Find a Book Using iDiscover

• Before coming into the Library, it's a good idea to use the iDiscover catalogue to search all print and online content available to you as a member of the University

• Ensure that you login with your Cambridge credentials (abc123 + password) first to see all subscribed online content available to you

• When searching for books (print or online) use the radial button on the search bar and select "Cambridge Libraries Collections"

• Search using author last name and keywords from the title

• Use the filter bar on the right hand side of the page to bring up the concise title needed

• Books and journals will show as "Available in the Library" (print) or "Full-text online" in the filter bar, and below this you can identify which libraries hold the item needed

  • Check out this PDF that explains the different types of locations of material, and email us at afr@lib.cam.ac.uk if you're not sure!

• Make sure to click on the required record for further details, i.e. location, classmark, availability, number of copies

• For help using iDiscover please see the iDiscover LibGuide for advanced search methods and account management advice

Filtering on iDiscover for Materials in the African Studies Library

How to find a book - African Studies filter

Find the journal you need

• View a list of the print journals held at the Library (some may need to be fetched from the Archive Store).

• Visit the eResources website to help you find journals, articles, databases, and ebooks online.

• Example: using the keyword "Africa" as a keyword search term in the "journals and articles" search box whilst selecting the "Journals" radial button, produces over 600 results for journal titles.

• Once you have found the title that you are looking for you can click directly through to the full text that is available to you as a University member (Raven login will be required, especially if off-campus).

• Wikipedia also has a list of international academic journals for you to peruse: list of African Studies journals on Wikipedia you can check access using the eresources & ejournals LibGuide.

• Advice on how to find print journals at the African Studies Library (journals are reference only).

An ongoing selection of new & relevant e-journals are listed below:

• Africa Bibliography, Research and Documentation (CRSid Login): ABRD brings together essay content from Africa Bibliography, the authoritative guide to works in African studies published under the auspices of the International African Institute annually since 1984, with the former African Research & Documentation, the journal of SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) published since 1973. ABRD publishes articles and book reviews on topics relating to research, libraries, archives and publishing in and on Africa, and in African Studies.

• Francosphères (Open Access): The bilingual journal Francosphères seeks to question the presence of French language and culture across frontiers and borders, as defined by ‒ but not limited to ‒ (post)colonial encounters and decolonial perspectives. To this extent, it is a journal of transcultural and intercultural French Studies ‒ about liminal spaces and transference rather than operating within the hierarchy of ‘French’ or ‘Francophone’ culture. (tags: French Speaking Africa - French-Speaking Africa - French Speaking West Africa)

• Stolen Tools (Open Access): Stolen tools is an anti-racist journal dedicated to centering the voices of racialised minorities within health inequalities research. The journal aims to provide a creative platform for diverse racialised voices to be emotionally expressive about racism rooted in academia, challenge their self-censorship in research and share knowledge in a way which is understandable by a diverse range of voices: not just academics.

• African Journals Online (Partly Open Access): With 700+ journals, AJO is a Non-Profit Organisation that (since 1998) works to increase global & continental online access, awareness, quality & use of African-published, peer-reviewed research.

• Matatu (CRSid Login): publishing high quality articles on African literatures and societies. The journal continues to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue between literary and cultural studies, historiography, the social sciences, and cultural anthropology.

Find a Dissertation or Thesis

• The African Studies Library holds (permitted) copies of dissertations from the African Studies MPhil course, dating back to 2011.  These are useful to refer to for structure, writing style, referencing style, and sources. 
• Dissertations are available for consultation within the Library only, they may not be borrowed or copied in any way.  Please see a list of dissertations at the bottom of this page.
• The Library also holds a number of bound PhD theses in the basement archive. Please ask us at the issue desk if you wish to consult any theses or dissertations.
• Find out how to access University of Cambridge PhD theses held at the University Library and elsewhere via the Theses & Dissertations LibGuide.

You are able to view theses from across the world online - try some of the following routes:

• Apollo: Full-text digital versions of several hundred Cambridge Ph.D. theses. This is a rapidly growing collection deposited by Cambridge Ph.D. graduates on a voluntary basis.
• Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations: International freely available theses and dissertations 
• DART-Europe: Dissertations and theses from across Europe.
• EthOS: Electronic copies of Ph.D. theses submitted at over 100 UK universities are obtainable from EThOS, a service set up to provide access to all theses from participating institutions.

