General Tips on Searching in CLIO for Books and Book Chapters
- Basic Search Tools for CLIO and Other Databases
- Reference works or statistical publications -- in print or electronic
- Combine name of country or language or ethnic group as “Subject” -OR- use terms such as: " African American* " ...AND... another term as a “Subject”….such as:
bibliography | handbooks | statistics | atlas -or- maps
biography | congresses | dictionaries | grammar
- Historical sources—published
- Combine name of country or language or ethnic group as “Subject” -OR- use terms such as: "Black people" ; " African American* ", "African diaspora", "Black power", Pan-Africanism, Internationalism, and/or with “Subject” keywords, such as:
“description and travel” | history | “personal narratives” | sources
- Colonial government publications
Search [name of the colonial territory], Great Britain Colonial Office, France, etc. as “Author” or “All Fields”
- Literary works and the arts
- Search by author or title …or combine [name of country] or [name of language] as “Subject” with:
literature | drama | fiction | poetry | criticism
- Exceptions…
.African literature (English) ; African literature (French) ;
"African diaspora in literature" ;
"American literature African American authors" ;
"African Americans in literature" ; "South African literature" ; "Nigerian literature"
- Search as "Subject":
art | artists | poets | music | musicians | composers | singers | jazz
-and- combine with [name of country]
Primary Sources?
- Autobiographies & memoirs
- Letters or correspondence
- Diaries
- Historical newspapers
- Documentary films & photographs
- Speeches (audio-visual or printed)
- Oral histories & interviews (audio-visual or printed transcripts)
- Unpublished government records & published government reports
- Ethnographic surveys & case studies
- Travellers’ accounts & descriptions
- International organization & national NGO reports based on field investigations
- Census & demographic data, statistical reports, & other data sets
- RECOMMENDATION: Routinely search & read articles in the back issues of two journals:
- Full Text Journals, Documents, Archives, Audio-Visual, and Theses at Columbia and Beyond
- Black Internationalist Primary Sources & Seminal Texts