Library » African American Research Center » Credit Course

 

 

 

 

Instructor: Thomas Weissinger

Office: 328 Main Library

Office Hours:  Mon.& Wed. 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Office Phone: 333-3006

E-mail: tweissin@illinois.edu

Website: http://www.library.uiuc.edu/afx/afro.htm

Course Description: Afro 102 will focus on research and documentation of the African American experience. It acknowledges the associations of influential bibliophiles and the impact of their activities on the preservation and establishment of unique and rare collections of African American literature and history. It examines significant repositories of African American culture in public libraries, historically black colleges, and predominantly white universities. Included among such repositories are the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Vivian G. Harsh Collection of the Chicago Public Library, and the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University. Many of the same bibliophiles, bibliographers or research librarians were responsible for developing seminal research tools to identify and locate materials about the Black experience. The course will review a selection of African American studies research tools. These will include both general information sources, providing some coverage of African American topics, and subject-specific sources that focus exclusively on African American topics.

Goals and Objectives:

1. To study the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of African American bibliophiles and bibliographers in the field of African American studies.

2. To introduce students to the major repositories of African American history and culture in the United States.

3. To develop an understanding of the importance of organized collections of documentary material about the African American experience for research.

4. To teach students how to select and use research tools efficiently.

5. To teach students evaluative skills to assess the usefulness of reference tools.

6. To develop an understanding of broader issues which enhance or impede one's ability to do research on African American topics.

Texts:

AFRO 102 Electronic Reserves

Course Requirements:

Grades for the course will be weighted as follows:

Library assignments 25%

Three Reading Quizzes 25%

Written assignments 50%

In addition to weekly readings, there will be weekly assignments and required classroom participation.

Writing assignments:

Students will write two papers during the semester. Together these papers will be worth 50% of your final grade. The first is an analysis of a topic the student chooses to research. It should describe and explain the significance of the topic for scholars who have written on the subject. The paper should be 2 full pages in length. The final project will be to create an annotated bibliography of 50 citations. The citations must support the topic described in the first paper. You will be graded on accuracy, currency, authoritativeness, relevance to scope, and variety of formats. All citations must be written in the Chicago style. See "Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation." (Linked)

READINGS & LECTURES

1/14      Videotape: Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed.

1/16      Introductions. 

Readings: (1) Ards, Angela (1996).  "Professional and Amateur Collectors Indulge a Passion for Black History & Culture."  QBR: The Black Book Review (February): 41+.  (available on ProQuest) (2) Schomburg, Arthur A. (1925) "The Negro Digs Up His Past." Survey Graphic (March): 670-672. (Linked)

1/21      Videotape:  John Henrik Clarke: A Great and Mighty Walk. 

Readings: (1) Blockson, Charles L. (1998).  "Bibliophiles and Collectors of African Americana." In Dam Rare: the Memoirs of an African-American Bibliophile Tracy,CA: Quamtum Leap Publisher), pp. 227-241.

1/23   Overview: African American Studies Research Materials

Readings:  Kaiser, Ernest. (2000) "Library Holdings on African Americans." In E.J. Josey and Marva L. DeLoach, editors. Handbook of Black Librarianship. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, pp.247-276.

1/28   Discuss Kaiser's Public Library, University Library, & Private Library lists of Resources

1/30    Video -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African & African American Experience. 

2/4    Finding Facts: Encyclopedias

Readings: (1) Contee, Clarence G. (1970) "W.E.B. Du Bois and the Encyclopedia Africana." Crisis 77 (9): 375-379. (2) Harris, Robert L., J. (1976) " Daniel Murray and the Encyclopedia of the Colored Race." Phylon 37 (3): 270-282.  (Linked)

2/6  Magazines & Journals; Video: Myrna Bain Reads Ebony (30 min.)

