The Cooperative African Newspapers Project is an initiative to enhance the utilization of newspapers as a source of information about Africa. The project explores issues related to the preservation of this ephemeral and fragile form of publication and access to contents through traditional and new technologies.
The core of the Cooperative African Newspapers Project is the African Newspapers Union List [1] (AFRINUL), a centralized electronic database of holdings information for newspapers (all formats and all languages) published in sub-Saharan Africa. AFRINUL currently consolidates holdings information for collections in North America, and will expand to include holdings in Africa, Europe, and elsewhere.
For questions on CRL administration of AFRINUL, contact Judy Alspach [2].
The Cooperative African Newspapers Project is an initiative of the Africana Librarians Council [13] (ALC) of the African Studies Association [14] (ASA) and the Cooperative Africana Materials Project [15] (CAMP) of the Center for Research Libraries [16] (CRL) to enhance the utilization of newspapers as a source of information about Africa. The Cooperative African Newspapers Project explores issues related to the preservation of this inherently ephemeral and fragile publication form and access to contents through both traditional and new technologies.
The first phase of this project has resulted in the development of the African Newspapers Union List [17] (AFRINUL), a centralized electronic database of holdings information for newspapers (all formats and all languages) published in sub-Saharan Africa. AFRINUL currently consolidates holdings information for collections in North America, and will later expand to include holdings in Africa, Europe, and elsewhere.
AFRINUL was initially built on holdings reported in “African Newspapers Currently Received by American Libraries [18]”.[1] Participants of the project gather information on their own collections and input bibliographic and holdings data into the collaborative database through a Web-based administrative input tool.
Subsequent phases of the project will include initiatives in the areas of preservation, digitizing, and indexing, facilitating research on African political, economic, and cultural events.
Participants include institutions represented by the membership of the ALC and CAMP, in conjunction with CRL.
[1] "African Newspapers Currently Received by American Libraries," first issued as an ALC project in 1975, was compiled by Mette Shayne, Northwestern University. The last edition was published in 1999.
Project Chair: David Easterbrook [19], Northwestern University
For questions on CRL administration of AFRINUL, please contact Judy Alspach [2] at:
The Center for Research Libraries
6050 South Kenwood Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637-2804
(773) 955-4545 ext. 323
AFRINUL will utilize symbols from the USMARC Code List for Organizations in order to identify holding institutions or microform sources. The Code List is a key to codes for holding institutions represented in the Library of Congress National Union Catalog (NUC) and other union list publications which until recently contained holdings for many reporting institutions.
In certain cases, AFRINUL will deviate from the standard codes for convenience or will assign a code to an institution that does not currently have a USMARC code. These institutions are indicated below in [brackets].
List by code sequence
List by name sequence
List of codes used, arranged by code sequence
| ACRPP | Association pour la conservation et la réproduction photographique de la presse (Paris, France) |
| [AILS] | African Imprint Library Services [AfrI] |
| [BL] | British Library [Uk] |
| [BM] | British Museum Microfilm Service |
| [CAMP] | Cooperative Africana Materials Project [ICRL-CA] |
| CU | University of California at Berkeley |
| CLU | University of California at Los Angeles |
| [CRL] | Center for Research Libraries [ICRL] |
| CStH | Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
| CtY | Yale University |
| DHU | Howard University |
| DLC | Library of Congress |
| [DLC#] | Library of Congress, Nairobi Field Office |
| EpG | Micro Methods, Ltd. |
| EpG | EP Microform, Ltd. |
| FU | University of Florida |
| GmNY | Garphic Microfilm Corporation |
| IDC | Inter Documentation Company |
| IEN | Northwestern University |
| IU | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign |
| InU | Indiana University, Bloomington |
| IaU | University of Iowa, Iowa City |
| [KNA] | Kenya National Archives |
| KU | University of Kansas |
| MBU | Boston University |
| McP | Bell & Howell, Micro Photo Division |
| MH | Harvard University |
| MiEM | Michigan State University |
| [MMF] | MMF Publications, Inc. |
| NN | New York Public Library |
| NNC | Columbia University, New York |
| NSyU | Syracuse University |
| RhSNA | National Archives of Rhodesia |
| [SAL] | South African Library |
| SaPNFB | National Film Board, Pretoria |
| SaPSL | State Library, Pretoria |
| ViU | University of Virginia |
List of codes used, arranged by name sequence
| African Imprint Library Services [AfrI] | [AILS] |
| Association pour la conservation et la réproduction photographique de la presse (Paris, France) | ACRPP |
| Bell & Howell, Micro Photo Division | McP |
| Boston University | MBU |
| British Library [Uk] | [BL] |
| British Museum Microfilm Service | [BM] |
| Center for Research Libraries [ICRL] | [CRL] |
| Columbia University, New York | NNC |
| Cooperative Africana Microform Project [ICRL-CA] | [CAMP] |
| EP Microform, Ltd. | EpG |
| Garphic Microfilm Corporation | GmNY |
| Harvard University | MH |
| Hoover Institution, Stanford University | CStH |
| Howard University | DHU |
| Indiana University, Bloomington | InU |
| Inter Documentation Company | IDC |
| Kenya National Archives | [KNA] |
| Library of Congress | DLC |
| Library of Congress, Nairobi Field Office | [DLC#] |
| Michigan State University | MiEM |
| Micro Methods, Ltd. | EpG |
| MMF Publications, Inc. | [MMF] |
| National Archives of Rhodesia | RhSNA |
| National Film Board, Pretoria | SaPNFB |
| New York Public Library | NN |
| Northwestern University | IEN |
| South African Library | [SAL] |
| State Library, Pretoria | SaPSL |
| Syracuse University | NSyU |
| University of California at Berkeley | CU |
| University of California at Los Angeles | CLU |
| University of Florida | FU |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | IU |
| University of Iowa, Iowa City | IaU |
| University of Kansas | KU |
| University of Virginia | ViU |
| Yale University | CtY |
Thank you for using the African Newspaper Union List (AFRINUL). In order to best facilitate your search, we have provided the following information about the search functions of the database.
