Research Guides: African American Studies: Database &amp; Journal Finder

Database Search Techniques

Why Use Databases?

Databases are subscription resources that bring articles from a variety of magazines and/or journals into one place with a sophisticated search engine. Many of the databases allow you to read the entire article online. All databases that UMD Libraries subscribe to can be accessed through Database Finder.

Library Databases vs Search Engines

Click on the video below to watch a tutorial on the differences between a subscription-based library database and a free search engine. It explains when and how to use each. (Access video by clicking the image).

Google Scholar is a special case, a search engine that actually allows you connect to with the library databases. This is great for doing a quick, general search for articles on your topic. For more refined searches, please use the databases listed below on this page. The video below explains how to connect your Google Scholar account to your UMD Libraries account:

For more information on how to do more effective searches, please refer to the tabs above:

How to Search
Finding Background Information
Develop a Search Strategy
Searching Tips

Watch these short video tutorials to learn how to search the databases.

EBSCO:

ProQuest:

You can also search multiple databases at once!

EBSCOhost and ProQuest are platforms that house approximately 60 to 75 databases. In order to get the best search results you should select the databases you need (i.e. if your subject is "education" you would limit your search to education databases) . To do this go to the top of the database homepage and look for the terms All databases, Change databases, or Choose databases. See examples and video tutorial below.

For ProQuest:

For EBSCOhost:

What if there is no full text?

Don't panic! You have several options:

1st Option:
Use journal finder to search for the journal.
2nd Option: Request article from another library
This tutorial will assist you in using Inter Library Loan to request the article.

Finding Background Information

Start your research by exploring the following resources:


UMD WorldCat & Catalog	Academic Search Complete

G oogle Scholar	UMD Libraries Databases

Tips for Organizing Your Research

Visit our Research Commons' Site for creative and practical suggestions.

Searching Strategies

Choosing your search topic can be a difficult process - it is important to pick a topic that is not so narrow that little if anything has been written about it, yet it is also important to pick a topic that is not so broad that there is too much information and it is impossible to develop a coherent and focused thesis.

Let's say that ....

Steps:

1. Divide your research question into concepts and connect them with the Boolean operator AND.

smoking AND youth

2. Brainstorm some synonyms and connect them with the Boolean operator OR:

smoking OR tobacco OR “pipe smoking”, etc.
Specific communities? (ex. minority, African-American, immigrants, low-income, children, etc.)
Look up ‘smoking’ in MeSH.

3. Your final search strategy could look like:

smoking AND (youth OR teens OR teenagers) AND minority NOT Canada

A brief video tutorial on how Boolean operators work.

Searching techniques to limit or expand your results

Boolean search	AND OR NOT	Find all the words Find any of the words Find documents which have the first word, but not the second word	internet AND education internet OR intranet internet NOT html
Phrase search	"..."	Search for an exact phrase by using quotes around the phrase	"environmental health"
Truncation	*	Find all forms of a word - the asterisk *is used as a right-handed truncation character only.	Searching for econom* will find "economy", "economics", "economical", etc.
Wildcard	?	Replace any single character, either inside the word or the right end of the word. ? cannot be used to begin a word.	Searching for wom?n will find "woman" and "women."

Keywords/synonyms

It is important to realize that if you search a database with a certain word or phrase and you don't retrieve results to your liking, it doesn't mean that there are no other articles in that database on your topic. It may mean that you need to try other related words in your search, such as synonyms. For example, try automobile or auto instead of car.

Magazines & Newspapers	Written for a general audience Typically what you would see in a bookstore or on a magazine stand Intended to inform and/or entertain Popular journals do not undergo 'peer-review' process Can be found in many of the article databases to which the University of Maryland subscribes Examples: Time, Sports Illustrated, Scientific American, etc.
Scholarly Journals	Written by/for experts in a given field Usually these are available through academic libraries or anywhere there is a need for the highly specialized information contained within these publications Intended to inform Undergo 'peer-review' process prior to publication (see below) To focus on these resources when searching UM article databases, be sure to limit your search to 'scholarly' or 'peer-reviewed' literature Examples: American Journal of Public Health, Genetic Epidemiology,Family and Community Health, etc.
Books	Overview, broader in scope Can be out-of-date, so be sure to check the publication date
Open web	Large variety in terms of quality As opposed to subscription-based internet resources such as article databases and e-journals that the UMCP libraries subscribe to.

Criteria for evaluating resources:

Accuracy
- How does this resource match up with others you've seen?
- Do the results seem plausible?
Authority
- Who created it?
- What are the qualifications of the creator?
- Where is the information hosted? (see Web Domains below)
Content
- Is this written in a ‘professional’ manner?
- Is it sloppy?
- What kind of evidence does the creator use to support what they are saying?
Purpose
- Is this written in an objective, detached way?
- Is this someone’s personal opinion?
- Who is the intended audience?
Timeliness
- When was this produced?
- If a website, when was this updated last?
- How old are the works that are foot-noted/cited?