(1) Trice, Dawn Turner.  (2005)  "Ebony, Jet are Old School but Still Relevant."   Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2005.  (2) Sheehan, Charles.  "Magazine's Stories were 'Gospel' for Many Blacks."  Chicago Tribune, August 10, 2005 (both available on ProQuest, Historical Newspapers Online).  (3) Weissinger, Thomas. (2002) " Black Studies Scholarly Communication: A Citation Analysis of Periodical Literature." Collection Management 27 (nos. 3/4): 45-56. (Linked)

2/11     Video-- Satia Marshall Orange on Albert P. Marshall

Readings:  Newman, Richard. (2000) "The First Black Index: Albert P. Marshall and A Guide to Negro Periodical Literature." Harvard Library Bulletin 11: 81-87.  

2/13     Finding Articles in Periodicals: Indexes & Abstracting Services

2/18        Open book quiz on required readings.

2/20       Black Newspapers

                   Videotape: The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.

2/25       Black Newspapers (cont'd.)

Readings: (1)  Bellardo, Trudi and Frederick J. Stielow. (1994) "Newspaper Research on African-Americans: Modern Methods and Sources." Primary Sources and Original Works 3 (1/2): 1-22. 

2/27        Modern journalists (ca. 10 minutes of footage from www.pbs.org); and the Black Journalist  Movement (ca. 10 minutes of footage from the Maynard Institute) (Both Linked)

Readings: (1) Lacy, Stephen, James M. Stephens and Stan Soffin. (1991) "Future of the African-American Press: A Survey of African-American Newspaper Managers."  Newspaper Research Journal 12 (3): p. 8. 

3/3        Bibliographic Citations & Style Manuals

Readings:  Rose, Shirley K. (1996) " What's love got to do with it? Scholarly citation practices as courtship ritual." Language & Learning across the Disciplines 1 (August). (Linked)

3/5        Documenting the Written Record: Monroe N. Work and Bibliographies

Readings: Moses, Sibyl E. (1996) "The Influence of Philanthropic Agencies on the Development of Monroe Nathan Work's Bibliography of the Negro in Africa and America." Libraries & Culture 31 (Spring): 326-41.

3/10      Online catalogs, WorldCat,RefWorks

3/12      Open book quiz on required readings.

 

3/17 & 3/19    Spring Break

3/24      Videotape: John Henrik Clarke as Bibliophile

3/26      Black Bibliophiles: Arthur A. Schomburg

Readings: Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney. (1990) "Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938), Black Bibliophile and Collector." In Sinnette, Elinor Des Verney, W. Paul Coates, and Thomas C. Battle, editors. Black Bibliophiles and Collectors: Preservers of Black History. Washington, DC: Howard University Press, pp. 35-45.  

3/31      Black Bibliophiles: John Edward Bruce

Readings: "The Popularization of African America History: John Edward Bruce as Historian, Bibliophile, and Black History Advocate." In Ralph L. Crowder. John Edward Bruce: Politician, Journalist, and Self-trained Historian of the African Diaspora. New York: New York University Press, 2004, pp. 91-133.

 

4/2      Black Bibliophiles: Carter G. Woodson

Readings: Goggin, Jacqueline and J. Franklin Jameson. (1985)  "Carter G. Woodson and the Collection of Source Materials for Afro-American History."  American Archivist 48 (3): 261-271.  About the Carter G. Woodson Collection of Negro Materials at the Library of Congress.

4/7       Black Bibliophiles: Dorothy Porter Wesley

Readings:  Britton, Helen. (1996) "Dorothy Porter Wesley:   Bibliographer,  Curator, and Scholar." In Suzanne Hildenbrand, editor. Reclaiming the American Library Past: Writing the Women In. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publications, pp. 163-186. Also see biography of Dorothy Porter Wesley.

4/9       Federal Government Information: Big Brother Knows Everything!

Guest Lecturer:  Prof. Karen Hogenboom.  See website: AFRO 102: Government Information About African Americans

4/14          Government Documents, Room 200-D Main Library (1408 W. Gregory)

4/16          Resources for Black Psychology research

                     Guest Lecturer:  Prof. Allison Sutton      

4/21          Education & Social Science Library, Room 100 Main Library (1408 W. Gregory).  See website:  Afro 102: Psychology of Black/African American self-image

4/23          African American Genealogy: Howard Dodson on Alex Haley's "Roots"

4/28          African American Genealogical Research:  Mary Hill researches the Haley family

4/30       Open book quiz on required readings.   

Final paper due.               

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