Research Resources - Paideia 2018 Section 18 - S. Bailey

Preus Certified

In general, items listed on this Paideia guide and other subject/course guides created by the library are considered "Preus Certified", which means they are a good place to begin your research.

General Reference Sources

Use these sources to find trustworthy information on your topic from anywhere you are online, 24/7.

Credo Reference
An online collection of over 600 full-text reference works, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and more.

Through Credo Reference people worldwide can gain access to any of a possible 3,264,948 entries, from 452 titles and 64 publishers. Its full-text, aggregated content covers every major subject from the world’s best publishers of reference.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Several of the reference works in this collection contain excellent, scholarly articles on blues musicians.
Oxford Reference Online
This online source provides access to subject and language reference works from Oxford University Press

Over 200 titles published by Oxford University Press are included in this online source. In addition to text, access is provided to maps and illustrations, timelines, web sites, and bibliographies.

Biographical Sources

American National Biography
Provides biographical information of over 17,400 people who have influenced United States history. Excludes living people. Includes over 2,000 illustrations, “more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references, and links to select web sites.”

African American National Biography
Ref E185.96 .A4466 2008 v.1-8
Provides profiles for more than four thousand African Americans throughout history.

Keyword Brainstorming Activity

Introduction

These resources have been selected as a place to get started with research in your section's topic. Preus Library has many more resources than this. If you cannot find something, please ask at the Research Help Desk or email the librarian working with your section.

Return to Paideia 112 Research Guide

African-American History

Come to the Reference Books section of Preus Library to use these print sources and then work on your paper in a comfortable and quiet environment.

Africana
Call Number: Ref DT14 .A37435 2005
ISBN: 9780195170559
Publication Date: 2005-04-07

Includes entries on both Africa and the African American experience
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present (e-book)
Call Number: Ref E185 .E54 2006 vols 1-6 (also online)
ISBN: 9780195167795
Publication Date: 2009-02-02

This work contains over 2200 entries; most of them are biographies. The set includes a detailed index. Many of the entries in this excellent source are biographies and quite a few are for people who lived in the 19th century.
Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History (e-book)
Call Number: Ref E185 .E54 2006 vols 1-6 (also online)
ISBN: 9780028658162
Publication Date: 2005-12-16

This work contains over 2200 entries; most of them are biographies. The set includes a detailed index. Many of the entries in this excellent source are biographies and quite a few are for people who lived in the 19th century.

Music Sources

Grove Music Online
Now part of Oxford Music Online, the Grove music resources are the best place to start your music research.

Comprehensive music reference tool incorporating New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, New Grove Opera, New Grove Jazz, Norton Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, Grove Dictionary of American Music, and Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments; along with the Oxford Companion to Music and the Oxford Dictionary of Music, which are part of the new Oxford Reference Online interface.

The Grove Dictionary of American Music (e-book)
ISBN: 9780195314281
Publication Date: 2013

The largest, most comprehensive reference publication on American Music.
The Blues (e-book)
ISBN: 9781420506587
Publication Date: 2011-09-23

laces important topics in context so that readers will understand the connection between black history and the sweep of America's story. This volume covers African American blues history and criticism.
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History
Call Number: Ref ML3534 .G754 2006
ISBN: 9780313329371
Publication Date: 2005-12-01

The indexes to vols. 1-2 include many references to blues and blues musicians.
The Big Book of Blues
Call Number: Ref ML102.B6 S26 2001
ISBN: 9780141001456
Publication Date: 2001-05-01

A collection of short biographies of blues musicians. Good for basic information.
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
Call Number: Ref ML100 .G16 1998
ISBN: 9780815310846

Garland's ambitious 10-volume series takes a cultural approach to its focus on the music of all the world's peoples. Each volume is arranged topically, regionally, or by ethnic group, and complemented by an extensive index.
A Guide to the Blues
Call Number: Ref ML3521 .S58 1994
ISBN: 0313287244
Publication Date: 1994-05-01

Although dated, it contains a short history of the blues with some musical analysis.
Encyclopedia of the Blues (e-book)
Call Number: Ref ML102.B6 E53 2006
ISBN: 9780415926997
Publication Date: 2005-10-28

Contains mostly brief biographical entries, often with short bibliographies. Also has longer articles on places and instruments. See the article "Hisotriography" for a good look at the history of blues scholarship.

Your Librarian

Holly White

Email Me

Contact:

Preus Library
207B

Research Helpdesk Hours Spring 2018
Tuesdays, 7:00-9:30 PM
Wednesdays, 2:30-4:30

563.387.1790

Online Primary Source Collections

Chicago Defender
A Chicago-based weekly newspaper, serving a primarily African-American audience. This collection covers issues published from 1910-1975.

Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
A multiformat ethnographic field collection that includes nearly 700 sound recordings, as well as fieldnotes, dust jackets, and other manuscripts documenting a three-month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States.
Archives of African American Music and Culture
A repository of materials covering a range of African American musical idioms and cultural expressions from the post-World War II era.
The Blues Archive at the University of Mississippi
Acquires and preserves blues and blues-related materials in a variety of formats for scholars of the blues, African American studies, and southern culture.
"Now What a Time": Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943
More than 100 recordings representing about 50 artists and groups are given light on this site, along with correspondence, photographs, and other documentation related to the festival and the scholars.

How to Find Articles

The following databases are good places to start (although not the only approaches) to finding scholarly articles related to your topic.

Academic OneFile
An excellent starting point for finding articles in magazines and journals, mostly from fairly recent time periods. Some full-text. Replaces Academic Search Complete.

Academic OneFile is the premier source of peer-reviewed full-text scholarly content across the academic disciplines. With millions of articles available in both PDF and HTML full-text, Academic OneFile is both authoritative and comprehensive.
Project Muse
Full text access is available to over 380 journals and over 13,000 scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences.

Managed by the Johns Hopkins University Press, Project Muse provides full text access to over 380 humanities and social sciences journals from over 60 scholarly publishers. Coverage from 1993 - present.
JSTOR
A full-text collection of over 1,000 major scholarly journals. Excludes the most recent 2 to 5 years for most journals.

The digitized archive includes the first issue published for each journal (some are from 1665 to the present); but excludes the most recent 2 to 5 years for most journals.

Preus Guide to How to Find Scholarly Articles

Paideia 2018 Section 18 - S. Bailey: Research Resources