Teaching African Studies Bibliography–Information Literacy for 21st Century Scholars

SUMMARY

Indiana University has a long tradition of teaching African studies bibliography. It began in 1964 with Alan Taylor and was taught successively by Jean Meeh Gosebrink, David Easterbrook, Nancy Schmidt, and, for the last four years, by this author. This article discusses developments of the class as they have been implemented over the last four years. In the past, bibliographic tools in African studies disciplines were scarce, and the goal of the class consequently was to introduce the students to those tools. Nowadays, with the proliferation of sources in the field, both in electronic and print formats, the focus of the class has shifted. While various elements of the class have been maintained, the course now has several new elements, primarily in the form of discussion sessions based on the reading of articles and other sources. The focus of the class is no longer on how to find scarce, hidden materials, but rather to develop strategies and techniques to find a wide variety of materials ranging from print sources to oral accounts in libraries worldwide.

KEYWORDS:

• African studies
• bibliography
• bibliographic instruction
• information literacy