Note: See the Research by Subject: Women's and Gender Studies, Sociology, and Africana Studies for additional material that might be helpful for your research.

 Reference Sources

Citation manuals

 Library Catalog

Databases & Indexes

Practicalities

Black Women in America. Edited by Darlene Clark Hine. New York : ,Oxford University Press, c2005

Historical encyclopedia includes 560 entries, 325 of which are biographies of individual Black women.  Topics and organizations pertaining to arts, culture, family, gender, law, occupations, politics, religion, science, and sports.  Includes "Black Women in the United States: A Chronology," which provides a broad historical context for individuals organizations and activities detailed in the 3 volume set.  Feature articles, essays, photos, etc.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E 185.86 .B542 2005 v.1-3

Encyclopedia of Black studies / editors, Molefi Kete Asante, Ama Mazama. Calif. : SAGE Publications, c2005.

Organized alphabetically, the 482 individual entries offer a concise, yet detailed, subject overview. Each entry includes a list of suggestions for further reading. Supplementary appendices include a chronology tracing the evolution of Black Studies, as well as lists of advanced degree-granting programs in the U.S., major Black Studies journals, and suggested resources.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E 185 .E554 2005 

Encyclopedia of women and gender : sex similarities and differences and the impact of society on gender.  Judith Worell, editor in chief. San Diego, Calif. : Academic, 2001.

Subjects include Achievement, Affirmative Action, Beauty Politics, Divorce, Family Roles & Patterns, Gender Stereotypes, Hate Crimes, Poverty, Rape, Work-Family Balance.  Attention is given to multicultural issues of diversity in human experience, including those related to nationality, economics, sexuality, and racial/ethnic variables.

CALL NUMBER: Ref HQ 1115 .E52 2001 v.1-2

Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups. Stephan Thernstrom, editor; Ann Orlov, managing editor, Oscar Handlin, consulting editor. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1980.

Articles on the various ethnic groups generally run 3,000 to 15,000 words and include selective bibliographies. There are additional entries for definitions of important terms and concepts as well as thematic essays on policy issues or such subjects as education, religion, and literature.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E 184 .A1 H35 

Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: the Black Experience in the Americas. Edited by Colin A. Palmer New York : Detroit : Macmillan Reference USA, c2006.

Includes biographical, as well as historical, legal, literary, and cultural events.  Includes a timeline of key African-American events from 1444-2005.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E 185 .E54 2006 v1-6

Russell, Cheryl, 1953-
The official guide to racial and ethnic diversity : Asians, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and whites. Ithaca, N.Y. : New Strategist Publications, c1996.

Includes demographic data on Education, Health, Households & Living Arrangements, Housing Income, Labor Force, Population, Wealth & Spending.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E 184 .A1 R80 1996

Reference library of Black America. Edited by Jessie Carney Smith, Joseph M. Palmisano. Farmington Hills, MI : Gale Group, Inc., 2000.

Presents information on all aspects of African-American life including black nationalism, politics, employment and income, and literature.

CALL NUMBER: Ref PN771 .G27

Women's issues. Consulting editor, Margaret McFadden. Pasadena, Calif. : Salem Press, c1997.

Addresses the changing dynamic nature of women' lives in America demographics. Includes race, ethnicity, social and economic issues confronting African American women.

CALL NUMBER: Ref HQ 1115 .W6425 1997 v. 1-3

Suggested keyword searches:

Note the use of the truncation symbol(*); you can add terms by joining them with the Boolean term "and," e.g. african america* and women. Use "" for phrase searching.

"black women" and (professional or corporate)
"black women" and (work or employment)
(minority women) and (employment or workforce)
"african american women" and (judge* or lawyer*)

Suggested Subject searches:

Look for special aspects of your topic such as --History or --Case studies or --Political and social views.

Example:  African American women -- Employment

For finding background material relating to historical, social, or political themes:

african american women education
african american women clergy history
african
americans social conditions 1975-
african american nurses
african american women executives

Use the Social Sciences or Sociology link under Databases & Indexes link to find articles on your topic.

Examples of the many resources you may find useful:

Contemporary Women's Issues: Provides full-text access to global information on women in over 150 countries Indexes books, journals, newsletters, research reports from non-profit groups, government and international agencies, and fact sheets Includes links to full-text articles for many articles.

JSTOR: Includes an electronic database of hundreds of back issues of academic publications. Includes African-American Studies, History, Political Science, Population, and Sociology titles. Users can search or browse by category/subject.

Social Science Index:  Provides records for English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere Contains a bibliographic citation for each record Includes articles, interviews, obituaries, biographies, and book reviews. 1983 to present updated monthly. Includes links to full-text articles for many citations.

SocIndex with Full-Text  Features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,600 term sociology-specific thesaurus. This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,390 "selective" coverage journals.

Please note: For books that Schaffer Library does not own, or are checked out, please try ConnectNY, a service offered jointly by 12 libraries including, Vassar, St. Lawrence, Siena, RIT, and RPI to provide their borrowers with 48-hour delivery of any books available in their collections.

Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Follow this link to place an Interlibrary Loan request. There is also a description of the Interlibrary Loan service available.

PLEASE NOTE: You are reminded that it is required to check the Online Catalog (for books) or the two lists of Periodicals Titles  (for journals with articles you need) before ordering on Interlibrary Loan. It will save you considerable time for every reference that you find available here on the shelves or in electronic format.

Off-campus access
Access to the paid-subscription sources listed is limited to workstations with Union College IP addresses. Therefore, a student wishing to use all the links on this page from off-campus will need to apply at Information Technology Services for an account on the Virtual Private Network.  Such an account enables off-campus users to have full access, even to the paid subscriptions.

Try Google Scholar - scholar.google.com. You will see results that provide direct access to full-text or Schaffer Library catalog.