Some examples:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - a reliable source for information from
Pet Therapy - the author is unknown, not updated since 2007

Web Domains

Anyone can create a Web site. It is important to find out who is the author and what are the author's qualifications or expertise in order to determine the credibility and reliability of the information.

.com	Produced by a commercial enterprise, trying to sell something or funded by advertisers
.edu	From an educational institution (college, high school, museum)
.net	Network of computers
.mil	A military site
.gov	Produced by the government
.org	Produced by a nonprofit organization
.uk, .cn, .us, etc.	A country-sponsored site
.md.us	A web site from the state of Maryland

Databases and Journals for African American Studies

A&AePortal A&AePortal provides access to important art and architectural history scholarship (eBooks) Featuring scholarship from other leading university presses and museum publishers, creating a meaningful and robust educational experience. Features included Search and Browse, Image Use and Research and Course use.
Academic Search Ultimate Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
America: History & Life with Full-Text Core American history database now includes unique full-text coverage of nearly 200 journals and 100 books. Information on articles, books, book reviews, and dissertations on U.S. and Canadian history from prehistory to the present. Covers more than 2000 international worldwide. All aspects of historical research. Time span: 1964-present.
Black Drama: Second Edition Black Drama, now in its expanded second edition, contains the full text of more than 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. James Vernon Hatch, the playwright, historian, and curator of the landmark Hatch-Billops Collection, is the projects editorial advisor. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.
Black Studies Periodicals Includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from over 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers and newsletters from the U.S., Africa and the Caribbean. Indexing 1902 to present, full-text coverage of 40 core Black Studies periodicals 1998 to present. Coverage is international in scope and multidisciplinary - spanning cultural, economic, historical, religious, social, and political issues of vital importance to the Black Studies discipline.
Black Thought and Culture Contains full text and bibliographic information about the black community and its leaders, from the 1700's to present times. Includes monographs, essays, articles, speeches, interviews, and other publications. Contains many never before published materials. Most significant, for the first time in electronic format, newspaper articles from the Black Panther Party publication is made available.
CQ Researcher Full-text database that provides comprehensive analysis of each topic, including history and background information, relevant pro & con arguments, current status, bibliographies, contact information, and outlooks on upcoming "hot topics" in current events. Covers news topics in a wide range of subject fields, from social issues to the environment, health, education, politics, and science and technology. Online access to issues dating back to 1923
Dissertations & Theses Global This database is the an authoritative source for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. The database represents the work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities. Full text is available from 1997 to the present. It also contains a significant amount of new international dissertations and theses both in citations and in full text. It offers access to more than 90 percent of the doctoral dissertations accepted each year in North America. The database also covers thousands of dissertations and theses from around the globe. Time Span: 1861 to present.
Ethnic NewsWatch Full-text bilingual (English/Spanish) database of 200 publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press. 1990 to the present. Multidisciplinary - news, culture, and history.
Historical Abstracts with Full-Text Core international history database now includes unique full-text coverage of nearly 200 journals and 100 books. It also provides indexing for over 1700 journals from 1964 to the present.
JSTOR Electronic archive of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Includes complete runs of journals with full-text of all articles published from volume 1, issue 1. Please note, most journals have a “moving wall” (time lag) of three to five years between the most current issue published and content available on JSTOR. Coverage spans the humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
MasterFILE Premier Provides abstracts and indexing for 2,650 general periodicals. Full text of articles for nearly 2,000 periodicals, and 5,000 full text Magill Book Reviews. Multidisciplinary subjects including general reference, business, education, health, general science, multi-cultural issues, biography, and travel. 1975- present.
MLA International Bibliography with Full Text Indexes journals, books, essay collections, proceedings, dissertations, and bibliographies published worldwide in the areas of literary criticism, language, linguistics, rhetoric, and folklore of all countries. Produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA) the database contains millions of citations as well as full text for over 1,000 journals.
Nexis Uni Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides fulltext to news, business and legal information. Newspapers date back to the 1970's. Please Note: The Washington Post is no longer included in Nexis Uni.The National Newspapers Core database includes the Washington Post.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context Fulltext database covering social issues with topic overviews and pro/con viewpoints. Sources include news, journal articles, magazines, media, maps, websites and statistics.
Oxford African American Studies Center A full-text database that provides comprehensive coverage of the African American experience. Updated quarterly, the online collection contains scholarly articles, biographies, commentaries, primary sources, subject entries, film clips, images, maps, charts, tables, web sites, and timelines. The core content of the electronic file consists of reference works including Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; and African American National Biography. Additional reference titles include the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature; Oxford Companion to Black British History; and selected articles from other major reference titles.
Project Muse Full text of recent issues of over 240 journals from 40 scholarly publishers. Covers the fields of literary studies, history, the visual & performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many other arts and humanities and social science disciplines. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many other arts and humanities and social science disciplines. Time span: Varies by journal. Some back to 1993, the majority from 1997 to the present.
Race Relations Abstracts Includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to race relations, including ethnic studies, discrimination, immigration studies, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Race, Ethnicity & Education and Ethnic & Racial Studies. This resource does not contain ISBNs.
SocIndex with Full Text The index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,600 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers. This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,390 "selective" coverage journals. Further, extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is included. Contains full text for 242 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895, and 72 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for 547 books and monographs, and full text for 6,711 conference papers.

