|
Return
to Bibliography index
Note on methods
This set of bibliographies is a subset of a larger bibliography
under construction at the American Museum of Natural History
Library. The larger bibliography attempts to gather as many
citations as possible to works on the history and science
of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This bibliography
is being created as part of the Museum's Digital Library
pilot project, the focus of which is the American Museum
Congo Expedition, 1909-1915. This expedition, sometimes
called the Lang-Chapin Expedition after the zoologists who
led it, collected some 54 tons of zoological specimens and
anthropological artifacts from the northeast of the area
now known as Orientale, Democratic Republic of Congo.
The scope of the project bibliography mirrors the scope
of the Congo Expedition: all recent vertebrates and invertebrates,
as well as cultural and physical anthropology, are emphasized,
with somewhat less emphasis on botany, geology and paleontology.
The bibliography currently contains more than 7,000 citations.
Omissions of relevant research are purely the fault of
the bibliographer. Additions, edits, and revisions are welcome:
please email congoexpedition@amnh.org
or fax to 212-769-5009.
Gathering citations
The following databases were searched to gather citations
to research done on the Congo:
- Zoological Record 1978-1998
- BasicBIOSIS
- OCLC FirstSearch
- Eureka Anthropological Literature
- General Science Abstracts 1984-1998
- Current Contents databases: Agriculture, Biology, and
Environmental Sciences; Life Sciences; Physical, Chemical
and Earth Sciences and Social and Behavioral Sciences.
In addition, the following library catalogs were searched:
- American Museum of Natural History Library
- British Museum (Natural History) Library
- New York Public Library
- Joint World Bank/IMF library
- Cornell University library
- Columbia University library
- Emory University library
- Harvard University library
- Indiana University library
- Johns Hopkins University library
- Northwestern University library
- New York University library
- Pennsylvania State University library
- SUNY Albany library
- Yale University library
- University of Michigan at Ann Arbor library
- University of Wisconsin at Madison library
- University of Texas at Austin library
These libraries were chosen because each of these institutions
has sponsored an expedition to the Congo or has an African
Studies department.
Several printed library catalogs and bibliographies were
consulted: among them the Catalogue de la bibliothèque
of the Bruxelles Académie Royale; the periodical
Africa Bibliography published by Manchester University
Press; and French-speaking central Africa; a guide to
official publications in American libraries, compiled
by Julian W. Witherell of the U.S. Library of Congress'
African Section in 1973.
The publication lists of international agencies such as
the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources (IUCN), the World Conservation Monitoring Center
(WCMC), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and UNESCO were reviewed.
Other bibliographies and references consulted:
Besterman, Theodore. A world bibliography of African
bibliographies; revised and brought up to date by
J.D. Pearson. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975.
Brasseur, Paule. Les sources bibliographiques de l'Afrique
de l'ouest et de l'Afrique équatoriale d'expression
française. [Dakar]: Bibliothèque de
l'Université de Dakar, 1970.
Dinstel, Marion. List of French doctoral dissertations
on Africa, 1884-1961. With indexes by Mary Darrah
Herrick. Boston, G.K. Hall, 1966.
Duignan, Peter. Guide to research and reference works
on Sub-Saharan Africa. Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution
Press, Stanford University [1971 or 1972].
International African Institute. Select annotated
bibliography of tropical Africa, compiled under the
direction of Daryll Forde. New York, 1956.
International Conference on African Bibliography (1967:
Nairobi, Kenya). The bibliography of Africa; proceedings
and papers. Edited by J. D. Pearson and Ruth Jones.
New York, Africana Pub. Corp. [1970].
Moorland Foundation. A catalogue of the African collection
in the Moorland Foundation, Howard University Library.
Compiled by students in the Program of African Studies.
Edited by Dorothy B. Porter. Washington, Howard University
Press, 1958.
Rogers, Dilwyn J. A bibliography of African ecology:
a geographically and topically classified list of books
and articles. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979.
Royal Empire Society (Great Britain). Library. Annotated
bibliography of recent publications on Africa, south of
the Sahara, with special reference to administrative,
political, economic, and sociological problems. By
Evans Lewin. London, The Royal Empire Society, 1943.
South African Public Library. A bibliography of African
bibliographies; covering territories south of the Sahara.
Cape Town, 1955.
UNESCO. A review of the natural resources of the African
Continent. Paris: UNESCO. New York: UNESCO International
Documents Service: Columbia University, c1963.
Worthington, Edgar Barton. Science in Africa: a review
of scientific research relating to tropical and southern
Africa, issued by the Committee of the African research
survey under the auspices of the Royal institute of international
affairs. London, New York: Oxford University Press,
1938.
Worthington, Edgar Barton. Science in the development
of Africa: a review of the contribution of physical and
biological knowledge south of the Sahara. London:
Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South
of the Sahara, 1958.
Classification
The taxa-based classification framework used by Zoological
Record was selected as the framework for sorting the
zoological citations into categories. This was chosen because
it covers all of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology and
was felt to be familiar to zoologists.
Three other subject bibliographies are included: Conservation,
Description and travel and Maps and atlases.
Conservation:
The Conservation bibliography includes works on the conservation
of the Central African rain forests and savannahs, including
works having to do with economic activities such as farming,
hunting, and forestry.
Maps and Atlases:
This bibliography constitutes a more or less complete listing
of published cartography on the Congo.
Description and Travel:
Works cataloged using the subject heading "Description
and travel" include early works by explorers and missionaries.
These works often include early maps as well as descriptions
of an area's flora and fauna before it has been significantly
altered by imported species or economic strategies.
|
