Rutgers University Libraries Narrating Race

The Basics

Rutgers-restricted Access

Many of the resources listed in the sections below are marked Rutgers-restricted Access. You should have no problem connecting to these from any networked computer on campus. However, in order to use these resources from off-campus, you must log in with your Rutgers NetID. For instructions see the Libraries' Remote Access to Library Resources.

Off-Campus Access

When working from home or some other off-campus locations, you can use the "Off-Campus Link" provided for each Rutgers-restricted resource below to login with your Rutgers NetID and connect to that database or article. Use the link embedded in the citation to access these resources on campus.

IRIS: Find Books

IRIS is the online catalog for all the Rutgers University Libraries except the Newark and Camden Law Libraries. Many of the sections below include suggestions for searching IRIS to locate other books on the topic(s) covered in that section. Show Me How

Getting Books From Other Rutgers Libraries

If a book that you need is not available (not owned/checked out) at the Dana Library, but is available from another Rutgers Library, you can request delivery of that book to Dana by bringing up the record for the book in IRIS and clicking on tbe Deliver/Recall button. Show Me

Book Not Available/Not Owned by the Rutgers Libraries?

The fastest way to get a copy of a book that is not owned or not available (checked out/on Reserve/missing etc.) at the Rutgers Libraries is to request it through E-Z Borrow. E-Z Borrow books are normally received within about five working days. Tell Me More

If a book is not owned by the Rutgers Libraries and is not available via E-Z Borrow, you can place an Interlibrary Loan request. Tell Me More

Becoming an 'Expert' User

Want to maximize your use of Library resources? Check out Searchpath, the Libraries' interactive tutorial.

Citing Your Sources

You will most likely be using Chicago/Turabian style when citing the sources that you use in your research papers. The Chicago Manual of Style and Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations are both available at the Dana Library Reference Desk. The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison also has a nice introduction to Chicago/Turabian Documentation that will give you the basic information you need to create bibliographic citations.

The above site does not, however, cover citing online resources. The Library of Congress has a guide on How to Cite Electronic Sources that show Turabian-style examples; the Bedford/St. Martin's site also offers useful information on Using Chicago Style to Cite and Document Sources

You can also import references from IRIS and many of the electronic databases into RefWorks, a web-based bibliography and database manager. RefWorks will build your bibliography for you based on whatever style sheet you specify (MLA, Chicago, etc.). For information on setting up your (free) RefWorks account see the RefWorks FAQ.

Not sure when you need to cite something? Check out the Plagiarism Guide

Remember that plagerism is a violation of the Rutgers University Policy on Academic Integrity for Undergraduate and Graduate Students and could result in your dismissal from the University!

Basic Resources

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Scholarly encyclopedias can give you an overview of a topic as well as some basic bibliography.

Encyclopedia of Racism in the United States
Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 2005. 3 vols.
Some 450 scholarly entries dealing with concepts, theories, people, events, legislation, court cases, and specific racial and ethnic groups. Includes an appendix of primary documents: slave codes, legal documents, speeches, and texts.
Dana Call Number: On Order Available at Newark Public Library.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History
New York, Macmillan, 1996. 5 vols plus Supplement (2001).
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History: The Black Experience in the Americas
2nd edition. Detroit, Macmillan, 2006. 6 vols.
Signed entries covering all aspects of African-American history and life. While the 2d edition expands the scope of the work beyond North America, it has only a little more than half of the number of entries found in the first edition. Many of the U.S.-centered articles (for example, entries on states and major cities) are not available in the 2d edition. About half of the articles that appear in both have been updated in the 2d edition. Bibliographic references. Together, a good starting point for research.
Dana Call Number: Ref. E185 .E54 1996.
Dana Call Number: Ref. E185 .E54 2006.
Encyclopedia of African American History 1619-1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass
New York, Oxford University Press, 2006. 3 vols.
Nearly 700 signed entries with selective bibliographies on people, events, activities and issues relevant to African American history up to the late 19th century. List of Entries.
Dana Call Number: Ref. E185 .E546 2006
Asian American Encyclopedia
Franklin Ny, editor. New York, Marshall Cavendish, 1995. 6 vols.
Signed entries on topics dealing with various Asian groups in the U.S. Especially strong on cultural aspects and issues. Bibliographic references. An outstanding resource.
Dana Call Number: Ref E184 .O6A827 1995.
The Color of Words: An Encyclopedia Dictionary of Ethnic Bias in the United States
Philip H. Herbst. Yarmouth, Me., Intercultural Press, 1997.
Herbst, an anthropologist, offers definitions, as well as the social and historical origins, of 850 frequently misunderstood, offensive, or politically-charged ethnic and racial terms used in the U.S.
Dana Call Number: REF E184 .A1H466 1997

