University Libraries

By Maureen Schlangen

During Black History Month, the University Libraries are recognizing and celebrating the rich and diverse history of African Americans.

Among the many works by renowned professor, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. to the study and appreciation of African American history is a rich database available through the University of Dayton Libraries since 2007 — the Oxford African American Studies Center.

Gates is editor-in-chief of the scholarly reference, which relaunched in late January with a redesigned mobile-responsive website, enhanced search and browse options, greater accessibility and new content.

It’s considered the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online focusing on the people and events that have shaped African American and African history and culture.

In addition to more than 20,000 articles by top scholars in the field, the collection contains:

• Primary sources including slave narratives, speeches, and patent records for African American inventors.
• A curated list of links to trustworthy external websites.
• Thematic guides and timelines.
• More than 2,500 searchable images and multimedia resources.
• Hundreds of charts, tables, graphs, maps, timelines and learning resources for students and teachers.

Timelines group content from a variety of subject areas by date, providing a more comprehensive picture of African American life than the study of one subject might provide.

The database also provides full-text access to valuable references:

• African American National Biography (eight volumes).
• Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895.
• Encyclopedia of African American History 1896-the Present.
• Black Women in America (2nd Edition).
• Dictionary of African Biography.
• Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography.

To access the Oxford African American Studies Center, navigate to it from the “Databases by Title or Subject” button at the Libraries website.

The Libraries have a host of other African American studies resources as well. Search the catalog; ask for assistance at any service desk; or use the website’s “Need Help? Ask Us!” chat function.

— Maureen Schlangen is an e-scholarship and communications manager in the University Libraries.