African American Music Reference A collection of online reference books, biographies, chronologies, sheet music, images, lyrics, liner notes and discographies related to the history of African American music in all its guises: spirituals, jazz, blues, civil rights songs, hip hop and more.
Black Abolitionist papers, 1830-1865 Online full-text primary source collection is the first to comprehensively detail the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War.
Black Drama: Second Edition Black Drama, now in its expanded second edition, contains the full text of more than 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. James Vernon Hatch, the playwright, historian, and curator of the landmark Hatch-Billops Collection, is the projects editorial advisor. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.
Criminal Justice Abstracts Criminal Justice Abstracts, formerly produced by Sage Publications, includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to criminal justice and criminology. The increasing globalization of criminology is reflected in Criminal Justice Abstracts' coverage of hundreds of journals from around the world. Do not attempt to search on authors by truncating the first name. Last, F? will often result in zero hits. Try searching on Last or Last, First
Criminal Justice Abstracts Criminal Justice Abstracts, formerly produced by Sage Publications, includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to criminal justice and criminology. The increasing globalization of criminology is reflected in Criminal Justice Abstracts' coverage of hundreds of journals from around the world. Do not attempt to search on authors by truncating the first name. Last, F? will often result in zero hits. Try searching on Last or Last, First
Data Planet Includes over 550 source databases from over 90 data providers in 16 subject categories ranging from Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement to Banking, Finance, and Insurance, as well as Education, Agriculture, Labor and Employment, Health and Vital Statistics, and Population and Income.
Digital Collections at UMD Search the digital content from University of Marylands Libraries to access material that supports your research and sparks your curiosity. These digital objects represent a small fraction of the unique material available at the University of Maryland Libraries, so contact us to learn more about related content.
Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text Subject coverage includes film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. The database will provide cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 300 publications (and selected coverage of 301), as well as full text for more than 90 journals.
Gale Literature Criticism Electronic version of 12 titles in Gale's popular Literature Criticism reference series, including Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800, Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Short Story Criticism, and Drama Criticism.
Gale Virtual Reference Library Gale Virtual Reference Library offers more than 85 reference sources including encyclopedias, almanacs, series, and more. Offering access to more than 300 encyclopedias and selected industry-standard reference series. Including content from SAGE Reference, John Wiley & Sons, Cambridge University Press, Berkshire Publishing Group, Cartographica, Linworth and Gale imprints.
Minority Health and Health Equity Archive The Archive promotes trans-disciplinary scholarship on race, ethnicity and disparities research designed to achieve health equity. It helps facilitate the rapid dissemination of new work in the professional literature as well as the gray literature including, but not limited to, historical documents, government resources, teaching tools and commentary.
Sage Business Cases Digital collection of over 4,850 interdisciplinary business cases from over 120 countries. Includes subjects such as entrepreneurship, accounting, healthcare management, leadership, social enterprise, and more.
Sage Knowledge Includes an expansive range of SAGE eBook and eReference content, including scholarly monographs, reference works, handbooks, series, professional development titles.
Sage Reference Collection Online versions of published reference works from SAGE. A great place to begin your research.
Sage Research Methods Designed to teach research methods, design research projects, understand or identify new methods , conduct research, and write up findings. Includes collection of case studies, teaching datasets, and video to offer real world applications and hands-on practice for hundreds of qualitative and quantitate research methods.
Sage Skills: Business Covers over 850 topics across five modules: Data Analytics, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Organizational Communication, and Professionalism. Includes interactive self-assessments, virtual scenarios, downloadable data, and expert insights.
Sage Skills: Student Success Interactive digital resource featuring the work of a diverse set of academic experts to help undergraduates build confidence and gain essential skillsets for academic and personal success. Includes videos, self-assessment, audio summaries, and virtual scenarios.
Sage Video Streaming video content in such areas as Business and Management, Counseling and Psychotherapy, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Education, Media, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. All videos are fully citable with searchable transcripts, custom clip creation and embedding. Videos include Documentaries, Films, Case studies, Tutorials, Interviews, and more.
SocArxiv An open archive of the social Sciences, providing a free, non-profit, open access platform for social scientists to upload working papers, preprints, and published papers, with the option to link data and code.
Social Services Abstracts Provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development.
Urban Studies Abstracts Urban Studies Abstracts covers urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of relevance to the discipline of urban studies. The index contains 40,000 records from a variety of key sources, with coverage back to 1973.

