African Studies
Welcome to the African Studies subject guide - your guide to using the library resources, services and facilities for your subject.
Finding Library Resources - DiscoverEd
DiscoverEd is the one of the main ways to find the resources that are available to you. Your University Login gives you access to DiscoverEd where you can explore many of the online and physical resources, as well as the special repositories within the university collection.
Not everything within the University collection can be identified using DiscoverEd and you may also need to use specific databases to find additional material.
Need help searching DiscoverEd? Have a look at the help pages and FAQs.
Search for African Studies Literature
- Africa PortalThe Africa Portal is a research repository and an expert analysis hub on African affairs. As of 1 June 2022 the site will no longer be updated with new content but the existing research collection and editorial content will be archived and will remain available.
- BLDS (British Library for Development Studies)Contains over 150,000 records of documents on economic and social development
- Oxford Bibliographies Online - African StudiesSince the literature on African Studies is diverse, fast moving, controversial, and scattered among unfamiliar sources, Oxford Bibliographies have asked leading scholars to identify the most significant themes and areas of study in their fields, recommend the best sources for exploring them, and discuss these works conceptual and empirical significance to provide a series of guided studies through the diverse approaches to a wide array of complex subjects. New articles are added every year.
Your Academic Support Librarian
Resource lists and Subject guides
Resource Lists are online reading lists that can signpost you to key reading materials. Some of your courses may have a Resource List embedded in the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) but you can also access them directly. Full details are available on the Resource Lists: Information for Students webpage.
Other subject guides can be a useful source of ideas and information. 
Beginner's guide
This is a short video introducing you to the University Library and it's resources, services and facilities.
- Beginner's guide to the Library - original videoFollow this link to see original video on MediaHopper, with downloadable presentation slides.
Online learning
The Library provides access to many e-resources, but we also provide lots of other services and support for students on online learning programmes.
- Library services for online learning students
- How to set up and use the Virtual Private Network (VPN)