New Database: Oxford African American Studies Center

With Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month coming up, we want to make sure that library users know about a new database we've added: Oxford African American Studies Center (OAASC).

OAASC provides fulltext access to scores of publications from Oxford University Press relating to African American studies. Here's what the database says about itself:

"The core content includes the highly acclaimed Africana, which presents a powerful account of the African and African American experience in five volumes. The new Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 documents the full range of the African American experience from the arrival of the black explorer, Esteban, who arrived with the Spanish in 1527, to the death of Frederick Douglass. A forthcoming companion set, the Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present, offers the most extensive treatment of African American history into the twenty-first century and will be available online in late 2006. Bringing the contribution of African American women to the fore is the fascinating three-volume Black Women in America, Second Edition, edited by Darlene Clark Hine. And finally, the much-anticipated African American National Biography presents African American history through the lives of its people, ultimately offering over 6,000 biographies. At launch, the site will include hundreds of biographies from this project with new entries added as part of the regular update program.

In addition to these core reference works, the Center draws on other key resources from Oxford's reference program, including the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature and selected articles from other major reference titles. Over 1,000 images, primary sources with specially written commentaries, and over 100 maps have been collected to enhance this reference content. And over 100 charts and tables offer information on everything from demographics to government and politics to business and labor to education and the arts."

So, if your research interest relates to the lives, history and culture of African Americans, be sure to do a bit of browsing or searching in Oxford African American Studies Center.

[FIND Oxford African American Studies Center on our "Databases by Subject" List in the "Social Sciences" category.]