Barnard College Library Research Guide

BC3810 Colloquium on Aid, Politics, and Violence in Africa

Professor Séverine Autesserre
Librarian Jenna Freedman


Child in refugee camp in Chad being vaccinated.
photo: Mark Knobil

This guide is intended as a starting point in your research; the databases and reference tools listed here are a selective list. Always remember that you can ask for assistance at the Barnard Reference Desk at any point in your research, and you can always request a consultation.

 
 CLIO | Databases | Other Libraries | Web | Bibliography
 


CLIO

BOOKS AND REFERENCE MATERIALS

Searching CLIO
 CLIO (Columbia Libraries Information Online) is the on-line catalog for materials added to the Columbia University Libraries since 1981.  

  • For keyword searches, AND is automatically inserted between term. You may also use OR or NOT between the terms, or quotes for a phrase.
  • For an author search, put last name, then first name
  • You can retrieve materials in English only using the Pre-set Limits or Post Limits options

To find PRIMARY SOURCES, use these terms in your search: ARCHIVES, BIOGRAPHY (this includes autobiographies), CORRESPONDENCE, DIARIES, INTERVIEWS, SOURCES. Enter them as "any of these" in a Guided Keyword search, selecting Subject from the In: menu.

Reference
Use for:

  • an overview of a topic
  • background information
  • bibliographies
 TITLE BARNARD REFERENCE
Encyclopedia of the modern Middle East & North Africa DS43 .E53 2004
The Middle East and North Africa, Europa World Plus DS49 .M58
The African studies companion DT19.8 .Z45 2003
Africa South of the Sahara, Europa World Plus DT351 .A35
Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara DT351 .E53 1997
Routledge encyclopedia of international political economy HF1359 .R68 2001
The Greenwood encyclopedia of women's issues worldwide HQ1154 .G74x 2003
The human rights encyclopedia  JC571 .L523 2001

CountryWatch

The World Factbook

E-JOURNALS

Many scholarly journals are available on the Web. The journal often is included in a searchable collection of journals supplied as a package by the publisher or by another vendor. These collections are included on the list of databases, recommended databases are listed above. If you have a particular journal that you want to access electronically:

  • Enter the title in CLIO, omitting the initial article (a, an, the, la, le, un, etc.)
  • In the Quick Limits box below the Search For field
  • Select All Electronic Resources
  • Search as: Journal Title
  • Click search
  • If we have an online subscription or database access, one or more links will be provided in the record

DATABASES FOR ARTICLES AND MORE
  • Access these indexes and databases from the Find Databases interface.
  • Using these resources to find journal articles is sometimes a two-step process; first, find citations in the index, and second, click on to find the full text online or do a Journal Title search in CLIO to find out how to locate the full text online or a print copy.   
  • Law, Politics & Government databases only.

These indexes and databases will be good places to start your research. Especially recommended databases first:

  • Africa-wide: NiPAD -- Collection of databases providing access to multidisciplinary information on Africa, from 19th century to the present.

  • CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online -- working papers, conference proceedings, journals, books, a schedule of events, and links and resources.

  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences -- citations for publications related to the social sciences.

  • International Political Science Abstracts -- citations and abstracts for political science articles in journals and yearbooks published worldwide.

  • JSTOR -- full-text articles from more than 322 scholarly journals.

  • ProQuest Direct -- full-text, citations, and abstracts from periodicals in many disciplines plus major U.S. newspapers. Also searches (simultaneously):

    • Alt-PressWatch -- Full text database of selected newspapers, magazines, journals of the alternative and independent press. Includes titles such as Anarcho-Syndicalist Review, Chicago Reader, Dissent, Off Our Backs, Poverty and Race.

    • Dissertations & Theses -- citations and abstracts for dissertations and theses covering all academic subjects.

    • Ethnic newsWatch -- Full-text newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from the ethnic, minority, and native press in the U.S. Coverage is from 1960 to date.

  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts -- citations and abstracts articles in political science journals.

Search most of them simultaneously:

  • CIAO: Columbia International Affairs Online
  • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
  • International Political Science Abstracts
  • JSTOR
  • ProQuest
  • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

 

But these are important to investigate, too:

  • Academic Search Premier -- full text for nearly 4,700 publications, including full text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed journals.

  • AccessUN -- citations to UN publications, with some full-text links.

  • Armed conflict database -- This database covers international and internal conflicts, as well as terrorism, incl. information on refugees and returnees, internally displaced persons, weapons used and their flows, fatalities, costs, historical backgrounds, and timelines.

  • Business source complete -- full-text articles on business, marketing, management, accounting, finance, international business, econometrics and economics. Contains full text of the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review and other important journals and databases.

  • Cambridge journals online -- full text coverage of over 100 electronic journals that are published by Cambridge University Press

  • EconLit -- Contains citations, abstracts and full text to economic research dating back to 1969.

  • Historical abstracts -- citations and abstracts for publications related to world history, excluding the U.S. and Canada, from 1450 to the present.

  • Humanities Full Text -- citations, abstracts, and full text for articles in humanities periodicals.

  • ISI Emerging markets -- Full-text news, financial and economic information on emerging market countries in Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe, East, South and Southeast Asia, Southeast Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus, Africa and Middle East.

  • Left index -- citations, abstracts and some full-text to the literature politically on the left.

  • LexisNexis Academic -- full-text coverage of general news, business, legal, governmental and other topics.

  • National Journal Group's policy central -- full-text politics and policy from the National Journal.

  • PAIS international -- citations and abstracts for publications related to public affairs.

  • Project Muse -- full-text articles from more than 100 scholarly journals in history and the humanities, the social sciences, and the sciences s

  • Social Sciences Full Text -- citations, abstracts, full text for articles in social sciences periodicals.

  • Sociological abstracts -- Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.

  • Web of science -- bibliographic information and cited references in the Science citation index expanded, Social sciences citation index and Arts & humanities citation index.


FINDING DATA & PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIALS


Other Library Catalogs

Those with Columbia ID have access to the libraries of the Columbia Law School, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Teachers’ College, and Union Theological Seminary, but they are not included in CLIO. CUID also provides access to the libraries of New York University. Anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in New York is entitled to a New York Public Library card. Use the Catalogs list on CU LibraryWeb, or the following links:


USEFUL WEB RESOURCES

Barnard Subject Guide: Politics/Government

Library research session slides
 

Columbia Subject Guides

 


Beyond Barnard/Columbia

  • AllAfrica.com -- posting over 700 stories daily in English and French and offering a diversity of multi-lingual streaming programming as well as a 400,000-article searchable archive.

  • Google scholar -- enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research.

  • Librarians' Internet Index -- search engine where all results have been vetted and abstracted by a librarian.


BIBLIOGRAPHY RESOURCES

RefWorks and EndNote are bibliographic software packages that are available, free of charge, to all current Barnard and Columbia students, faculty and staff.  Zotero is a free citation manager, downloadable by anyone. QuickGuide for using Refworks, EndNote, and Zotero.  

Bibliographic software allows you to
  • search for citations in library catalogs and databases from the software or export results into it from remote catalogs and databases
  • store the citations
  • search through the citations you have stored using keyword searches
  • cite them in papers and bibliographies using any citation format you choose

The Bedford Handbook is a free online guide to APA, Chicago, CSE, and MLA styling.
 


Last Modified 10/21/2009
Jenna Freedman
Coordinator of Reference Services / Zine Librarian