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African American Studies: Books

Department Research Guides identify and define standard information retrieval tools for a specific department. Each guide was created and is maintained by the library liaison for that department. We encourage you to recommend resources for the guides.

Subject Headings Defined

Subject headings are a controlled vocabulary. A single term or phrase is determined by an authority (Library Congress or a database vendor) to describe a subject. For example, try searching for the subject "roaring twenties" in West-Cat and see what you get.

Sample Subject Headings

  • African Americans--Biography
  • African Americans--History--Sources
  • African Americans--Social Conditions
  • Autobiographies--United States
  • Autobiography--African American Authors

WestCat/I-Share

WestCat/I-Share
WestCat/I-Share is a computer-based library system that provides statewide access to a wealth of information services and resources, including an extensive public access catalog, inter-library loan, and resource sharing services to 90+ CARLI libraries.  Very easy to renew books online and make interlibrary loan requests.

WorldCat

WorldCat (FirstSearch)

WorldCat is the world's largest database of bibliographic information. It offers more than 43 million bibliographic records representing books all over the world. Use this catalog to supplement IO. Very easy to make interlibrary loan requests online.

Google Books

Consider using Google Books to find the full text of books published years ago.

Library Liaison