The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.
2/18 Using ProQuest Black Historical Newspapers
Guest lecturer: Prof. Mary Stuart
2/23 Readings: 1) Lacy, Stephen, James M. Stephens and Stan Soffin. (1991) " Future of the African-American Press: A Survey of African-American Newspaper Managers." Newspaper Research Journal 12 (3): p. 8.
2/25 Bibliophiles & Collectors of African Americana.
Videotape: John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk. Readings: 1) Ards, Angela (1996). " Professional and Amateur Collectors Indulge a Passion for Black History & Culture." QBR: The Black Book Review (February): 41+. 2) Schomburg, Arthur A. (1925) "The Negro Digs Up His Past." Survey Graphic (March): 670-672.
3/2 Readings: (1) Blockson, Charles L. (1998). "Bibliophiles and Collectors of African Americana." In Dam Rare: the Memoirs of an African-American Bibliophile Tracy,CA: Quamtum Leap Publisher), pp. 227-241.
3/4 Kaiser's Overview of African American collections and research Materials
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.
3/9 Video -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African & African American Experience.
3/11 The 1 st African American Encyclopedias.
Reading: Contee, Clarence G. (1970) " W.E.B. Du Bois and the Encyclopedia Africana." Crisis 77 (9): 375-379.
3/16 Reading: Harris, Robert L., J. (1976) " Daniel Murray and the Encyclopedia of the Colored Race." Phylon 37 (3): 270-282. (Linked)
3/18 Black Studies Databases & Research Centers
3/23 & 3/25 Spring Break
3/30 Monroe N. Work and Bibliographies
Readings: 1) 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; 2) Porter, Dorothy B. (1976) " Bibliography and Research in Afro-American Scholarship," Journal of Academic Librarianship 2 (May): 78-81.
4/1 Open book quiz on required readings.
4/6 Videotape: John Henrik Clarke as Bibliophile
4/8 Social Activists as Bibliophiles: Arthur A. Schomburg
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.
4/13 Social Activists as Bibliophiles: John Edward Bruce
Readings: " The Popularization of African America History: John Edward Bruce as Historian, Bibliophile, and Black History Advocate." In Ralph L. Crowder. John Edward Bruce: Politician, Journalist, and Self-trained Historian of the African Diaspora. New York: New York University Press, 2004, pp. 91-133.
First paper due (4/13).
4/15 Historians as Bibliophiles: Carter G. Woodson
Readings: 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. About the Carter G. Woodson Collection of Negro Materials at the Library of Congress.
4/20 Librarians as Bibliophiles: Dorothy Porter Wesley
Readings: Britton, Helen. (1996) " Dorothy Porter Wesley: Bibliographer, Curator, and Scholar." In Suzanne Hildenbrand, editor. Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publications, pp. 163-186. Also see biography of Dorothy Porter Wesley.
4/22 Federal Government Information: Big Brother Knows Everything!
Guest Lecturer: Prof. Karen Hogenboom. See website: AFRO 102: Government Information About African Americans
4/27 Government Documents, Room 200-D Main Library (1408 W. Gregory)
4/29 African American Genealogy. Video -- African American lives (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
5/4 African American Genealogical Research: Mary Hill researches the Haley family (3 Parts from Rootstelevision.com)
5/6 Open book quiz on required readings (Final paper due).
University LibraryFor comments on this page contact: African American Research Center
Last modified by: Thomas Weissinger on 4/28/09
