If you'd like to find more great works of literature or literary criticism (analysis) see the slideshows below that explain how to use Hostos Library to search for books and articles of any topic. Some keywords you may try (besides the names of specific authors or titles of books) could include phrases like:
African American literature
Black literature
Black history
African American history
Harlem Renaissance
Black Arts Movement
A database is a collection of publications (if you want to know more about what databases are, please click here!).
Some examples of primary sources include articles, reports, photographs, laws, and other documents written in another time. A key skill for researchers using primary sources from another time is reading to infer the point of view of the author, which may include figuring out how everyday life, common assumptions about the world, and vocabulary were different in the author's time and place compared to our own.
In order to read these documents online, when prompted for a password please use the same username and password that you use to get into Blackboard and CUNY First.
You can find our "A-Z list" on the library's front page.
We have several databases that specialize in Black Studies, including Black Thought and Culture and Black Freedom Struggle in the United States.
You can search Black Thought and Culture two ways:
(1) by typing in your keywords (remember to try different words and combinations) in the search box, or
(2) by browsing through subjects, people, historical events, publication title, and more. Note that you can scroll through these options with the arrows on the sides.
You can also search the Black Freedom Struggle database either by typing keywords into the search box or by browsing their subjects.
This one seems a little more challenging to find things by using the search box. If you browse, think about the time period most relevant to your topic, as their subjects are divided by years.