Bibliographies

Bibliographies are great for finding out what has been written/is available on a specific topic.

World Racism and Related Inhumanities: A Country-by-Country Bibliography
Meyer Weinberg. New York, Greenwood Press, 1992.
Some 12,000 references to books, book chapters, articles, dissertations and reports relating to racism and "inhumanities" (antisemitism, colonialism, sexism, and slavery) in 135 countries from ancient times to the late 20th century.
Dana Call Number: REF. HT1521 .W45 1992
Race and Ethnic Relations in Latin America and the Caribbean: An Historical Dictionary and Bibliography
Robert M. Levine. Metuchen, Scarecrow Press, 1980.
Dana Call Number: REF. F1419 .A1L48
Koreans in America Bibliography
Use the pull-down menu to select the section (e.g., "Immigration - Issues"; "Acculturation") that you'd like to browse. Part of the Korean Heritage Library at the University of Southern California.

Finding Books: Library Catalogs
IRIS
The online catalog for the Rutgers University Libraries. IRIS is not a restricted database, anyone can access it from anywhere. However if you're coming in from off-campus and trying to connect to electronic journals or e-reserves from within IRIS you will need to be logged in. So you might find it less frustrating to use the off-campus version.
Newark Law
Camden Law
Rutgers Law library materials are not listed in IRIS. So if your topic is in some way law-related, be sure and use the Law library catalogs.
Catalog of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Catalog of the New York Public research library "devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world." The Schomburg Center contains over 5,000,000 items held in five divisions: Art and Artifacts Division, General Research and Reference Division, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division, and Photographs and Prints Division. [Note: When beginning a search session, select "Schomburg Center" from the pull-down menu on the right.] The Schomburg is in the process of making many of its resources available in the NYPL Digital Gallery.
Center for Research Libraries
CRL is consortium of North American university and independent research libraries that acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, foreign dissertations, archives, and other expensive or hard to find materials. CRL's Black Studies collection includes the microfilmed records of the American Colonization Society (1792-1965), the George Washington Carver Papers (1860-1975), portions of the Papers of the NAACP, and the U.S. Committee on Fair Employment Practices Records. As Rutgers is a CRL member, these materials are considered part of Rutgers' collections and can be borrowed via Interlibrary Loan. In addition to the materials listed in their catalog, CRL also supports and provides access to special collections such as the Latin American Microform Project (LAMP), International Dissertations, and Global Newspapers

Doing research that focuses on New Jersey?

IRIS includes a significant portion of the Sinclair New Jersey Collection, the most comprehensive collection of New Jersey materials in the state. The Sinclair Collection (IRIS sublocation SNCLNJ) is part of the Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives, located within the Alexander Library on the New Brunswick campus.

Newark Public Library Catalog The Library's New Jersey Information Center has a wealth of materials on New Jersey, Essex County, and Newark. Anyone who lives, works, attends school, or owns property in the City of Newark is entitled to a free Newark Public Library card. The Library Catalog also includes the holdings of the Newark Museum and the New Jersey Historical Society.