• Leiden African Studies Centre - Open Access: PhD dissertations rewritten for a broader audience, monographs, edited volumes, and high-quality master’s theses. Manuscripts offered for publication in this series are externally reviewed or they are assessed internally for quality.

• OATD - Open Access Theses & Dissertations: OATD.org aims to be the best possible resource for finding open access graduate theses and dissertations published around the world. Metadata (information about the theses) comes from over 1100 colleges, universities, and research institutions. OATD currently indexes 4,189,303 theses and dissertations.
• ProQuest Theses & Dissertations: The University subscribes to this database and titles are grouped by general subject packages (i.e. Social Sciences, History, Business).

For more in-depth information regarding these online services please see the: Theses & Dissertations LibGuide.

Find and Access eBooks

The ebooks@cambridge team have created a comprehensive LibGuide which includes the following information:

• How to find ebooks

• How to access ebooks

• How to use ebooks

• How to cite ebooks

• Copyright & licensing

• Free & Open Access ebook collections

Video: How to Access and Use eBooks

Please note: this SMS video is not accessible with keyboard-only access and some screen readers. Please use the YouTube version below if you experience any issues.

• How to access and use ebooks - a video

  (Opens in YouTube in a new window)

• How to access and use ebooks at Cambridge: video transcript

  (Opens in a new window)

African eBook Platforms

African Books Collective eBooks: (ABC) is an African-owned mission-based distribution outlet for books published independently in Africa. The publishers from across the continent who are part of the collective have over its 30 year history contributed some 3000 titles, which continue to be available in print. Over 2000 of these are available digitally on this platform and new titles will be added regularly.

Duke University Press eBooks

Duke generally publish around 150 titles per year, and specialise in subjects such as African studies, anthropology, art and art history, film and TV studies, and gender studies. With the purchase of this collection, Cambridge users will have permanent, unlimited and DRM-free access to Duke's 2025 publications, as well as getting access to a backlist of more than 3,000 titles for the duration of the year. Check back regularly for new eBooks being added to iDiscover. Learn more here.

Routledge's Knowledge Unlatched - African Studies Collection

• University of Cambridge readers now have access to the beginnings of a new collection organised by Knowledge Unlatched via Routledge.
• Over the course of 2021 and 2022, around 100 new Routledge eBooks focused on Africa and discussing a wide variety of subjects will become available.

Here's what we have access to now:

• Africa’s elite football : structure, politics, and everyday challenges / edited by Chuka Onwumechili.

• Endogenous regional policy and development planning in Ghana / Sam C.M. Ofori.

• Participatory theatre and the urban everyday in South Africa : place and play in Johannesburg / Alexandra Halligey.

• Political protest in contemporary Kenya : change and continuities / Jacob Mwathi Mati.

• Press silence in postcolonial Zimbabwe : news whiteouts, journalism and power / Zvenyika Eckson Mugari.

• Rethinking African agriculture : how non-agrarian factors shape peasant livelihoods / edited by Goran Hyden, Kazuhiko Sugimura and Tadasu Tsuruta.

• Social licensing and mining in South Africa / Sethulego Matebesi.

• Social policy in post-apartheid South Africa : social re-engineering for inclusive development / Ndangwa Noyoo.

• The everyday life of the poor in Cameroon : the role of social networks in meeting needs / Nathanael Ojong.

• The everyday state in Africa : governance practices and state ideas in Ethiopia / Daniel Mulugeta.

• Toward an animist reading of postcolonial trauma literature : reading beyond the single subject / Jay Rajiva.

• Urban issues in rapidly growing cities : planning for development in Addis Ababa / Mintesnot G. Woldeamanuel.

• Culture and Development in Africa and the Diaspora / edited by Ahmad Shehu Abdussalam, Ibigbolade Simon Aderibigbe, Sola Timothy Babatunde, Olutola Akindipe.

• Narrating Human Rights in Africa / Eleni Coundouriotis.

• Development-induced Displacement and Human Rights in Africa / Romola Adeola.

• Political Change and Constitutionalism in Africa :emerging trends / edited by Okon Akiba.

