Collection Guidelines: African Studies: Scope & Location

• Suzzallo and Allen Libraries, and the Odegaard Undergraduate Library are the major locations for the African Studies collection in print on the Seattle campus. The Bothell and Tacoma libraries provide additional resources for those campuses.
• Various subject libraries (business, art, etc.) collect selectively in their discipline.
• Electronic resources may be through the African Studies Research Guide.
• Microform collections including historic newspapers are in the Microforms-Newspapers Section.
• Specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, and bibliographies may be located in the Reference Section in Suzzallo Library.  More generalized sources may be located in the Reference Secition of Odegaard Undergraduate Library.
• Documentaries may be found in the Media Center (Suzzallo Library, 3rd floor).

Photo: Suzzallo Reading Room courtesy of Curtis Cronn

a. Chronological

African Studies collects contemporary materials which focus on key content, methodologies, and theories in the comparative and interdisciplinary study of Sub-Saharan Africa and African Diaspora.  The History collection collects all periods of history.

b. Geographical

The collection covers Sub-Saharan Africa.

c. Language

Primary and secondary works are primarily in English. The curriculum of the  American Ethnic Studies Department includes language instruction in Swahili and Tagalog. 

d. Format

Electronic and print monographs, serials, facsimiles, as well as microforms are included in the collection.

e. Exclusions

Material of a purely popular nature, textbooks, workbooks, dissertations, historical fiction, most genealogical sources, juvenile literature, and reprints of material already in the collection, are generally not collected.