New Jersey Historical Society. The New Jersey Historical Society in Newark has a rich collection of archival and other materials relating to the political, social, cultural and economic history of New Jersey. Their book holdings are included in the Newark Public Library Catalog; you can also browse the Finding Aids to NJHS collections.

Specifically interested in Newark?

For an extensive bibliography (books, articles, reports, web sites) on Newark see The Newark Experience.

Finding Articles plus: Indexes

This is a selected list of databases that you may find useful. There are many other indexes that may focus more specifically on the particular topic that you are researching. Check out the complete list of Rutgers online indexes and databases.

History
America: History and Life
1964- . The most comprehensive index to American (U.S. and Canada) history. Indexes over 2000 journals worldwide, as well as book reviews and dissertations.
Off-Campus Access Restricted Access.
Historical Abstracts
1955- . The most comprehensive index to world history (excluding that of the U.S. and Canada) from 1450 to the present. Indexes over 2,000 history and history-related journals worldwide, as well as book reviews and dissertations.
Off-Campus Access Restricted Access.

New Jersey History

The premier journal for articles relating to the history of New Jersey is New Jersey History, formerly (1845-1966) published as the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society. The 1845 to 1995 volumes of this journal are indexed in Periodicals Index Online. Restricted Access

New Jersey History back to 1845 is available in print in Dana.

Most of the 1856 to 1923 volumes of the Proceedings have been scanned and are available from the Universal Library of the Internet Archive. Volumes are available in multiple formats; to change formats select "Details" and then "More Details."

The University of Michigan has digitized the first volume of the Proceedings:

African American Studies

The Kaiser Index to Black Resources, 1948-1986.
From the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library. Brooklyn, NY: Carlson, Pub., Inc. 1992. 5 volumes
Unique resource based on the collections of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Over 170,000 citations to journal and newspapers articles, books, pamphlets and reports dealing with black history and culture.
Dana Library Call Number: Ref E185.K25 1992

Latin American Studies

Chicano Database
c. 1960- . Index to some 130 journals, as well as books, book chapters, popular magazines, and newspapers relating to Chicanos/Chicanas and Mexican Americans. From 1992 forward, includes records for material on the broader Latino experience, including Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans, and Central American immigrants.
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access
Hispanic-American Periodical Index [HAPI]
1970- . The major multidisciplinary periodical index for Latin American Studies. Indexes over 500 scholarly journals published in the U.S. and Latin America.
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access
Handbook of Latin American Studies
1935- . Selective, annotated bibliography of books, book chapters, articles, and conference papers published in the field of Latin American studies. Coverage alternates between social sciences and the humanities on a biennial basis.

Sociology

Sociologial Abstracts 1963-
Index to approximately 1800 scholarly and professional journals in sociology and related disciplines, as well as to books reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations and conference papers.
Off-Campus Link Rutgers-restricted Access.

Can't resist the urge to Google?

The Press

Contemporary Accounts

Access World News
Access to the full text of over 600 U.S. and over 700 international newspapers. Includes access to the Newark Star-Ledger back to 1996.
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access

Historical Accounts

Full-text access to the Newark Star-Ledger is available from 1996 to the present on Access World News (Restricted Access). The Dana Library has the Newark Star-Ledger on microfilm going back to 1980; microfilm reels back to August 1, 1945 are also available from the Rutgers Alexander Library in New Brunswick. The Newark Public Library also has the Star-Ledger in its entirely (1939 forward) as well as its predecessor, the Newark Star Eagle (1916-1939), available on microfilm.

While there is no complete printed or online index to the pre-1989 Star-Ledger, the New Jersey Information Center at the Newark Public Library has the card file Cummings Index to the Star-Ledger from 1971 to 1996, as well as locally compiled Newark News Indexes, 1916-1970.

Ethnic newspapers are a valuable source of information on the lives and concerns of immigrant and ethnic groups. The New Jersey Information Center in the Newark Public Library has a large collection of New Jersey Newspapers on Microfilm which includes a number of ethnic New Jersey newspapers.