SIRS Issues Researcher SIRS Issues Researcher is an editorially curated pro/con database designed for middle and high school students, university undergraduates, instructors, and librarians. Leading Issues pages provide a framework for understanding and analyzing over 360 complex social issues with overviews, essential questions, viewpoints, and editorially selected primary and secondary sources. All content is 100% full-text and selected from authoritative magazines, newspapers, photographs, books, statistics, infographics, websites, and more.
A&AePortal A&AePortal provides access to important art and architectural history scholarship (eBooks) Featuring scholarship from other leading university presses and museum publishers, creating a meaningful and robust educational experience. Features included Search and Browse, Image Use and Research and Course use.
North American Theatre Online North American Theatre Online is a comprehensive reference work covering all aspects of the Canadian and American Theatre. It includes some 40,000 pages of major reference materials, together with records to approximately 30,000 plays, 57,000 people, 5,400 theatres, 22,000 productions, and 2,500 production companies. Each year we'll add more than 20,000 new records. The collection also includes approximately 10,500 images, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks and other resources. Through this interface, one can also search Black Drama, Twentieth Century North American Drama, Asian American Drama, North American Women's Drama, and Latino Drama.

There are many statistics-focused databases that you can find through UMCP's Database Finder. The ones listed here are some of the most relevant to African American studies. More statistical databases can be found here.

