In the Spotlight: Connecting-Africa & AfricaBib

Connecting Africa

Connecting-Africa is a gateway to African research information and materials produced worldwide. It provides access to more than 50000 publications from 90 repositories as well as information on 1350 Africa experts (researchers, policymakers, development practioners) and on 890 organisations (research or development-related institutes with expertise on Africa).

All worldwide Africanist research accessible

Connecting-Africa was started in 2006 by the African Studies Centre in Leiden, aiming to make all worldwide Africanist research material and information accessible through one community portal on the Internet. By providing federated access to university repositories and other resources, including library catalogues and publishers’ services, and by gathering knowledge and expertise that are both physically and electronically scattered across universities and research centres, it is hoped to offer fertile ground for a more effective knowledge exchange. You can add your expert profile if you are a researcher, development practitioner or policymaker working on Africa and if you wish to participate in Connecting-Africa.

AfricaBib

AfricaBib is a collection of Africana social science titles. It is the culmination of over forty years of Africana research. The site consists of five bibliographic databases: Africana periodical literature; African Women; women travelers, explorers and missionaries to Africa; Islam in Africa; and the Kenya Coast, which is compiled by the ASC's Jan Hoorweg. The first three databases were created by Davis Bullwinkle of the Institute for Economic Advancement (IEA) Research Library, University of Arkansas, who begun this as a small project in 1974. When computer technology came along, a great deal of time over many years was taken to make the data computer accessible. In February 2008 the database indexed over 60,000 items that appeared in over 500 periodical titles. It now contains more than 217,000 records.

'A service free to the world'

The development of AfricaBib into internet databases in 1999 was the natural progression for a project of this size. It can be updated 'on-the-fly' and is accessible 24 hours a day worldwide. In March 2008 Davis Bullwinkle retired as director of the Institute for Economic Advancement Research Library in Arkansas and the ASC in Leiden agreed to host the website and continue AfricaBib in the spirit of its founder, as 'a service provided free to the World'.