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RESEARCH GUIDES

Black Women's Studies

This guide features information about black feminist/womanist studies.

Great Things to Know

Welcome to the Black Women's Studies Research Guide!

This space is maintained to help students, faculty, and researchers find resources in education. 
Some things to know about the guide:
  • To the left is the Navigation Menu. Use this to jump between the pages and find what you need.
  • Your subject specialist is Tahirah Akbar Williams. For more information on how to contact Tahirah, please see the "Subject Guide" box on the left.
  • Some pages have tabs (see image below). You can easily navigate between tabs by clicking on them.

Picture of the tab interface on this page with arrows indicating that the tab title shows up in the content box, and you can click any tab to see more info about a topic

How does borrowing, access, and requesting work?
The University of Maryland Library System is full of resources--learn all about them!
The Library's page on Access, Borrow, Request will provide details about access to facilities, electronic resources, and physical materials (including what can be borrowed and for how long). 
Find resources on ILL, Requesting, Course Reserves, and more! On this guide, we have highlighted some of these services in the tabs above, but the Library's Access, Borrow, Request page lists many more.
What if I want to suggest materials to the library?
To suggest a video, film or DVD not held by the UM Libraries, complete the Materials Request Form.
If after checking the catalog, you discover that the UM Libraries does not have a particular book you are looking for, please visit Suggestion of a Title for Purchase to recommend the title.
Nonprint Media Services provide access to information in most film and video formats, including more than 800 hours of video-on-demand programming to the campus through the Films@UM digital research collection. You can search the catalog for videos and other nonprint resources

Interlibrary Loan (Things We Don't Own)

Interlibrary Loan is used to get materials (books and journal articles) not owned by the UM Libraries. This service is offered to all UM College Park faculty, staff, and students.

Article Request (Books and Journals Already in Library)

The Article Request service allows you to access chapters or sections of books that we have in our catalog or request them directly from Interlibrary Loan (ILL).

  • You may request one article per journal issue or one chapter per book. (This is done through the ILL platform- look for the button that says "Article Request".)

  • Interlibrary Loan Services delivers digital copies of journal articles and book chapters to you within 1-4 business days of your request.

  • This service is free of charge and available to UMD students, faculty, and staff.

That's all there is to it! You will be notified via email when the article is available.

Course Reserves

Course Reserves provide you with access to essential readings and media for your classes as requested by your instructor. It exists to serve two kinds of users: those who learn and those who teach. For students, all your course readings are in one convenient place. For instructors, it is a platform for sharing course materials.

What about when I study off-campus?

Did you know that even if you are off-campus, you can still access all of UMD's amazing resources as if you were on campus? All you need is UMD's Reload Buttton.
Add the "Reload @ UMCP" button to your browser's bookmark toolbar (see instructions below), and whenever you come across a journal you think you should be able to access, click the button to reload the page through the UMD Libraries proxy.

Reload @ UMCP

Firefox: 
Drag the button to the bookmarks toolbar or right click and select the "Bookmark This Link" option.
Chrome or Safari: 
Drag the button to the bookmarks toolbar. If the bookmarks toolbar isn't visible, press Ctrl + Shift + B (in Chrome).
Internet Explorer: 
Right click the button and choose the "Add to favorites..." option. You may get a warning about adding unsafe links. While it's good practice to be wary, we believe this link is safe.
*Note: Reloading the page through the proxy still won't give you access if it's a resource we don't subscribe to. To verify access, look up the journal or database in the main library site's Database Finder.

Citation Finder

Looking for something specific? Use UMD's Citation Finder to search for articles, journals, eBooks, etc. using specific search criteria. Narrow down the results you'd otherwise get by using this helpful tool.

Research Commons

The University's Research Commons compiles services supporting high level research under one umbrella, expanding the boundaries of the traditional library. Its goal is to connect researchers with virtual services and to bring them together in developing spaces.
Contact lib-rc@umd.edu for questions, comments, and feedback about the Research Commons!
You can also schedule a one-on-one consultation with a subject specialist through the library directory, or email your subject librarian directly (Tahirah Akbar-Williams, takbarwi@umd.edu) to set up an in-class introduction to research session.

Reserve a Room

Looking for a place to study?
You can reserve a room at the library. Go to the Library's Room Reservations page to book a room in any of the libraries.
And, if study carrels are your go-to choice for studying, check out the Library's page on Study Carrels.

Terrapin Learning Commons

Need to borrow some equipment (chargers, headphones, computers, etc.)? Need a 3D printer? Looking for a collaborative study space? The Terrapin Learning Commons has got you covered. 
Get your research questions answered through chat, email, phone, drop in at the Information desk or make an appointment.
You can also schedule a one-on-one consultation with a subject specialist through the library directory, or email your subject librarian directly (Tahirah Akbar-Williams, takbarwi@umd.edu) to set up an in-class introduction to research session.

LibX is a really useful toolbar that can enhance and aid your library experience. The UMD guide to LibX can be found here.

Visit These Websites!

A History of Black Feminism in the United States
A history of Black Feminism in the U.S. compiled by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Black American Feminism: A Multidisciplinary Bibliography
Compiled by Sherri Barnes, librarian at UC Santa Barbara, this site includes citations from the 19th century to the present on Black American Feminism in a wide array of disciplines. Citations are from professional, scholarly, popular, mainstream and alternative magazines, journals, newspapers, and books.

Beginning List for Black Feminist/Womanist Works
List of materials that include a womanist/black feminist standpoint. Compiled by Joya Misra.

Black Feminist Theory; Black Women and Sexualized Images (2 Subjects)

A WMST-L query in January 2008 asked for literature on two subjects: Black feminist theory and Black women and sexualized images. This file contains the responses.