29 September 2006

Africa: The African Studies Companion: A Guide to Information Sources

book review

Washington, DC — The African Studies Companion: A Guide to Information Sources

Edited by Hans M. Zell

ISBN: 0-9541029-2-4 (ISBN-13: 978-0-9541029-2-0) Format: Print and online

<!-- @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -->

864 pp. 234x156mm cased Published 31 May 2006

£148.00/€222.00/$296.00, online access bundled with print (not available separately)

First off, I must say that this book comes in both print and electronic format and is unique in that it covers such a broad range of topics and is not geared towards a particular audience or field, but is a resource for anyone interested in Africa.

It's the fourth edition of the book and the book's 864 pages includes current sources of information, primarily in English, on any and everything African. This includes online resources on Africa, reference tools, resources for African languages, guides to statistical sources, economic, financial and population data, cartographic and geographic information sources, film and video/DVD resources, journals and magazines, more than 250 African newspapers and information on the African press, major African studies library collections both inside of and outside Africa, African studies academic programs worldwide, major African and international organizations, major foundations, donors, government and aid agencies, African studies associations, societies, and networks, and online forums and mailing lists.

For those familiar with previous editions, this new edition includes new sections on the African press and newspapers and on African studies centers, programs, and courses worldwide. The online information has also been significantly updated.

The book's mission is to “provide a compact, time saving and annotated guide to print and electronic information resources and to facilitate easy access to a wider range of information in the African studies field”. Do not be daunted by the book's 864 pages. This book is extremely handy and easy to use. Even the online resources, though the editor acknowledges the URLs often change, are very practical and useful. The index and table of contents offer easy access to the material.

The book is great for students, scholars, educators, researchers, and anyone interested in Africa. There are even some resources for French speakers. It's one of those books you keep on your desk, to be relied on often.

Africa

Africans Should Decide What Is Best for Them, Kagame to the West

President Paul Kagame spoke out against the tendency by Western countries and a section of the international community… Read more »

Copyright © 2006 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

AllAfrica publishes around 900 reports a day from more than 140 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200609290808.html
allafrica.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-39
126345
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:COCNE5HD3I4S3E6ANJDLONFTRIZZT6PX
<urn:uuid:e63ddf71-e1d4-4480-922a-d1e57b9e7774>
2017-09-20T16:19:10Z
173.203.36.104
text/html
sha1:UNEQLZYALMOP5H3L2IDSE4IKMTS3LZWG
<urn:uuid:7c5a4d01-7211-4945-8ebf-2f86c96f4f92>
http://allafrica.com/stories/200609290808.html
response
<urn:uuid:b19baf0e-32b0-4c8e-bdba-7e1fd90fb67c>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-229-139-187.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-39
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for September 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf