Encyclopedia articles, written by subject authorities, provide information useful for gaining a basic understanding of a topic and getting started with a research project. Typically, a bibliography, or list, of "classic" books and articles for further research follows each article. Students will find also these encyclopedias useful for brushing up on topics related to their central area of investigation. [Note: See the Research Guides for sources that deal with narrower sub-fields within the discipline.]

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African-American Experience. Kwame Anthony Appiah, Editor. New York : Basic Civitas Books, c1999.

CALL NUMBER: Ref DT14 .A37435 1999

"Achebe, Chinua" EncyclopĘdia Britannica Online. [ Online ] <http://search.eb.com/eb/article?eu=3557> [Accessed August 15, 2002].

Available to members of the Union community via Britannica Online, this article contains a  biographical essay as well as links to information on African literature & Nigerian culture.

African Writers.  C. Brian Cox, Editor. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997.

Volume 1. Criticism and Selected Bibliography.

CALL NUMBER: Ref PL 8010 .A453 1997 v1-2

Black Literature Criticism: excerpts from criticism of the most significant works of black authors over the past 200 years. James P. Draper, Editor. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.

Volume 1. An introductory essay on Achebe is followed by extensive excerpts from eight different sources, including "Africa and Her Writers", an article written by Achebe in 1973. A bibliography of Further Readings identifies additional research sources.

CALL NUMBER: Ref PS153 .N5 B556 1992 v1-3

Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara. John Middleton, Editor in Chief. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1997.

Volume 3 includes relevant articles on African Literatures with references to Achebe in other volumes.

CALL NUMBER: Ref DT351 .E53 1997 v1-4

Encyclopedia of African Peoples. The Diagram Group. New York : Facts on File, Inc., 2000.

CALL NUMBER: Ref DT15 .E53 2000

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English.  Eugene Benson & L. W. Conolly, Editors. New York: Routledge, 1994.

CALL NUMBER: Ref PR9080 .A52 E53 1994 v1-2

Modern Black Writers. Michael Popkin, Editor. New York: Ungar Publishing, 1978.
Modern Black Writers. Supplement. Steven Serefin, Editor. New York: Continuum, 1995.

CALL NUMBER: Ref PN841 .M58 
CALL NUMBER: Ref PN841 .M58 1995 Suppl.

Atlases

Cultural Atlas of Africa. Jocelyn Murray, Editor. New York: Checkmark Books, 1998.

CALL NUMBER: Ref G2446.E6 C8 1998 

Bibliographies

Bibliography of African Literatures. Peter Limb and Jean-Marie Volet. Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, c1996.

Bibliography of Creative African Writing. Janheinz Jahn and Claus Peter Dressler. Millwood, N.Y., Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1973.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib PL8010 .J28 1973 

Subject Dictionaries

An African Biographical Dictionary. Brockman, Norbert C. California: ABC-Clio, 1994.

CALL NUMBER: Ref DT18 .B76 1994 

Excerpt from Things Fall Apart (audio)

Interviews with Chinua Achebe

Selected Articles

Citation Guides and Style Manuals

Style manuals and citations guides illustrate how to cite book, journal, and other research sources, including materials found in online databases and on the Web according to the conventional format of a particular discipline. Subject specific citation guides are listed below, and a complete listing appears at Reference Sites: Citation Guides and Style Manuals.

As an interdisciplinary study, Women's Studies may use a variety of style guides, depending upon the specific disciplinary focus.  Literature courses, for example,  may require the MLA Style Guide, while Women's History classes may use The Chicago Manual of Style or Kate Turabian's  A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses and Dissertations: A Brief Guide. Education and the social sciences may use the APA guide, Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 

Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. [ Online ] Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger. Available: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/

Books in Schaffer Library are arranged by Library of Congress Class number. Class numbers are searchable in the Web Catalog and browsable in the Stacks and Reference Collection.

