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June 2007, update of February, 2001
Evan Simpson, Assistant Director for Resource Sharing
The department offers an interdisciplinary examination of the relationship of Africa and the African diaspora, aimed at uniting the basic knowledge of both. It explores history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, politics, religions, economics, languages, folklore, and the arts. Pan-African in assumptions, it relates the experience and aspirations of black America to the experience and aspirations of African people elsewhere in the world - particularly in Africa, in Asia, in South America, Latin America, and in the Caribbean.
The collection supports an undergraduate degree program and faculty research in those disciplines and fields impinging directly or indirectly on African and Afro-American Studies. There is a concentration program with course requirements outside the department in the areas of Social Science, Humanities, and History. There is an opportunity for specialization in one of several disciplines: literature, music, history, political science, sociology, and economics. The African and Afro-American aspects of these subjects are actively collected: religion, philosophy, social sciences in general, geography, anthropology, folklore, economics, sociology, political science, education, humanities in general, history, music, visual and applied arts, language and linguistics, and literature. Subjects that are collected only when there is specific relevance to African Studies as described above are natural sciences, medicine, agriculture, and technology.
None Specified
The geographical focus is on the entire African continent and on those areas where Africans or their descendants live and work and maintain or retain significant links, active or inactive, with the mother continent.
There is no limitation in time, but the contemporary is stressed.
The collection is primarily current, but retrospective materials might be purchased when available. Reprints are collected if the library does not own the original editions.
The language of the collections is primarily English, but valued acquisitions in other languages are purchased when appropriate. No attempt is made to collect works in the principal African languages, although specific requests will certainly be considered.
Monographs are primary to the collection.
Serials are also primary to the collection.
The library buys or subscribes to electronic indexes and full-text databases that offer research value. As they are published, new electronic resources of varying types are consistently evaluated for relevance to the discipline and local curriculum.
Research collections in microform are purchased when particularly relevant.
Dissertations are acquired only on a highly selective basis.
Video and audio materials are acquired when relevant.
Materials are located in standard locations throughout the library.
None Specified
Subject Area |
Collecting Levels |
| Africa | Undergraduate Study |
| Afro-America | Graduate Study |
| Afro-Latin America | Undergraduate Study |
| Afro-Caribbean | Undergraduate Study |
| Afro-Asia | Selective/Basic |