AAAD 391: Human Development and Sustainability in Africa and the Diaspora: Books and Articles

A few key databases focused on African Studies, Anthropology or Sociology may be helpful starting points -- but there are also many more resources that can be found on the E-Research by Discipline tab or by exploring other Research Guides on the library website. 

• Library Catalog

  Discover books, journals, films, primary source collections, government documents, and other materials held at UNC and in the Triangle (you can request materials from Duke, NC State and NC Central) as well as a variety of open access publications.

• You can request most titles that UNC does not have through Interlibrary Loan. Carolina BLU uses the InterLibrary Loan (ILL) service to request materials from other campus libraries.

• Start with a keyword search in the catalog. Once you have located a relevant item, you can look at the Subjects in the record and follow those links to find related books.

  You can refine your results by using the facets on the left side of the screen. Use the "Available Online" filter to limit to materials that may be accessed remotely. Under "Resource Type" you can restrict your results to books, journals, or government documents.

• Keyword: Economic development and Africa
  • Associated Subject Heading: "Sustainable development -- Africa"
  • Associated Subject Heading: "Natural resources -- Africa -- Management"
• Keyword: Globalization and Africa 
  • Associated Subject Heading: "Africa -- Social life and customs -- 21st century"
  • Associated Subject Heading: "Urbanization -- Africa"

• To find primary resources, you can add keywords to your search, such as: letters, diaries, speeches, newspaper articles, autobiographies, oral histories, government and organizational records, statistical data, maps, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings, advertisements, artifacts, etc. For additional information on primary resources, please consult this guide: Finding Primary Source Materials

When searching the preceding databases, use these tips for better results:

• Use wildcard characters:  If searching for economic conditions, type the word econ* with an asterisk. That will return economies, economic, economist and any other word that starts with [e c o n].
• Use quotes:  When searching for two words, quotes will search for the words when they're next to each other.  Thomas Jefferson will return articles with Thomas Payne and Jefferson Starship.  But when "Thomas Jefferson" is searched, only those articles with his name will be returned.

Use Google's Advanced Search to limit by date, language and more
or
Use Operators in Google Searches

Some favorite operators to remember:
Use quotes to search for a phrase in Google

Exclude a word by adding a dash (-) before it

Search for similar words by adding a tilde (~) before a word (located in the top left of your keyboard)

Limit to specific sites or domains using "site:"
For example: [urban policy  site:edu]
will search for urban policy only on sites ending with .edu

General search tips:

Choose effective keywords- what words are likely to appear in the results your want?  What other words might be used?

To search for text on a page:
press the Ctrl and the F keys at the same time (PC) or press the command and F keys at the same time (Mac)

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global can provide useful bibliographies and models for structuring your own work. 

Five publishers have bought up a large portion of academic journals. One benefit is that you can search across journals on their websites (the library pays for most of this content).

• Elsevier
• Taylor & Francis
• Sage
• Wiley
• Springer