Research Guides supplement the broader Research by Subject pages by focusing on the print and electronic resources that are most useful for a course-specific research assignment. For faculty, the Research Guides provide structured access to the Library and Internet resources relevant to their own work or in advising students on their research projects. For students working independently, it serves as a reminder of services and materials offered within the library while at the same time providing a gateway for information available from remote sites.

Faculty using Blackboard are encouraged to incorporate links to Library resources—and specifically the Research by Subject pages and the appropriate course-related Research Guides—into the Blackboard course pages. Your Departmental Liaison or Bibliographic Instruction Contacts can assist you.

Scholarly periodical databases give a researcher access to articles on specific subjects that have appeared in variety of periodicals. Such databases may cover a broad area of study the way Humanities Index and Social Science Index do. Others, such as Black Studies on Disc, and MLA Bibliography focus more sharply. Most journal articles listed are written by scholars and aimed at other researchers in that field, making them particularly important research sources. Searching a database will give the researcher the bibliographic citation needed to identify and locate a specific work on a topic: author, title of article, journal title, volume and issue number, date, and pages. An abstract briefly summarizes an article's contents.

Some online databases-- H.W. Wilson Select Full Text in FirstSearch, and Project Muse--include the full text of at least some of the articles online. Databases are accessible via the Library'sSome online databases-- H.W. Wilson Select Full Text in FirstSearch, and Project Muse--include the full text of at least some of the articles online. Databases are accessible via the Library's Databases & Indexes Page.

Relevant World-Wide Web Sites for Background Information on Chinua Achebe and His Writing

African Studies Internet Resources
Columbia University's collection of African Studies Internet Resources is an on-going compilation of electronic bibliographic resources and research materials on Africa available on the global Internet, created under the purview of the African Studies Department of Columbia University Libraries. Part of the WWW Virtual Library collection.

Address: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/

African Writers Voices of Change
Courtesy of University of Florida's Humanities and Social Sciences Library. A compilation of resources on African writers, biographical pieces, excerpts from works, bibliographies, related links.

Address: http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/writers.htm

Culture(s) and Literature(s) of Africa
This webpage is maintained by Cora Agatucci, Professor of English, Humanities Department at Central Oregon Community College. Includes Reading and Study Questions for Things Fall Apart, Achebe Bibliography, African Links, African "Literary" Map, African Timelines.

Address: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/achebTFA.htm

Exploring Africa - An Exhibit of Maps and Travel Narratives
This exhibit puts on display one of the hidden resources of Thomas Cooper Library's Special Collections, a selection from the many books of travel and exploration purchased for the original South Carolina College Library in the early and middle nineteenth century. The exhibition illustrates most of the major phases in the European exploration of Africa, from the late fifteenth century to the late nineteenth century.

Address: http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/sccoll/africa/africa.html

Multicultural Resources: African-American/Africana Studies
A compilation of library and Internet resources--reference books, statistical sources, online databases, government documents, and Web sites--suited for research into African-American and Africana Studies subject areas. Maintained by Schaffer Library, Union College.

Address: http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/LIBRARY/guide/mcafric.html

Nigeria: A Country Study
Courtesy of the Library of Congress Country Study Series, which provide  "description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security systems and institutions of countries throughout the world and examines the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors."

Address: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ngtoc.html

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
A national research library - branch of the New York Public Library - devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world. Selected Internet Sources of information on Africa and the African Diaspora.

Address: http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html

UPenn African Studies Center
The African Studies Center at Penn is an interdisciplinary program that offers undergraduate students an opportunity to explore the historic and cultural diversity of sub-Saharan African peoples. Includes country specific pages, news information, annotated resource list.

Address: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/

The New York Times: College. [ Online ] The New York Times. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/college/index.htmll (Accessed 15 August 2002)
Provides full text access to articles relating to higher education from The New York Times.

Preceptorial Liaison

For information on resources, services, collections, and book ordering for the First-Year Preceptorial

Bibliographic Instruction Contact

For information on scheduling course-related instruction session or faculty training session