The Pennsylvania Gazette, 1729-1800
Benjamin Franklin’s newspaper, the major newspaper of the time. Searchable.
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access
American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900
The full text of articles, advertisements, illustrations etc., from American popular and literary magazines and journals that began publication between 1741 and 1900. Search by author, title, article type, publication title, date, and keywords in the full-text.
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access
African American Newspapers: The 19th Century
Search the full text of six major 19th century African American newspapers:
  • Freedom's Journal New York, 1827-1829
  • Colored American New York, 1837-1840
  • North Star Rochester, New York, 1847-1849
  • Frederick Douglass' Paper, 1851-1852
  • National Era Washington, D.C., 1847-1878
  • Provincial Freeman Toronto, Ontario, 1854-1855
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access.
Historical New York Times
Allows you to search and display the full image of articles published in the New York Times back to 1851. The two+ most recent years are not included, use Access World News.
Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access.
RSAP: Resources for Research
Lists 18th, 19th, and early 20th century magazines and newspapers that are available full-text on the web. In addition to single titles, lists newspapers included as part of large digital collections (e.g., Cornell's and University of Michigan's Making of American Collections). From the Research Society for American Periodicals.

Union Lists

Union lists identify where runs of specific newspapers are physically held; newspapers on microform may be requested on Interlibrary Loan.

Newspapers in Microform. United States. Washington : Library of Congress, 2 vols.
Lists newspapers published in the U.S. by state, city, and title. Indicates which libraries have microform holdings of those titles.
Dana Call Number: Ref. Z6951.U56a yr.1948/83
Chronological Lists of U.S. Newspapers in Microform Available at the Library of Congress: 1940-1989
Chronological lists arranged by state city, and title. Some microfilm are heavily used onsite and are not available for interlibrary loan from the Library of Congress.
Newspapers in Microform. Foreign Countries. Washington : Library of Congress, 2 vols.
Lists newspapers by country, city, and title. Indicates which libraries have microform holdings of those titles.
Dana Call Number: Ref. Z6945.U515a yr.1948/83
Foreign Newspapers at the Center for Research Libraries
Database of more than 6000 titles of non-U.S. newspapers (current and restrospective) held by CRL.
Foreign Newspapers at the Library of Congress
Newspapers currently received and permanently retained on microfilm.

Digital and Other Source Collections
Microform Collections in the Alexander Library
Seachable inventory of microform collections of manuscripts, pamphlets, government publications, and other publications held at the Alexander Library in New Brunswick.
American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
The Library of Congress site offers access to more than 9 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections of primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The collections include manuscripts, photographs, posters, maps, books, pamphlets, and sheet music, as well as sound recordings and motion pictures and can either be browsed or searched.
The Making of America
Digital project developed by the University of Michigan and Cornell University. The Michigan site has a searchable library of primary sources--approximately 8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles published in the 19th century--in American social history from the antebellum through reconstruction. While Cornell's site only provides access to the text of some 270 books, they have digitilized major runs of twenty-two 19th century journals and allows you to search or browse over 100,000 journal articles.
Documenting the American South
Collection of sources (texts, images, and audio files)on Southern history, literature, and culture taken primaily from the collections of the University of North Carolina. Includes First-Person Narratives of the American South; the Library of Southern Literature; North American Slave Narratives; the Oral Histories of the American South; and The Church in the Southern Black Community. Includes over 1250 digitized books and manuscripts.
The Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870-1912
Digital Collection from the National Humanities Center.

