Databases
Both subscribed and free databases, mainly with a focus on Africa.
Africa-specific databases we subscribe to
Combination of several databases, providing access to more than 4 million records - some with full-text links.
Topics: politics, history, economics, business, mining, natural sciences, environment, development, social issues, anthropology, literature, language, law, music, tourism etc.
Sources: books, periodicals and magazines articles, radio and television broadcasts, newspapers, pamphlets, maps, reports, theses, music recordings etc.
Coverage: From the 19th century to the present.
Access:
- Automatic access at NAI
- Via AfricaLit Plus: searchable with limitations. While outside of NAI you need to be signed in to see results.
- Apply for remote (off-campus) access
(Formerly: South African Press Association, SAPA.)
Full-text news reports covering South African and African news. The database covers the period 1998 - 31 March 2015 and from November 2015 onwards.
Access:
Online edition of the Heinemann series of modern African literature, published 1946-2003. Including 250 volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose.
Access:
Aggregates and distributes news from 140+ African news organizations and own reporters. Top news, latest news, country and regional news, business, sports and various topics.
Archives include millions of articles from 1996 onwards, and the website comes in an English version as well as a French, reflecting also the language of the news sources.
Access:
- Current news (up to two years old) are free and accessible to anyone. This includes their RSS feeds through which you can keep up to date on specific countries, regions or topics.
- English version: General website | RSS feeds page
- French version: General website | RSS feeds page
- English version: General website
- Archived news are available for subscribers. NAI has an institutional subscription. This includes an advanced search interface through which you can search on keyword, publisher country, category and date.
- English version: Automatic access (via IP) at NAI premises
- French version: Automatic access (via IP) at NAI premises
- English version: Automatic access (via IP) at NAI premises
More than 3 million newspaper and periodical articles within Social sciences, Politics, Economy and more. Searchable through keywords and topics, articles viewable as pdfs. Focused mainly on southern Africa.
Access:
76 collections, 20K+ objects, 190K+ pages focusing on the liberation struggles in Southern Africa, with an emphasis on Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. More info on JSTOR website.
Access:
Free Africa-specific databases
AfricaBib
Five bibliographic databases in one: Africana Periodical Literature, African Women, Women Travelers, Explorers and Missionaries to Africa: 1763-2004, Islam in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, and Kenya Coast.
ASKIA - Access to Scientific Knowledge in Africa
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa's federated search portal for scientific and socio-economic information on Africa from several different sources - including Open Access literature, commercial databases, online journals, (UN)ECA publications, etc.
Connecting Africa
A service that provides access to African research information and materials produced in the Netherlands and elsewhere.
IlissAfrica - Internet Library Sub-Saharan Africa
Find literature, internet resources, contacts and further information concerning African Studies,
Noovell
Global news aggregator with a focus on politics and current affairs. In English. Specific section for Africa and also subpages for each country.
Publishing, Books & Reading in Sub-Saharan Africa : A Critical Bibliography
An online version of the book with the same title.
Free general databases
DART-Europe E-theses Portal
Search electronically published open access dissertations and theses from hundreds of European universities.
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)
Search and browse peer reviewed, scholarly open access books.
Doria
Multi-institutional repository maintained by National Library of Finland.
forskningsdatabasen.dk
The Danish national research database.
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
Search for full text theses and dissertations in the NDLTD Catalog.
NORA
Norwegian open research archives
Nordicom databases on Nordic media research
The NCOM 1975-2006 database contains some 40.000 references to nordic media research publications. The succcessor NCOM continues from 2006/2007 including four different data types: nordic media researchers, research institutions, research projects and research publications.
- NCOM 1975-2006: http://www.statsbiblioteket.dk/nordicom
- NCOM [2006/2007-]: http://nordicom.statsbiblioteket.dk
OAPEN Library
Freely accessible academic books, mainly in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Open Knowledge Repository
The World Bank’s official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products, among others reports, journal articles, serial publications, working papers etc.
Population Index
Abstracts of demographic literature published in the period 1986–2000.
The Swedish Media Database (SMDB)
Search TV and radio broadcasts, documentary films and much more, some of them with an African focus. Researchers can order materials from the SMDB and access the material either at the National Library in Stockholm or as an interlibrary loan on DVD at a university library. SMDB is only available in Swedish.
SwePub
Academic publications at Swedish universities. Search among scholarly articles, conference papers and dissertations etc.
UNBISNET
United Nations Bibliographic Information System. References to UN documents and publications, articles and books about the UN, speeches of the General Assembly from 1983-, voting records and more.
Library catalogues
Libraries and archives. From Africa south of the Sahara. Selected internet resources ed. by Karen Fung, Stanford University Libraries & Academic Information Resources. http://library.stanford.edu/africa-south-sahara/browse-topic/libraries-archives
Uppsala University Library.
General search tool: http://ub.uu.se
Library catalogue (DISA) only: https://disaweb.ub.uu.se
Libris. Union catalogue of Swedish libraries.
http://libris.kb.se/
bibliotek.dk. Locate books and journals at Danish libraries.
http://bibliotek.dk/eng
BIBSYS. Union catalogue of Norwegian libraries.
https://bibsys-almaprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/search?vid=BIBSYS&lang=no_NO
Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).
https://www.diis.dk/en/diis/kommunikation/library
The National Library of Finland (Helsinki University Library). Finnish library catalogues, databases and online resources. http://www.nationallibrary.fi/
Gegnir. Union catalogue of Icelandic libraries.
https://leitir.is/primo-explore/search?sortby=rank&vid=GEGNIR&lang=en_US
African Studies Centre Catalogue. Search the library collection of ASC, Leiden, The Netherlands; social and economic development, political and constitutional developments, as well as anthropology, sociology, religion, law, education, contemporary history and literature.
https://catalogue.leidenuniv.nl/primo-explore/search?vid=UBL_V1&search_scope=lib_asc&sortby=rank&tab=leiden&lang=en_US&mode=simple
BCEA, the Portuguese Central Library of African Studies.
https://bcea.cei.iscte-iul.pt/en/catalog/
Bibliotèque nationale de France with several catalogues to search.
http://www.bnf.fr/
British Library. With Explore the British Library you can search items from the main catalogue of nearly 57 million records. https://explore.bl.uk/
Clark Library, MLibrary - Stephen S. Clark Library, MLibrary, Univ. of Michigan, for Maps and Government Information. https://www.lib.umich.edu/clark-library
IDS/BLDS. British Library for Development Studies at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Brighton, UK. Library catalogue and other resources on economic and social change in developing countries. http://blds.ids.ac.uk/search-the-collection
The Library Network catalogue, serving the World Bank Group and IMF.
https://library.worldbankimflib.org/
Library of Congress.
https://catalog.loc.gov/
NU Libraries Searchcat. Catalogue of the Northwestern University Libraries. Search special NU Databases, Africana Conference Paper Index and the Africana Vertical File Index. https://search.library.northwestern.edu
School of Oriental and African Studies.
https://library.soas.ac.uk/
University library of Mainz / The Library of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies.
http://opac.ub.uni-mainz.de/
University of Vienna, African and Middle Eastern Studies Library / African Studies Holding 1991-.
https://usearch.univie.ac.at/primo-explore/search?vid=UWI&lang=en_US
WorldCat (OCLC). Cross search a database of over 1 billion books, music, videos, articles and other items in more than 10,000 libraries worldwide.
https://www.worldcat.org/