Academic Search Ultimate Multi-disciplinary database providing information for nearly every area of academic study. Includes an enormous collection of the most valuable peer-reviewed full text journals, as well as additional journals, magazines, newspapers and books. Multidisciplinary subjects including: social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, physics, chemistry, language & linguistics, arts & literature, medicine, ethnic studies. 1965- present.
Almanac of American Politics Profiles of every member of Congress and governor as well as in-depth and up-to-date narrative profiles of all 50 states and 435 House districts. Also included are detailed Congressional voting records, hard-to-find census data, current state district maps and a preview of the 2008 elections. Provides statistical data and brief political histories for states and Congressional districts and their elected officials. Time span: 1999-forward.
Behavioral Risk Factor and Surveillance System Provides annual survey information on health conditions and risk behaviors in the U.S. since 1984. Conducted by the 50 state health departments as well as those in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
CDC Wonder Wide-ranging OnLine Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) includes published documents on public health concerns, including reports, recommendations and guidelines, articles, and statistical research data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and reference materials and bibliographies on health-related topics. Data sets in the areas of: chronic diseases, communicable diseases, environmental health, health practice and prevention, injury prevention, occupational health, demographic data, births and deaths.
Child Trends Databank Continuously updated trend data with the latest national estimates for over 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being from Federal reports, Web sites, and data sets.
ClimateWire ClimateWire covers the debate over climate policy and its effects on business, the environment and society. It covers in-depth every day the key issues that surround the debate over climate change. It deliver news-breaking coverage to the people who make, influence or will be affected by climate policy. Federal agency programs, legislation, policies and funding; State program development and implementation; International agency activities; Corporate/multi- national response to climate concerns; Kyoto implementation and Post-Kyoto negotiations; and more. Time span: 2009 to the present. Updated daily at 8 am.
Community Health Status Indicators Provides county-specific reports of community health status for local jurisdictions across the U.S.
CQ Voting and Elections Collection Full-text database of statistics, analyses, definitions, and historical material on the American voter, major and minor political parties, campaigns and elections, and historical and modern races for Congress, the presidency, and governorships. Users can customize data on candidate and office history, seat status and competition, party control, split districts, third parties, party switches and special elections. Also includes an encyclopedia, calendar, and chronology. Six main categories: Presidential Elections, Congressional Elections, Gubernatorial Elections, Campaigns and Elections, Political Parties, and Voters and Demographics.
Crime in the U.S. FBI statistics on crime in the United States as reported by 17,000 jurisdictions. Also provides access to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Hate Crime Statistics, and Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted.
Cross-National Time Series-Data Archive The Cross-National Time Series-Data Archive provides data from 1815 onwards for over 200 countries. Domestic, political, demographic, social, and economic data are included. Domestic Conflict Events data includes: Assassinations, General Strikes, Terrorism/Guerrilla Warfare, Major Government Crises, Purges, Riots, Revolutions, and Anti-government Demonstrations. There are now twelve years of the optional LINKS files, which consist of links to media sources for each of the above events for the years 2011- 2022
Data.Census.gov Population, Housing, Economic, and Geographic data from the Census Bureau. Also includes maps, statistics, fact sheets and other publications. Covering data 2010 - Present.
Data.Gov "The home of the U.S. Government's open data." Provides data, tools and resources to conduct research, develop web and mobile apps and design data visualizations and much more.
Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health National, state, and regional survey data for child and adolescent health.
Factiva WARNING: Data mining and excessive downloading are prohibited and such activities cause the suspension of this service. NOTE: Use of Factiva requires login with University ID and is restricted to only current UMCP staff and students. Factiva recommends using Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher. Full-text access to over 8,000 business sources including the Wall Street Journal and many other national and international newspapers, magazines, wire services, websites, and industry (trade) sources. Covers business news articles in a wide range of topic areas: companies, industries, markets, products, brands, and general financial articles.
Passport This resource requires a campus login for access. Provides comparable statistics for 205 countries on economic indicators, health, foreign trade, environment, lifestyle, industrial and agriculture output, communications and more. Also includes market size data for over 300 consumer products and services. It covers demographic trends, economic indicators, finance, foreign trade, health, labor force, industrial and agricultural production, environmental data, consumer expenditure patterns, retail sales, advertising and media patterns, consumer prices, household patterns, literacy rates, telecommunications, automotive and transport figures, travel and tourism, income and earnings potential. It also includes market size data for over 300 consumer products and services.
Passport This resource requires a campus login for access. Provides comparable statistics for 205 countries on economic indicators, health, foreign trade, environment, lifestyle, industrial and agriculture output, communications and more. Also includes market size data for over 300 consumer products and services. It covers demographic trends, economic indicators, finance, foreign trade, health, labor force, industrial and agricultural production, environmental data, consumer expenditure patterns, retail sales, advertising and media patterns, consumer prices, household patterns, literacy rates, telecommunications, automotive and transport figures, travel and tourism, income and earnings potential. It also includes market size data for over 300 consumer products and services.
Government Finance Statistics From the International Monetary Fund, provides detailed annual statistical data on revenue, expenses, transactions in assets and liabilities, and stocks and assets and liabilities of general governments and subsectors as reported by member countries. To download, set up a free personal account.
Historical Statistics of the United States Historical Statistics of the United States has long been the standard source for quantitative indicators of American history. Includes statistics from over 1000 sources.
Balance of Payments Statistics From the International Monetary Fund, includes full-text statistical data from 1996 present on total goods, services, factor income, and current transfers an economy receives from or provides to the rest of the world, capital transfers and changes in each economy's external financial claims and liabilities and world totals of balance of payments components and aggregates. To download data, authorized users are required to create a free personal account.
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) ICPSR is the world's largest collection of digital social science data and cover topics from sociology, political science, economics, demography, education, child care, health care, crime,minority populations, aging, terrorism, substance abuse, mental health, public policy, and international relations. More information about accessing data in ICPSR can be found here: https://www.lib.umd.edu/data/icpsr.
LandScan Global Population Dataset LandScan is a global population database that shows geographical distribution of population at one-kilometer resolution over an average 24 hour period. Notes: GIS software users can also access LandScan datasets are compiled annually using different information sources and analytical techniques and should ideally not be compared across years.
Maryland Map Collection The Maryland Map Collection is a comprehensive collection of more than 2,500 maps depicting Maryland, the Chesapeake Bay, and the surrounding region from 1590 to the present. The collection contains many rare early maps of Maryland as well as more modern maps produced by state, and local governments.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Summaries of more than 170,000 publications including journal articles, government reports, books, research reports, and unpublished research plus links to over 1,500 full-text publications. Criminal justice and criminology issues including corrections, courts, drugs and substance abuse, juvenile justice, law enforcement, victims of crime, statistics, and international crime topics. 1970 - present.
Oxford African American Studies Center A full-text database that provides comprehensive coverage of the African American experience. Updated quarterly, the online collection contains scholarly articles, biographies, commentaries, primary sources, subject entries, film clips, images, maps, charts, tables, web sites, and timelines. The core content of the electronic file consists of reference works including Africana; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895; Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present; Black Women in America, Second Edition; and African American National Biography. Additional reference titles include the Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature; Oxford Companion to Black British History; and selected articles from other major reference titles.
Policy Map Policy Map provides access to over 15,000 indicators related to housing, crime mortgages, health, jobs, demographics, and education from more than 150 authoritative public and proprietary sources \. Data is cleaned and standardized , and updated regularly. the database basic GIS tools to create reports and maps.
PropertyQuest DC This site brings together ownership and tax information, photographs, ward boundaries, and zoning and historic information for properties in Washington, D.C. and displays them in a searchable web interface with a variety of basemaps available including aerial photographs.
SimplyAnalytics SimplyAnalytics contains extensive data including demographic, historic census, business, health, real estate, housing, employment, consumer spending, and marketing (over 70,000 variables total). Users can create customized maps and reports; data is down to the census tract level. Click on "Sign in as a guest" to use database. data is available at the State, County, City, ZIP Code, Census Tract and Block Group level as well as custom trade area and the entire United States. Access limited to 5 concurrent users.
Social Explorer Social Explorer provides access to demographic information about the United States from 1790 to the most current dataset. Available data includes census data, data from the public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), and American Community Survey (ACS) data. The database includes basic GIS tools to create reports, maps, and slide shows.
SocIndex with Full Text The index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,600 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers. This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,390 "selective" coverage journals. Further, extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is included. Contains full text for 242 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895, and 72 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for 547 books and monographs, and full text for 6,711 conference papers.