African Americans
A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States
Herbert Aptheker. 3 vols. New York, 1969.
Compilation of documents, including petitions, speeches, testimonies, reports, letters, and other writings, covering the years 1661 to 1945.
Dana Call Number: E185. A58
The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography.
George P. Rawick. Westport, CT., 1972. 19 vols. Supplement, Series I. 12 vols. 1977.
Massive compilation of slave narratives collected primarily by the Federal Writers' Project. Transcripts of interviews with over 3000 ex-slaves. Vol. 1 is a sociological study of slave communities.
Dana Call Number: E441 .A58 [and] E444 .A45 Suppl. 1
American Memory: African American History
From the Library of Congress: "multimedia collections of digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, moving pictures, and text from the Library's Americana collections." Among the collections that you can search or browse are:
  • The African American Odyssey
  • African American Perspectives: Pamplets from the Daniel A.P. Murray Collection 1818-1907
  • Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project
  • The Frederick Douglass Papers
  • From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection, 1824-1909
  • Jackie Robinson and other Baseball Highlights, 1860s - 1960s
  • Slaves and the Courts
  • Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz.

    • African Americans in New Jersey

    The Law of Slavery in New Jersey: An Annotated Bibliography
    Compiled by Paul Axel-Lute at the Rutgers Newark Law Library. Part of the New Jersey Digital Legal Library.
    Slave Records of Morris County, New Jersey: 1756-1841
    Compiled and Edited by David Mitros. 2d edition, rev. Morristown, N.J.: Morris County Heritage Commission, 2002.
    Dana Call Number: F142 .M8W6 1991
    "Pretends To Be Free": Runaway Slave Advertisements from Colonial and Revolutionary New York and New Jersey
    Edited by Graham Russell Hodges and Alan Edward Brown. New York : Garland Pub., 1994.
    Dana Call Number: E445.N56P74 1994

    Women
    Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000
    Books, images, essays, and primary documents organized around "document projects" that pose a question relating to the role of women in U.S. social movements. Also allows you to go directly to documents relating to specific Social Movements.
    Off-Campus Link Restricted Access.
    North American Women's Letters and Diaries: Colonial Times to 1950
    Searchable collection of "approximately 150,000 pages of published letters and diaries, plus more than 7,000 pages of previously unpublished materials, drawn from 605 sources, including journal articles, pamphlets, newsletters, monographs, and conference proceedings."
    Off-Campus Link Restricted Access

    New Jersey
    New Jersey Digital Highway
    Collaborative project of New Jersey educational institutions, museums, libraries, and archival collections to digitize a variety of matierals relating to New Jersey. The initial collection focuses on The Immigrant Experience in New Jersey.

    Immigrants and Ethnic Groups

    Basic Resources

    Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
    Online collection of approximately 1,800 books and pamphlets as well as 9,000 photographs, 200 maps and 13,000 pages from Harvard manuscript and archival collections. Emphasis on 19th century materials. An amazing resource!
    Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups
    Edited by Stephan Thernstrom. Cambridge, Mass., Belnap Press, 1980.
    "A guide to the history, culture, and distinctive characteristics of the more than 100 ethnic groups who live in the United States."
    Dana Call Number: REF E184 .A1H35
    Encyclopedia of American Immigration
    James Ciment, Immanuel Ness, editors. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe, 2000. 4 vols.
    Immigration history; immigration issues (causes, demographics, acculturation, laws and legislation, politics, economics, etc.); and immigration documents (laws, treaties, court cases, reports, etc.).Volumes 3 and 4 contain articles on specific immigrant groups in America.
    DANA REF JV6465 .E53 2000
    New Americans: A Guide to Immigration Since 1965
    Edited by Mary C. Waters and Reed Ueda. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Universtiy Press, 2007.
    Account of changes in American demographics since the major changes in immigation law after 1965, including the new waves of immigratns from non-European countries. Chapters on immigration law and policy, refugees, unauthorized migrants, racial and ethnic identity, assimilation, nationalization, economy, politics, religion, education, family relations, and immigration from specific countries and areas.
    ALEXANDER, CAMDEN JV6455 .N49 2007 [Dana copy On Order]

    Bibliographies

    American Ethnic Geography: A Selected Bibliography of the Ethnic and Cultural Geography of the United States and Canada
    Kilpinen, Jan T.
    Immigration Issues: A Bibliography
    Topical list of books and government documents dealing with American immigration issues.