• African Scholars & Intellectuals in North American Academies / edited by Sabella Ogbobode Abidde.

• Social Media and Everyday Life in South Africa / Tanja E Bosch. 

• Modern Representations of Sub-Saharan Africa / edited by Lori Maguire, Susan Ball and Sébastien Lefait.

• Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Africa / edited by Jacinta Mwende Maweu and Admire Mare.

• Human Rights and Gendered Violence in African Literature and Film / edited by Naomi Nkealah and Obioma Nnaemeka.

• Complicity and Responsibility in Contemporary African Writing / Minna Johanna Niemi.

• Decolonisation of Higher Education in Africa / edited by Emnet Tadesse Woldegiorgis, Irina Turner, and Abraham Brahima.

Routledge's New Collection on Borders and Migration

• This collection, linked here, gives you access to 1,000+ eTitles about borders and migration in Africa (make sure you login using the institution login and your Raven account).

Routledge's New Collection on Ethnic Studies

• Though this collection, linked here, could probably use a better name, it provides you access to 100+ eTtitles about interdisciplinary scholarship on race, ethnicity, and indigeneity with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of people of colour. (make sure you login using the institution login and your Raven account).

Lived Places Collections

• LPC - Lived Places is a relatively new publisher, whose aim is to “explore the intersection of identity and place, humanizing an issue through lived experience”. The 2024 collection will be made up of 25 titles (all with unlimited, DRM-free access), classed across various subject themes:
  • Artists Studies
  • Asian Studies
  • Black Studies
  • Carceral Studies
  • Cultural Anthropology
  • Disability Studies
  • Education Studies
  • Fashion and Personal Style Studies
  • Forced Migration Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • Latinx Studies
  • Queer and LGBT+ Studies
  • The Emergent Entrepreneur Collection

Are you Struggling to Access eResources?

The eResources team have put together excellent guidance for using browser extensions and plugins to help you with your search. 

Browser extensions and plugins can help you by enabling seamless authenticated searching, or by sourcing you an Open Access version of book chapters or articles.

Visit their page to find out more about how these tools can help you, and how to install them:

• Lean Library (Recommended)
• CORE Discovery
• Google Scholar Button
• Kopernio
• Open Access Button
• Unpaywall

Collection of Digital Libraries

• UN Digital Library (account required): 1 million + documents from the global peace agency.

• Smithsoninan Library (Open Access): Library spanning the range of scientific and cultural pursuits of humanity from aerospace, anthropology, and art history to business history and botany, cultural history, design, philately, zoology, and much, much more.

African Studies Collections Outside of Cambridge

Linked below are various African Studies Centres in the UK and elsewhere.  If you are interested in these institutions, we may be able to arrange for you to visit and consult their collections.

• African Studies Centre - University of Oxford
• Department of African Studies & Anthropology - University of Birmingham
• Centre of African Studies (CAS) - University of Edinburgh
• Centre of African Studies (LUCAS) - University of Leeds
• Centre of African Studies - SOAS
• Firoz Lalji Centre for African Studies - LSE
• African Studies Centre - University of Leiden (Netherlands)
• Nordic Africa Institute (Uppsala, Sweden)
• Center for Africana Studies - John Hopkins University (USA)
• Durham's Sudan Archive

• Northwestern's Edward Harland Duckworth (1894 -1972) Photograph Collection from Nigeria

For a more comprehensive list of African Studies Programs, Research Centers, and Universities, see Columbia's impressively curated list.

Help Finding Books

For help using iDiscover please see the iDiscover LibGuide for advanced search methods and account management advice

Journals

Advice on how to find print journals at the African Studies Library (journals are reference only).

Help Finding eBooks or eResources

The eResources team have put together excellent guidance for using browser extensions and plugins to help you with your search. 

Browser extensions and plugins can help you by enabling seamless authenticated searching, or by sourcing you an Open Access version of book chapters or articles.

Visit their page to find out more about how these tools can help you, and how to install them:

• Lean Library (Recommended)
• CORE Discovery
• Google Scholar Button
• Kopernio
• Open Access Button
• Unpaywall

Still Having Trouble?

Get in touch with us at afr@lib.cam.ac.uk with your question and we'll be happy to help.