Indexes and Databases

The following list of databases is available to anyone working in the library. Outside the library, they are available to researchers with a Penn State Access Account.

America : History and Life
Published since 1964, the database includes over 2,000 journals worldwide, including state and local historical journals as well as historical articles from hundreds of major humanities and social science journals. It also includes thousands of book and media reviews, citations to published books, and dissertations.

The American Civil War : Letters and Diaries
"The American Civil War: Letters and Diaries knits together more than 1,000 sources of diaries, letters, and memoirs to provide fast access to thousands of views on almost every aspect of the war, including what was happening at home. The writings of politicians, generals, slaves, landowners, farmers, seaman, wives, and even spies are included. The letters and diaries are by the famous and the unknown, giving not only both the Northern and Southern perspectives, but those of foreign observers also. The materials originate from all regions of the country and are from people who played a variety of roles."

ArchiveGrid
An index produced by the Research Libraries Group to finding aids and other descriptive information about the holdings of manuscript and archival collections in libraries and research institutions throughout the world.

Arts & Humanities Citation Index
An index covering arts and humanities journals. It also provides users with the ability to track known citations in the literature. Coverage: 1975 to the present

CQ Researcher (contemporary issues)
A Weekly "magazine" that explores in-depth a single "hot issue" currently being discussed in the news. Topics include social issues, politics, economics, the environment, education, science, and more. Each issue includes an essay outlining the issue, a pro-con feature, a chronology, and a bibliography.

ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center)
The ERIC database is the world's largest source of education information, with over one million abstracts on education research and practice.

Ethnic NewsWatch
An interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) and comprehensive full-text database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. Designed to provide the "other side of the story", Ethnic NewsWatch titles offer additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
A collection of more than 400 reference sources. Find titles for African American Studies under "Multicultural Studies" in the Gale Virtual Reference Library database.

International Index to Black Periodicals (IIBP)
Provides citations, abstracts, and some full-text to important scholarly journals in African American and African diaspora studies. Full-text coverage dates currently from 1998 to the present, though retrospective citation indexing for some titles dates back to the early twentieth century.

JSTOR (full-text journal articles)
Electronic Journals available via the Web to Penn State scholars in many subject areas, for example, Anthropology, Economics, and Population Studies, as well as African American Studies.

Project MUSE (full text journal articles)
Electronic full-text, full-image Journals available through the Web to Penn State scholars in these disciplines: the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics. Coverage: Current issues and volumes back to 1995.

Oxford African-American Studies Center
The "Oxford African American Studies Center" combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture."

Periodicals Index Online
A retrospective index to backfiles of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences in over forty languages. Though the focus is on the twentieth century, coverage of many titles dates to the eighteenth century. Includes links to the full text of articles available from Periodicals Archive Online.

Sage Race Relations Abstracts
"SAGE Race Relations Abstracts assesses more than 300 publications providing you with the latest information and research findings in the challenging area of race relations. Issues covered include discrimination, education, employment, health, politics, law and legislation. In each quarterly issue SAGE Race Relations Abstracts offers clearly-written summaries of the best and most recent journal articles, books and conference papers from around the world."

Sociological Abstracts
Index for English language journals in Sociology, Social Work, and other Social Sciences. Provides abstracts for articles and is international in scope. Coverage: 1963 to the present.