    Ethnic Newspapers

    Ethnic newspapers are a valuable source of information on the lives and concerns of immigrant and ethnic groups. You can search for ethnic newspapers held by the Rutgers Libraries in IRIS, our online catalog. As your search terms, use the name of the group in which you are interested followed by the word "newspapers;" search this as a SUBJECT Keyword.

    Ethnic NewsWatch
    A full-text collection of over 200 newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic (including Arab and Middle Eastern, Asian-American, European, and Jewish), minority, and native press. Complete articles dating back to 1960, in English and Spanish.
    Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access
    U.S. Ethnic Press
    Newspapers and periodicals published by various North American ethnic groups and held by the Center for Research Libraries (Chicago). These are available to Rutgers users via Interlibrary Loan. Searchable by ethnic group.

    The New Jersey Information Center in the Newark Public Library has a large collection of New Jersey Newspapers on Microfilm which includes a number of ethnic New Jersey newspapers.

    Need More?

    See the American Immigration History guide.

    Race in Popular Culture

    Bibliographies
    Projecting Ethnicity and Race: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies on Imagery in American Film
    Marsha J. Hamilton and Eleanor S. Block. Westport, Conn., Praeger Publishers, 2003.
    Dana Call Number: PN1995.9 .M56.H36 2003
    African Americans in the Movies: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library
    Partially annotated bibliography of books and articles.
    Arabs in Film and Television: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library
    Annotated bibliography.
    Chicanos/Latinos in the Movies: A Bibliography of Materials in the UC Berkeley Library
    Partially annotated bibliography of books and articles.

    Filmographies
    The Movies, Race, and Ethnicity: African Americans
    Annotated filmography from the Media Resources Center, UC Berkeley. For some films includes selected reviews and articles.
    The Movies, Race, and Ethnicity: Images of Arabs and the Middle East
    Annotated filmography from the Media Resources Center, UC Berkeley. For some films includes selected reviews and articles.
    The Hispanic Image on the Silver Screen: An Interpretive Filmography From Silents into Sound, 1898-1935
    Alfred Charles Richard. New York, Greenwood Press, 1992.
    Rutgers Call Number: ALEX, ROBESON PN1998 .R54 1992
    Censorship and Hollywood's Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1936-1955
    Alfred Charles Richard. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1993.
    Rutgers Call Number: ALEX PN1995.9 .L37453 1993
    Contemporary Hollywood's Negative Hispanic Image: An Interpretive Filmography, 1956-1993
    Alfred Charles Richard. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1994.
    Rutgers Call Number: ALEX, ROBESON, PN1995.9 .L37R54 1994; KILMER REF PN1995.9 .L37R54 1994

    Finding Other Books and Articles
    MLA International Bibliography
    1926- . The most comprehensive index to journal articles, books, dissertations, and other materials relating to literature, folkore, and film studes. Indexes more than 4400 journals.
    Off-Campus Access Rutgers-restricted Access
    Film Literature Index
    Index to scholarly and popular film and television periodicals worldwide from 1976 to 2001. Search or browse citations.

    Finding Films

    Want to know if the Rutgers Libraries own a particular film?

    Select Advanced Search in IRIS, the Libraries' online catalog. Enter the title into the "TITLE" search box, and select Visual Materials from the format pull-down menu.
    Videos/DVDs owned by the Dana Library are available for viewing in the Media Center on the 4th floor of Dana Library.
    Videos that are only available from the Media Center in New Brunswick must be booked BY FACULTY for class viewing. All other users must view materials on-site at the Media Center on the Livingston Campus. Advance reservations for viewing rooms are recommended. Undergraduate students may make reservations no earlier than 24 hours in advance. To make a reservation, call 445-4980 (x155).
    Questions?
    Natalie Borisovets (natalieb@andromeda.rutgers.edu)
    John Cotton Dana Library
    February 18, 2008