Research Guides: African History: Books

Library Catalog Descriptions

Use these catalogs to identify books and e-books, videos, music scores and sound recordings, magazine and journal titles,* newspaper titles,* some government documents, and more...

Compass
Compass is the new integrated catalog for Bowdoin, Colby, and Bates. It replaces both CBBcat and OneSearch. Tips:

You must sign in to access all features.
To locate print books held at Bowdoin Library, make a note of the location and call number.
If you are looking for a specific item, search Compass by title or author. For searching a topic, start with a keyword search.
When you find some relevant materials, (a) check the subject headings to focus your search or to find additional terms to use in searching. (b) Make a note of the call number of print materials. Go to that call number area and look for other books having a similar call number on your topic.
Request materials from Colby or Bates using "CBB Request".
E-books not held at Bowdoin are not accessible via CBB Request or Interlibrary Loan.

MaineCat
Database of the holdings of academic and public libraries in Maine.

WorldCat
Extremely large catalog of holdings of libraries, primarily in the U.S. Before requesting materials via Interlibrary Loan, determine whether the items are available via Compass. If not, use "Request through ILL".

Requesting Materials from Outside Bowdoin

When a book is not available in Compass at Bowdoin, Colby, or Bates, search MaineCat to determine whether that network has the book you want. If so, click on "request this item." Do not wait until the last minute to request materials!

If not, the next option is traditional Interlibrary Loan. Interlibrary Loan is also the first stop for all journal articles not available at Bowdoin. Through Interlibrary Loan, you have access to books and journal articles from libraries across the U.S. and around the world.

You can discover some of the available materials (not including journal articles) through WorldCat. Before requesting materials via Interlibrary Loan, determine whether the items are available via Compass. If not, use "Request through ILL".

To use Interlibrary Loan, you must first register with the system and set up a user name and password. Then fill out a form with information identifying your book or article. (You do not need to know which library has the item you want; the Interlibrary Loan department finds a holding library on your behalf.) Articles are usually sent electronically, while books travel to Bowdoin in hard copy. You will be notified when the materials arrive. Do not wait until the last minute to request materials via Interlibrary Loan!

Bowdoin Digital Delivery and Interlibrary Loan summarizes the options.

Full-text E-books

Strategies for finding e-books

E-books accessible from Bowdoin are available through Compass. You can limit your search to materials available online.
The library has also purchased several collections of e-books, available through our list of Databases, including Ebook Central, Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 w/ suppl., Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 w/ suppl., Early English Books Online, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Oxford Scholarship Online, and e-books and journals via SpringerLink. Books in these collections are also in Compass.
Search in Compass; limit to: Available online.

Other sources for e-books

HathiTrust Best Bet
Over 3.7 billion full-text searchable pages from almost 6 million book titles and almost 300,000 serial titles. Hint: To limit your search to materials that you will be able to read full-text, check "Full view only" below the search box. Login to HathiTrust to take full advantage of Bowdoin Library's membership benefits, allowing you to download full PDFs of public domain works. See Help or A User’s Guide to HathiTrust for more information.

Internet Archive
"Includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages." See Search for more information.

Digital Public Library of America
"An all-digital library that aggregates metadata — or information describing an item — and thumbnails for millions of photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States." Note: Not all (any?) materials are full-text searchable.

Google Books
Books from all disciplines, many available full-text and full-text searchable. See Help for more information.

Library of Congress E-books
This guide points to some databases of e-books.

Full-text E-books from around the world

Early English Books Online
Contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. Dates of Coverage: 1475-1700.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Digital images of books and ephemera published during the 18th Century. Full text searchable, with images. Dates of Coverage: 1701-1800.
Europeana
Europeana Collections provides access to over 50 million digitised items – books, music, artworks and more – with sophisticated search and filter tools.
European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) is a multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the long nineteenth century. European Literature, 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection includes the full-text of more than 9,500 English, French and German titles. The collection is sourced from the remarkable library of Victor Amadeus, whose Castle Corvey collection was one of the most spectacular discoveries of the late 1970s. The Corvey Collection comprises one of the most important archives of Romantic era writing in existence anywhere - including fiction, short prose, dramatic works, poetry and more - with a focus on especially difficult-to-find works by lesser-known, historically neglected writers. Dates of Coverage: 1790-1840.
NCCO (Nineteenth Century Collections Online)
Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO) is a multi-year global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the long nineteenth century. Dates of Coverage: NA.
Nineteenth Century
Index to microfiche collection of 34,000 nineteenth-century English-language books and pamphlets published in all parts of the world except North America. Bowdoin has the "General Collection" of this resource. Dates of Coverage: 1801-1900.