A full list of video resource databases available through the UMD Libraries can be found here. Below is a list of some excellent starting points for your research:

60 Minutes: 1997-2014 Provides online full-episode access to all 60 Minutes broadcasts from 1997-2014, including many episodes not widely not seen since their original broadcast.
American Archive of Public Broadcasting Discover historic programs of publicly funded radio and television across America Watch and listen.
American History in Video Provides the largest and richest collection of video available online for the study of American history, with 2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles on completion. The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.
Ethnographic Video Online Comprehensive resource for the study of human culture and behavior over 750 hours and 1,000 films at completion. The collection covers every region of the world, and includes interviews, previously unreleased raw footage, field notes, study guides, and more. All videos and transcripts have been indexed and are fully searchable and browsable.
Filmakers Library Online Filmakers Library Online is a multidisciplinary collection of well known documentaries already heavily used in humanities and social science classrooms. The coverage is topical, contemporary, and cross-disciplinary, specializing in studies of race and gender, human rights, globalization, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, and the environment. The collection includes bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, literature, and more. Additionally, titles in Filmakers Library Online present international points of view of both historical and current experiences from diverse cultures and traditions world-wide.
Films on Demand Master Academic Collection Streaming video service of almost 12,000 full length videos of high-quality educational titles. Subject sets featured are: business & economics, humanities & social sciences, science & mathematics, health & medicine. This collection also includes thousands of video clips and a collection of archival films & newsreels. Special features allow users the ability to organize and bookmark clips, create and share playlists; most videos available with closed-captioning and interactive transcripts; may be viewed through most mobile devices.
World History in Video World History in Video is a wide-ranging collection of critically acclaimed documentaries that allow students and researchers to explore human history from the earliest civilizations to the late twentieth century. The video content offered here is truly global in scope, covering Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. Upon completion, the collection will contain 1,000 hours of streaming video that offers access to more than 1,750 important, critically acclaimed documentaries from filmmakers worldwide.

Films@UM Films@UM consists of over 800 digital videos on a wide variety of subjects which can be used in the classroom or independently. These films are available to University of Maryland (College Park) students, faculty, and staff for viewing, either from one's computer or classroom on campus, or at home via a virtual private network (VPN). Spanning documentaries, public television programming, taped performances, and feature films,
Docuseek IMPORTANT: Contact your subject librarian to set up activation (https://www.lib.umd.edu/directory/specialists/librarian). Docuseek has worked out an arrangement with its distribution partners, Bullfrog Films and Icarus Films, to make any of their titles on Docuseek available for educational streaming, at no charge, as long as the school has a legally-acquired copy of the title (any format), through June 30. If there are Docuseek titles from other distributors (e.g. Kartemquin, First Run, National Film Board) that you have a hard copy of and your faculty want to use in remote teaching during this period, let us know and we can see what we can do to make the film available.

Contemporary Newspapers

Newspapers serve as important primary sources, providing opinions, summaries, and details regarding changes in daily life and civil rights for African Americans. Below you'll find a selection of current news outlets accessible through the UMD Libraries, as well as tools for comparing different opinions on important issues. For tips on finding even more newspapers through the NexisUni database, check out the tutorial below.

Contemporary Newspapers Available Through UMD Libraries:

Baltimore Sun (1990 to present) Provides citations, abstracts and full-text articles from the newspaper. Coverage of local and state news for Baltimore and Maryland. Full-text: September, 1990--present
CQ Magazine Weekly congressional news and analysis. Full text available from 1983 -- present. All the major policy issues confronting the U.S. Congress: Defense, Economy & Taxes, the Environment, Foreign Policy, Health, Education, and Welfare, Crime, etc.
Factiva WARNING: Data mining and excessive downloading are prohibited and such activities cause the suspension of this service. NOTE: Use of Factiva requires login with University ID and is restricted to only current UMCP staff and students. Factiva recommends using Internet Explorer 5.01 or higher. Full-text access to over 8,000 business sources including the Wall Street Journal and many other national and international newspapers, magazines, wire services, websites, and industry (trade) sources. Covers business news articles in a wide range of topic areas: companies, industries, markets, products, brands, and general financial articles.
New York Times 1980 - (ProQuest) Comprehensive digital coverage back to 1980.
Nexis Uni Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides fulltext to news, business and legal information. Newspapers date back to the 1970's. Please Note: The Washington Post is no longer included in Nexis Uni.The National Newspapers Core database includes the Washington Post.
Wall Street Journal Provides citations, abstracts and full-text articles from the newspaper. A financial newspaper with in-depth coverage of national and international finance as well as political news. Full-text: January, 1984--present

You can find UMD's full collection of contemporary newspapers here.

Tools to Aggregate and Compare Viewpoints

CQ Researcher Full-text database that provides comprehensive analysis of each topic, including history and background information, relevant pro & con arguments, current status, bibliographies, contact information, and outlooks on upcoming "hot topics" in current events. Covers news topics in a wide range of subject fields, from social issues to the environment, health, education, politics, and science and technology. Online access to issues dating back to 1923
Opposing Viewpoints in Context Fulltext database covering social issues with topic overviews and pro/con viewpoints. Sources include news, journal articles, magazines, media, maps, websites and statistics.

How to Search Only News Sources with NexisUni

NexisUni is a fantastic research tool that lets you search a huge body of documents including news, legislation, and many other materials dealing with legal processes. If you are specifically searching for news sources, you have the option to filter NexisUni's results by type of document. You do this by visiting NexisUni, and selecting the News option before you search.

To the right is a guide to selecting source type
when you search on NexisUni, and you can find
many more tutorials here:

Historical Newspapers

Historical newspapers also serve as important primary sources, providing opinions, summaries, and details regarding changes in social, legal, and cultural norms across long periods of time. UMD provides students with access to a number of newspaper archives. Below, you'll find a list of historical newspapers covering topics of interest in African American Studies.

Find all pre-1990 newspapers accessible through UMD's Database Finder right here. Also be aware of UMD's own Gateway to Digitized Maryland Newspapers. For tips on finding even more newspapers through the NexisUni database, check out the tutorial on the Contemporary Newspapers tab.

African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 Digitized and fully searchable collections of more than 270 African American newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries.
African American Newspapers: the 19th Century This collection of African-American newspapers contains information about the cultural life and history during the 1800s, and contains first-hand reports of the major events and issues of the day pertaining to African Americans.
America's Historical Newspapers Digitized and fully searchable collections of early American newspapers. Includes five databases, Early American Newspapers Series 1 - 3 and African American Newspapers which can be searched together or separately, as well as select Maryland newspapers including the Maryland Gazette (1728-1832) and Baltimore American (1861-1870, 1903-1922). Early American Newspapers includes more than 1,000 U.S. newspapers published between 1690 and 1922. African American Newspaper includes more than 270 African American newspapers published in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) The Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988) offers full page and article images with searchable full text. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
Center for Research Libraries Catalog CRL is a consortium of North American academic and independent research libraries. The consortium acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through ILL. CRL holds over four million newspapers, journals, dissertations, archives, government publications, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching. Holdings include such diverse materials as 800,000 doctoral dissertations (including those of Albert Einstein, Dag Hammarskjold and other Nobel laureates); some of the earliest African-American newspapers; and the 100,000-plus-page archive of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge security force. Emphasis is on materials produced outside the United States, and the Center has special strength in publications and archives from many developing nations. These holdings are available for use by students, scholars and other researchers affiliated with CRL member institutions. For more information see https://www.crl.edu/?l1=5 All, although majority of materials emphasise early modern and modern periods.
Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers This site allows you to search and view newspaper pages from 1880-1922 (and eventually back to 1836) and find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
Historical Black Newspapers Once in ProQuest click on Databases link at top; click on Select all to de-select the entire list of databases; scroll down to ProQquest Historical Newspapers and select the titles of interest; return to top and click on Use selected databases. Online full-text of: Chicago Defender (1909-1975); New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993); Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002); Los Angeles Sentinel (1934-2005); Atlanta Daily World (1931-2003); Cleveland Call and Post (1934-1991); Norfolk Journal & Guide (1921-2003); Philadelphia Tribune (1912-2001).
Independent Voices Independent Voices is a digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
Black Studies Periodicals Includes current and retrospective bibliographic citations and abstracts from over 150 scholarly and popular journals, newspapers and newsletters from the U.S., Africa and the Caribbean. Indexing 1902 to present, full-text coverage of 40 core Black Studies periodicals 1998 to present. Coverage is international in scope and multidisciplinary - spanning cultural, economic, historical, religious, social, and political issues of vital importance to the Black Studies discipline.
Pennsylvania Gazette,1728-1800 Published in Philadelphia 1728-1800, the Gazette provides a first hand-view of colonial America, the American Revolution, and the New Republic. Articles cover events worldwide. The Gazette printed the texts of many important documents, including the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution.
Nation Digital Archive The Nation is America's oldest weekly magazine and one if its premier journals of opinion since its inception in 1865. The Nation has long bee regarded as one of the country's definitive journalistic voices of writing on politics, culture, books and the arts and continues to stand as the independent voice in American journalism. This database contains indexing & abstracting and full text for the complete archive of The Nation beginning with its first issue in 1865 through to the present.
New Republic Archive The New Republic, founded in 1914, presents insights from a variety of viewpoints on topics such as politics, foreign policy, culture, current events, the arts, and much more. The New Republic Archive contains more than 4,550 issues, with coverage dating back to 1914. Do not attempt to search on authors by truncating the first name. Last, F? will often result in zero hits. Try searching on Last or Last, First.

Legal Research

UMD Libraries provides access to a number of databases specifically intended for researching case law and other legal matters. A full list of legal databases can be found here, and below is a list of useful starting points.

Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) Online version of the Code of Maryland Regulations. Maryland State agency regulations are compiled in the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR). COMAR contains 33 Titles, with each Title usually corresponding to a department or agency. Each regulation is assigned a unique four-part codification number. For example, 09.12.01.02, represents Title 09, Subtitle 12, Chapter 01, and Regulation 02.
Congressional Publications Access to the full text of congressional publications. Includes: hearings, legislative histories, committee prints and reports, House and Senate documents, Congressional Record, Serial Set, CRS Reports, bills, public laws, regulations... Congressional hearings, public issues, legislation, history, and legal research.
CQ Almanac Coverage and analysis of U.S. congressional legislation from 1945 to today. Provides in-depth analysis of the path legislation takes through Congress, including how bills are changed, derailed, or ultimately passed during an annual session of Congress. Updated annually.
Google Scholar Google Scholar searches academic publishers, professional societies, pre-print archives, and university institutional repositories.
HeinOnline Legal Full-text access to over 1100 law journals; U.S. treaties; the Federal Register and Code of Federal Regulations; U.S. Reports; U.S. Code; U.S. Statutes at Large; U.S. Attorney General Opinions; Public Papers of the President and Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents; and hundred of books considered to be legal classics.
HeinOnline U.S. Supreme Court Library Full-text access to cases published in /U.S. Reports/ volumes 1 to 540 (1754 to 2003), as well as more recent slip opinions. Includes /U.S. Reports Preliminary Prints/ volumes 535 to 543 (2002-2005), /U.S. Reports Slip Opinions /(2002 - ), several historical texts on the Supreme Court, plus the periodicals /Supreme Court Economic Review /(1982-2000) and /Supreme Court Review /(1960-2000) PDF printing requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later.
Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 A comprehensive online collection of records and briefs brought before the nation's highest court by leading legal practitioners. Includes transcripts, applications for review, motions, petitions, supplements and other official papers of the most-studied and talked-about cases.
Nexis Uni Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides fulltext to news, business and legal information. Newspapers date back to the 1970's. Please Note: The Washington Post is no longer included in Nexis Uni.The National Newspapers Core database includes the Washington Post.
United States Code (U.S. House of Representatives) Codification by subject matter of the general and permanent laws of the United States. Full text since 1994. Comprised of 50 titles.

For more information on how to do legal research, please consult the Legal Research Guide as well as the Federal Legislation Guide.

Using Google Scholar for Legal Research

In addition to using the databases listed above, you can narrow a Google Scholar search to include only law-related results by selecting the Case law option below the search box. You can further narrow your search to cases from specific courts, as shown in the video below:

Black Abolitionist papers, 1830-1865 Online full-text primary source collection is the first to comprehensively detail the extensive work of African Americans to abolish slavery in the United States prior to the Civil War.
Slavery, Abolition and Social Justice Collection of digitized books, pamphlets, manuscripts, court records, maps, and images documenting many aspects of transatlantic slavery and abolition. Subjects include slavery in the early Americas, the middle passage, religion, resistance and revolt, urban slavery, the underground railroad, the abolition movement, freedmen, education, slavery in the Islamic world, and the legacy and persistence of slavery.
HeinOnline Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law This HeinOnline collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery. Our cases go into the 20th century because long after slavery was ended, there were still court cases based on issues emanating from slavery. The collection has hundreds of pamphlets and books written about slavery—defending it, attacking it, or simply analyzing it. Includes English-language legal commentary on slavery published before 1920, which includes many essays and articles in obscure, hard-to-find journals in the United States and elsewhere. Includes more than a thousand pamphlets and books on slavery from the 19th century, word-searchable access to all Congressional debates from the Continental Congress to 1880, and modern law reviews.
RILM Music An international bibliography of nearly 500,000 scholarly writings on music and related disciplines in 140 languages. RILM indexes articles, books, conference proceedings, bibliographies, catalogues, dissertations, festchriften, iconographies, critical commentaries to complete works, ethnographic recordings and videos, reviews and more. Encompasses historical musicology, ethnomusicology, instruments and voice, librarianship, performance practice and notation, theory and analysis, pedagogy, liturgy, dance, criticism, music therapy, and interdisciplinary studies on music and various other fields, including literature, dramatic arts, visual arts, acoustics, aesthetics, anthropology, sociology, linguistics and semiotics, mathematics, philosophy, physiology, psychology, and physics. 1967 - present. ISBNs are not part of a searchable field in this database. Do not attempt to search on authors by truncating the first name. Last, F? will often result in zero hits. Try searching on Last or Last, First
Smithsonian Global Sound Smithsonian Global Sound includes published recordings of the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and archival audio collections of Folkways Records, and of Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk Musical Magazine, Monitor, Paredon and other labels. Also included are field recordings collected on the South Asian subcontinent made available from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American Institute for Indian Studies. Music recorded around the African continent in the mid-20th century by Dr. Hugh Tracey for the International Library of African Music is here, as are nature sounds, spoken stories, and memoirs. Album cover art and liner notes have been scanned into the database. Only 3 simultaneous users allowed.

There are many e-journals available to UMD students through the library's Journal Finder, which lets you both search for a specific journal or article, or else browse a list of all the titles UMD subscribes to. Here are a selection of good e-journals to start with in African American Studies:

American Legacy: Celebrating African-American History & Culture (log in through EBSCO here)

African American Review (log in through EBSCO here)

Journal of Black Studies (log in with UMCP as your institution here)

The Black Scholar (log in with UMCP as your institution here)