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INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON
African Studies Collection Description
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1000416
African Studies Collection Description
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=1000416[10/1/13 4:09:00 PM]
Libraries » African Studies » African Studies Collection Description
African Studies Collection Description
General Purpose
The Librarian for African Studies is responsible for building and maintaining a collection of materials produced about Africa and in
Africa in all media that will support the present and future undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral educational needs of Indiana
University students and research needs of African Studies faculty, and contribute to cooperative national projects of the Africana
Librarians Council (ALC), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Cooperative Africana Microform Project (CAMP), and Committee
on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). To accomplish this the Librarian for African Studies selects print, microform, audiovisual, and
electronic materials for the research collections of the Bloomington campus and provides electronic/digital access to the collection by
maintaining a web site and by digitizing appropriate materials (e.g., "Digital Somali Library", "Nuer Field Notes Project", etc.). Materials
are selected comprehensively for the Main Library's Research, Reference, and Media collections, the Government Information
Department, the Fine Arts Library, the Geography &Map collection, and as appropriate for other collections including the
Business/SPEA, Education, and Geology libraries.
Subjects
The African Studies Program at Indiana University supports a wide spectrum of courses and research in the humanities and social
sciences, with special emphasis on history, linguistics, anthropology, folklore, and the arts. Particular emphasis is on research related
to three thematic areas: 1) expressive culture, 2) political economy, and 3) trans-nationalism. The library collections reflect this range
of interests with emphasis on in-depth collections in such disciplines as history, anthropology, archaeology, folklore, ethnomusicology,
the fine arts, literature, film, communication, culture, linguistics, economics, political science and government, and ecology and
conservation, and less comprehensively in religion, philosophy, geography, and education. Gender-related materials are acquired in
all disciplines, as are materials relating to Islamic cultures.
Textbooks and technical studies on law and the natural and applied sciences are not collected. However, general works and works
with obvious interest for social and humanistic studies on law, botany, zoology, geology, agriculture, medicine, and the health sciences
are purchased for the research collection or appropriate branch library.
Languages
Materials are collected in all major west European languages and in the official languages of African states except for Arabic. The
Librarian for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies collects Arabic material published in North Africa. The Librarian for African Studies
collects only Arabic material published in Sub-Saharan Africa. Materials in Scandinavian languages and minor west European
languages such as Flemish are not collected.
Dictionaries and grammars are purchased for as many African languages as possible. Linguistic materials and vernacular texts are
collected in depth for the following languages which are a national resource in the U.S., are national or widely used languages in Sub-
Saharan Africa, and are used in research at Indiana University:
Afrikaans
Bambara
Chichewa
Chitumbuka
Fula
Hausa
Igbo
KinyaRwanda
Kirundi
Kpelle
Lingala
Ndebele
Sango
Shona
Somali
Sotho
Swahili
Tswana
Twi (Akan)
Wolof
Xhosa
Yoruba
Zulu
Contact Information
Libraries &Subjects
African Studies Home
African Studies Resources
About the Collection
More Collection Resources
Research Guides
Librarian: Marion Frank-
Wilson
Location: Herman B Wells
Library E660
Phone: (812) 855-1481
Email mfrankwi
» African Studies
» Fine Arts Library
» Lilly Library (Rare books
and manuscripts)
» Government Information--
Foreign Documents
last updated: 3/12/2010
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