Book Catalogs
- Library Search This link opens in a new windowCheck out the Library Search which finds print and electronic items, including journal and newspaper articles, book chapters, books, reviews, legal documents, and much more. Note: Due to licensing restrictions, some content is only available to current students, faculty, and staff.
HathiTrust Digital Library includes full-text of materials, many out of copyright (1923 or before), and records of later materials to the Vanderbilt community from the a partnership of major U.S. academic and research libraries.
Google Books. Searches the full text of books and selected magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database. Most titles are no longer in print or commercially available.
Center for Research Libraries (CRL). A consortium of North American libraries that acquire and preserve newspapers, journals, documents, archives, etc. CRL holdings can be borrowed for extended periods via Interlibrary Loan.
You Might Find...
High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America by Call Number: Central Library: TX715 .H29972 2011ISBN: 1596913959
Useful Library of Congress Subject Headings
Subject heading searches can introduce you to a large number of books on a specific topic available in the libraries.
To get a sense of the breadth of our collections, try a "SUBJECT begins with" search in Library Catalog using one of the sample Library of Congress Subject Headings listed below:
| Africans, Migrations | African Americans in literature | ||
| African Diaspora | Black theology | ||
| African Americans, Race Identity | Racism in popular culture | ||
| African Americans in motion pictures | African Americans in medicine | ||
| Africans, United States | African Americans in popular culture | ||
| Race Relations | Black nationalism |
Browsing for Books
Another option is to browse the STACKS for books. The following call # areas might be of interest to you:
| BL 2390-2490 | African religions | |
| DT 160-177 | North Africa | |
| DT 365-469 | Eastern Africa | |
| DT 421-432.5 | East Africa. British East Africa | |
| DT 470-671 | West Africa | |
| DT 521-555.9 | French West Africa | |
| DT 546.1-549.49 | French speaking Equatorial Africa | |
| DT 591-615.9 | Portuguese Speaking West Africa | |
| DT 619-620.9 | Spanish West Africa | |
| DT 1701-2405 | South Africa | |
| DT 2831-2864 | British Central Africa | |
| E 184.5-185.98 | Afro-Americans | |
| E 441-453 | Slavery in the United States. Antislavery Movements | |
| F 1601-1629 | West Indies | |
| F 1861-1896 | Jamaica | |
| F 1900-1941 | Haiti | |
| F 2131-2133 | British West Indies | |
| F 2155-2191 | Caribbean Area | |
| F 2361-2391 | Guyana | |
| HT 1501-1595 | Race | |
| HS 1601-2265 | Race societies | |
| PL 8000-8009 | African Languages and Literatures | |
| PM 7831-7875 | Creole Languages | |
| PN 841 | Black Literature - General | |
| Z 3501-3875 | Africa - National Bibilography |
Finding Books in Other Libraries?
There are thousands of library catalogs out there and only one of you.
It's time for every researcher's secret weapon:
WorldCat contains more than 125 million records describing items owned by U.S. libraries and libraries around the world.
These items include books, manuscripts, musical scores, films, newspapers, etc.
