About the African Studies Collection

The African Studies Program, a constituent program of the Ohio University Center for International Studies, promotes the interdisciplinary study of Africa. The program explores themes such as the socioeconomic development of the African continent in the context of its rich cultural and historical traditions. Students are encouraged to view the study of Africa as an excellent case-study of the process of social change in the developing world. The program is a National Resource Center for African Studies (Title VI). Therefore in addition to supporting the curriculum of the African Studies Program it provides students, scholars and members of the broader community opportunities to develop their understanding of this important world region.

The Africana collection at Alden Library supports the mission of the African Studies Program and research interests of Ohio University faculty and students interested in Africa. The aim is to provide scholarly resources for a comprehensive understanding of the African continent, its peoples and its languages. The collection contains approximately 250 journals published in Africa, 110,000 titles and the equivalent of 130,000 Africa related volumes in micro text. Beyond basic support of the whole of Africa, the collection concentrates on West Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa.

The Africana reference collection and services is based at the Center for International Collections (CIC) on the first floor of Alden Library. The general Africana collection is housed in the stacks of Alden Library arranged by Library of Congress classification scheme.

The library has depository arrangements with the Governments of Botswana and Swaziland, to acquire their official publications. The library participates in the Cooperative Acquisition Program of the Library of Congress, Nairobi Office. Through its membership of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) the library has access to the large collection of Africa related materials in CRL.

This research guide describes local library resources as well as selected Internet resources, guides and library catalogs.