African American Literature Resources in the Sweet Briar College Library

African-American Poetry 1760-1900 - (full-text) You can Browse the collection or Search by subject, keyword, first line, gender of the author, city of publication and many more. Do not use quotation marks around phrase searches. The database will find your exact phrase without quotes.

Aluka (full-text) - Use the simple search box or the topics linked below it. The advanced search accepts Boolean operators. If you do not know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques.

American Civil War Letters and Diaries (ASP) (full-text) The Advanced Search allows searching by race, military rank, battle name, religion, occupation and many other options. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

American Slavery - (full-text) Oral histories of former slaves. Browse this collection by Narrator, Subject Matter, Master, Interviewer and County where the former slave was held captive.

Black Drama (ASP) (full-text) The multi-search field allows searches by gender, age when writing, nationality, race, genre, settings, performers, composers and several more. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Black Short Fiction and Folklore from Africa and the African Diaspora (ASP) (full-text) The multi-search field allows searches by gender, age when writing, nationality, race, genre, settings, performers, composers and several more. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Black Thought and Culture (ASP) (full-text) The Advanced Search field allows searches by gender, age when writing, nationality, race, religion, historical events and several more. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Black Women Writers (ASP) (full-text) The Advanced Search field allows searches by gender, age when writing, nationality, race, religion, historical events and several more. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Cambridge Companions (full-text) Includes The Cambridge Companion to the African American Novel in addition to other Companions relevant to African American literature. The advanced search allows Boolean searches in the "Full text" field. If you do not know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. Be careful - the "Start Advanced Search" button is below the fold. You will have to scroll down to see it!

Credo Reference - (full-text) Tremendous number of full-text reference volumes with many unique search options. Browse by topic, use a concept map, or an advanced search. You can also rank search results by relevancy, by results with still and moving images, and by those with sound files.

EBSCOhost Databases - (mostly full-text) On the follwing screen place check marks beside all the databases you wish to search. Click "Continue" at the bottom of the screen. On the left menu bar next to your search results you will see many options for narrowing your search.

Factiva - (full-text) First, you have to remember to use Internet Explorer (not Netscape) to get into Factiva. Netscape will not work. On the first screen of Factiva, ignore everything before the words Free Text, which will be on the blue/grey bar. Type your search terms in the text box by the words Free Text.

Important: The default search on Factiva is a phrase search. If you want to do a Boolean AND search, you must type the word "and."

Click on Run Search. Select an item from your list of search results. To return to your list of search results DO NOT CLICK THE BACK BUTTON. Instead, look on the upper right side of the screen. Just above the top, right corner of your article you will see the words Return to Headlines in blue. Click there to return to your list of search results. (On an Apple computer, Return to Headlines may be located on the upper left.)

If you find an article that is perfect for your research, scroll to the bottom of that article and click "More Like This," which you will see in grey letters on the lower left. This will bring a new search results list of articles similar to the one that was perfect for your topic. Factiva offers online tutorials that will help you use their powerful, but complicated, search interface here.

HarpWeek 1857-1912 - (full-text) Harper's Weekly newspaper articles from the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. You can search advertisements, articles, cartoons, editorials, travel narratives and many more. You can also Browse through individual newspapers. Each page was scanned from the original.

JSTOR (full-text) - The Advanced Search page is the default. If you do not want to search all of the collections at JSTOR, scroll down and list one or more titles to search or check mark specific resources. Place as many checks as you like in the section marked These Discipline(s) and/or Journal(s):. If you leave them all unmarked the system will search all of them.

On the search results screen, there is no longer any way to move batches of citations to RefWorks unless you Register for MyJSTOR and log in to that service. You can move citation one at a time into RefWorks, however.

Click on the title of the article to view the first page. To Print, click on the PDF button. It will be the bottom button under three others labeled "Save citation," "Export this citation," and "Article Information." All four are located below the grey bar grey, on the center right of the screen. A pop-up window will load your PDF. Click the printer icon closest to the document - located to the right of the floppy disc icon.

LRC: Literature Resource Center (full-text) After you click on the link at left, you will go to a list of databases at Gale. Scroll down and click on Literature Resource Center. Enter an author's name in the search box and click, Search. Writers who have been published for the first time in the past three years may not be in this database. Authors By Type allows you to select an author according to Ethnicity, Genre, Literary Movement, Nationality or Theme.

Lexis-Nexis (full-text) - Allows you to search using natural language or Boolean techniques, which they call "Terms and Connectors." Notice that you can Select Source on the pull down menu below the search box. There you can search transcripts, law reviews and medical journals, to name but a few catagories of publications.

Lexis-Nexis People (full-text) - Remember that Lexis-Nexis sources are mainly newspapers, so only fairly famous people will be found in this database. Be sure to Select Source in the pull down menu - there are MANY sources of biographical material in this database and you may need to tailor your search to a source that matchs your person's job or nationality.

