Subject Guide
Library Services
- Ask a LibrarianContact a librarian by chat, phone, email, in-person or schedule a reference appointment.
- Course ReservesLook for library materials reserved for your use by your professors.
- Interlibrary LoanRequest a book, article, or another item not available in the Ball State University Libraries.
- My AccountLog-in to your BSU library account to check item due dates and renew materials.
- FAQs at the University LibrariesFind the answers to frequently asked questions about the University Libraries.
Research Databases
These databases are good places to find articles related to topics in African American studies. See our databases page for a complete list of databases.
- Academic Search CompleteGood database for most research topics and contains lots of full text, peer reviewed articles. More than 18,000 of the journal titles indexed are peer reviewed and almost all of the full text is. Provides searchable cited references for more than 1,000 journal titles so you can easily see what sources a given article cites.
- America's Historical Newspapers -- Indiana State Collection and African American NewspapersCross search or browse the content of nearly 300 Indiana and U.S. historical newspapers. You will find articles, eyewitness reporting, editorials, letters, advertisements, obituaries, and more.
- America: History and LifeKey database for research in American and Canadian history. Indexes journals from the 1960's to the present, containing articles on all eras of American history.
- Black Freedom Struggle in the United StatesBlack Freedom Struggle in the United States provides access to primary documents focusing on black freedom. The database contains documents from the beginning of our history as a nation, through the slavery and abolition movement, and to the 20th century.
- De Gruyter University Press LibraryThe De Gruyter University Press Library provides unlimited access to eBook content from 16 university presses.
- Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave TradeThis database contains information about hundreds of thousands of enslaved people, slave owners, slave traders, and people who worked to emancipate slaves.
- FolkstreamsThe Folkstreams database provides access to more than 300 films from independent film makers on a wide range of topics. Topics includes African American Culture, arts and crafts, dress, ethnic and immigrant cultures, healing and medicine, religion, and social justice.
- JSTORJSTOR allows you to search across approximately 2,000 journal titles from more than 50 disciplines. It contains complete backfiles of scholarly journals starting with the first issues, many of which date back from the 1800s. Although the majority of titles do not have the most recent 3 to 5 years available in full text, there are some which have the current issues available.
- Oxford African American Studies CenterThe Oxford African American Studies Center provides five major encyclopedias and content from eighteen additional reference sources from Oxford University Press. Also includes approximately 100 primary source documents with commentaries, 1,000 images with an ongoing image research program, over 200 charts, tables and graphs, maps, timelines, and learning resources for students and teachers.
- PAIS InternationalKey database for the field of political science and public policy issues. Includes PAIS Archives 1914-1976.
- Sociological AbstractsSociological Abstracts provides access to U.S. and international literature on sociology and related disciplines and may be useful for research in social work and women and gender studies.
Find It @ Ball State
When you'
re using a database, and can't find a link to the full text of an article, look for a Find It @ Ball State button.
Find It helps you to search the Libraries' other databases and subscriptions to see if the full text is available through another resource.
- If it is available, Find It provides a link to the text of the article.
- If it cannot find the full-text, Find It provides a link to Interlibrary Loan so that you can request that we get a copy of the article from another library.
To use Find It, click on the red Find It @ Ball State button.
If we DO have full text access to the article, a page will be displayed with options for access under "Full Text Format Options." The typical options are:
- PDF: the file format reflecting the formatting for a printed page
- Link: taking you to the webpage version of the article
If we do NOT have immediate full text access to the article, the OneSearch record for the article will be displayed.
- Look under "Links" for "Request this item with InterLibrary Loan / ILLiad."
- Click there, and log in with your Ball State username and password.
- More information about placing an Interlibrary Loan request.