Title
City
Country
Years Held
Language
Frequency
Currently Received
Sort Functions
AFRINUL uses Uniform Titles (UNF titles) in accordance with MARC bibliographic standards. This will help the user best identify the title(s) being searched.
Example: Both Malawi and Liberia publish a newspaper with the title Daily Times. Moreover, The Daily Times in Liberia began in 1950, but a new publication under the same title began in 1997. In order to distinguish between the titles, the UNF titles would be displayed as follows:
Daily times (Lagos, Nigeria)
Daily times (Monrovia Liberia)
Daily times (Monrovia, Liberia : 1997)
For many searches, AFRINUL will also include entries for earlier or later titles of the newspaper being searched.
Users may search for all or a portion of a title. If your first search produces no results, try using a fragment of the title.
The database will also search for any portion of a word. A search for "tim" will produce results for words such as times and Boletim.
For best results, do not include articles such as the or le at the beginning of a title.
Cities are spelled according to authority record standards. For instance, the database will only accept the spelling of Addis Ababa in a city search. A search for Adis Ababa will yield no results. If your search yields no results, broaden your search to include only the country name.
A list of countries available in the database has been provided as a drop-down menu. This will eliminate spelling differences or confusion in country name changes over time.
Searches sorted by country will sort results according to the two-letter country code provided in the drop down menu. This may result in some discrepancies in alphbetization.
Example: The country code for Cote d'Ivoire is (IV). In a sort by country, titles from Cote d'Ivoire may be listed after Guinea (GV). Please examine the entire list of titles before assuming your search produced no results.
AFRINUL has attempted to provide search-narrowing capability by adding years held as a search criterion. Users seeking newspaper holdings within specific time frames may use this function.
It should be noted, however, that the search function does not operate flawlessly. Due to complexities of artificial intelligence, some titles may be excluded from a complex date search. The search is currently weighted towards the end holding year, so that searches will pull up all material that include the end date specified.
Example: A search for dates 1940-1990 will pull up titles held for the years in between 1940-1990 (and may include titles that continue 1990-present, so long as some of the holding dates are within 1990). However, the search engine may miss a title whose holdings include 1935-1941 because of the beginning date parameter.
If your search using specific date parameters prove unsuccessful, try expanding the date range or search using only a beginning or ending date.
A drop down menu of all languages available in the database has been provided. In some cases, more than one language may be used within a newspaper.
This feature, to be added shortly, will allow users to search for titles by current frequency.
This indicates that a newspaper is currently being received by a participating library (current subscription or standing order for material). For a list of all newspapers currently received by participating libraries, check "yes" with no other delimiters.
The default sort for results is by Title only. You may choose to sort by title, city, country, or language. You may also choose to set several criteria (such as by country, then city, then title) in order to best display your results.
Links
[1] http://www.crl.edu/grn/afrinul/search
[2] mailto:jalspach@crl.edu
[3] http://www.crl.edu/impact/wna-expands-sources-african-history
[4] http://www.crl.edu/impact
[5] http://www.crl.edu/focus/fall-2016
[6] http://www.crl.edu/focus/summer-2010
[7] http://www.crl.edu/focus/spring-2007
[8] http://www.crl.edu/focus/summer-2004
[9] http://www.crl.edu/focus/winter-200304
[10] http://www.crl.edu/collections/topics/african-studies
[11] http://www.crl.edu/programs/camp
[12] http://www.crl.edu/facets/africa
[13] http://www.loc.gov/rr/amed/afs/alc/
[14] http://www.africanstudies.org/
[15] http://www.crl.edu/area-studies/camp
[16] http://www.crl.edu/
[17] http://www-apps.crl.edu/grn/afrinul/search
[18] http://www.crl.edu/sites/default/files/d6/attachments/pages/newscurrent99_0.pdf
[19] mailto:dleaster@northwestern.edu
[20] http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/africa/ALC/
[21] http://library.stanford.edu/africa-south-sahara/browse-topic/news-country
[22] http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/africa/cuvl/newspapers.html
[23] http://www.bu.edu/library/
[24] http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/
[25] http://www2.library.ucla.edu/
[26] http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/
[27] http://www.library.uiuc.edu/
[28] http://www.libraries.iub.edu/
[29] http://www.lib.ku.edu/
[30] http://www.loc.gov/
[31] http://www.lib.msu.edu/
[32] http://www.nypl.org/
[33] http://www.library.northwestern.edu/
[34] http://library.osu.edu/
[35] http://www.library.ohiou.edu/
[36] http://www-sul.stanford.edu/
[37] http://www.library.yale.edu/