NetLibrary (full-text) - is a collection of over 43,000 online books in all subjects. Search by author, title, or keyword. You may also search the full-text for specific words or phrases. The most important thing to remember about NetLibrary is that if you click on "View this eBook" that title will be locked up for 15 minutes UNLESS you "close" the eBook. Directly below the NetLibrary logo in the upper left of the browser screen you will see the words Open Items. Beneath Open Items you will see the word Current followed by the title you are viewing. To the right of the title, you will see the words, Close Item. You should always close the item when you are finished viewing it! Sweet Briar College Library shares all of our NetLibrary e-books with all of the colleges in the state. If NetLibrary tells you that an e-book is already in use, it is probably being used at another Virginia school. Wait and try that book again later.

In order to prevent problems in getting back into an eBook you are using, you should also always leave your eBook open in a separate browser window. If you need to go to other web pages while you are using an eBook, open a new browser window and do your web browsing there. Leave your eBook open in it's original window! If you need to leave the computer you are working on, it would be best for you to either "close" the eBook (if it is not checked out) OR (if the item is checked out) check the item back in before you close the browser window.

To move through sections of books in NetLibrary, click the words "Next" or "Previous" in the top right of the page. DO NOT use the greyed out arrows on the bottom of the screen. They don't work. No, we don't know why they are there. Please note that NetLibrary books cannot be downloaded due to copyright law, but individual pages can be printed. The advanced search on Net Library accepts Boolean operators. If you do not know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques.

Wilson Web (some full-text) - The Advanced Search screen automatically loads. If you do no know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. The blue Start button is on the right. Below the Start button, notice the option to Limit to Full Text. You may also use Subject Area, to limit your search to a particular area if you get too many results by searching ALL.

America: History and Life (citation only) The Advanced Search screen automatically loads.If you do no know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. You can refine your search and get fewer results by using the tools in the left and right menu bars.

Biography and Geneology Master Index (citation only) After you click on the link at left, you will go to a list of databases at Gale. Scroll down and click on Biography and Geneology Master Index. Citations in this database are for articles that were written about (not by) the person in question.

FirstSearch (citation only) - Enter your search terms in the "Search For" field. Then select a database to search. You can only search one database at a time. For that reason, it is better to use the scroll box to select a Database rather than a Topic. Use Jump to Advanced Search if you need to search on more than one keyword at once. To order an Interlibrary Loan from any of the FirstSearch databases, scroll down to the middle of the record for the item you wish to order and click the link next to this image:

Historical Abstracts (citation only) The Advanced Search screen automatically loads.If you do no know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. You can refine your search and get fewer results by using the tools in the left and right menu bars.

WorldCat (OCLC) (citation only) - If you opt to use the Advanced search screen you can limit your search by format (i.e. book, map, sound recording, etc.). You can also limit your search to the Sweet Briar College collection by placing a check mark next to "Limit Availability to:" and then typing the letters VSB in the Library Code box.

WorldCat is very easy to use with the Illiad Interlibrary Loan system. Simply log into Illiad in a separate tab. In a WorldCat record click on the words "Send Request to Iliad" which you will find next to the pink "ILL" graphic. This will send your request directly and automatically to Illiad.

Journal Finder is a list of all of the journals SBC has in full text through database subscriptions. Type in your journal title and the finder will locate the journal you need. For more journal subscriptions that are in print or on microform, connect to LION to check the SBC Library catalog for holdings information on the journals you need. If the journal is NOT held by the SBC Library, request the articles you need on Interlibrary Loan. The form is here.

To find books on your topic, connect to LION and use the Subject Keyword search field. We can order books on Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from all area libraries. Please check LION before requesting an ILL book. If we have the book on campus your ILL request will not be filled. Check both LION and Journal Finder before requesting an ILL journal article. If the article is on campus or is available to you electronically through Journal Finder your ILL request will not be filled.

RefWorks is a database that organizes your "works cited" to create quick bibliographies for your papers. It allows you to change your entire bibliography from APA to MLA style (or many other styles) in a snap, without fussing with formats or punctuation.

Just go to RefWorks. The first time you go there you will have to "Sign up for an individual account." Once you sign up and login, click on the References tab in the upper left corner of the screen.

On the drop-down menu tool bar choose "Add New Reference." On the following screen, start by selecting your prefered bibliographic style (e.g. APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.) Then designate the type of reference you are entering (e.g. journal, book or dissertation, etc.) under Ref Type. Field names marked with a red asterisk indicate required information needed to produce an accurate bibliography for the selected output style and reference type. Click "Save" when finished.

You can Import references from selected databases. Importing allows you to bring in multiple references at one time. Check the RefWorks list of Supported Databases to see which products will allow you to export multiple references to RefWorks.

If you have any problems using RefWorks you can check out their helpful online tutorials or download the SBC Library RefWorks Handout. Please call a librarian at x6307, x6306 or x6315 for a one-on-one training session.

If you have comments, questions, or would like to add a site, write to me.
Lisa N. Johnston (email: lnjohnston at sbc dot edu), Head of Public Services, Sweet Briar College Library.
Revised 8/08

African American
Literature Guide

Subscription Databases

African American Literature Guide

Subscription Databases

African American
Literature Guide