Africana Librarians Council
The Africana Librarians Council page serves Africanist scholars and others with an interest in libra The ALC continues today as an ASA-sponsored organization.
The Africana Librarians Council (ALC) was founded in 1957 as part of the African Studies Association (ASA) under the name Archives/Libraries Committee. Members of ASA whether they are librarians, archivists or documentalists working with materials from and about Africa or scholars interested in the preservation of or access to Africana may join the ALC.
16/02/2024
The 3rd seminar in the SCOLMA https://scolma.org/ series “African Studies in the Digital Age” is open for registration:
Digital (Re)Connections and Dispersed Collections
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/scolma-ss-3-digital-reconnections-and-dispersed-collections-tickets-840027253127?aff=odcleoeventsincollection&keep_tld=1
Wednesday February 28th 2024 Online from 13:00-14:00 GMT. Register now!
“This seminar brings into conversation researchers working with material that has been dispersed by colonial violence. What forms of work are necessary to reunite, make sense of and generate access to historically dispersed collections? What role can the digital (from the high-tech to the ad hoc) play in these processes? Where does the technical meet other kinds of social, cultural and political challenges?
Chaired by Jenni Skinner (University of Cambridge), Imogen Coulson (Independent Researcher) and Osaisonor Godfrey Ekhator-Obogie (University of Benin) will discuss some of the possibilities and challenges raised by the project ‘Digital Benin’ which provides a virtual overview of the artefacts looted from the Benin Kingdom in the nineteenth century. Tim Livsey (University of Northumberland) will present his ongoing work in the project ‘Stolen Archives’ that explores the ‘migrated archives’, FCO 141, including the history of the extraction of records from former colonial territories by the British government, and their potential use for historians of Africa today.”
This seminar has been added to the series page where you’ll be able to see all the seminars in the series as they’re created.
05/02/2024
CALL FOR NOMINATIONS: 2024 CONOVER-PORTER AWARD FOR AFRICANA BIBLIOGRAPHY OR REFERENCE WORK
Nominations close: April 30, 2024
Please see the nomination form online at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBVyjbTet7CqWZXNCOTuxGZQhZTjC71hvxZRG4KopIwZkW4w/viewform
The Africana Librarians Council, a coordinate organization of the African Studies Association (U.S.), seeks nominations for the biennial Conover-Porter Award for Excellence in Africana Bibliography or Reference Work.
The Conover-Porter Award is the most prestigious award for published works of bibliography or reference on Africa. Any Africa-related reference work, bibliography, or bibliographic essay published separately or as part of a larger work during 2022 or 2023 can be nominated for the 2024 award.
The award includes a prize of $300 to be presented during the 2024 Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in Chicago, Illinois.
BACKGROUND
The Conover-Porter Award was established in honor of two pioneers in African studies bibliography: Helen F. Conover and Dorothy B. Porter Wesley. Helen F. Conover was senior bibliographer, African Section of the Library of Congress, serving 32 years before her retirement in 1963, and Dorothy B. Porter Wesley was librarian of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, retiring in 1973 after 45 years of service. The first Conover-Porter Award was given in 1980 to Julian Witherell for his monumental work, The United States & Africa: Guide to the U.S. Official Documents & Government-Sponsored Publications on Africa, 1785-1975 (Washington, DC: Library of Congress, 1978).
View a list of previous winners on the Africana Librarians Council website: https://africanalibrarians.wixsite.com/alcasa/conover-porter-award
Conover-Porter Award – Nomination Form
For each work that you nominate, please provide the following:
Information about yourself (your name, email address, mailing address, and telephone number):
Information about the work:
AUTHOR(S):
TITLE:
PUBLISHER/YEAR OF PUBLICATION:
PUBLISHER CONTACT INFORMATION (for requesting review copies if necessary):
JUSTIFICATION (Specifically state why you think this is a work of significance and quality.):
Include published reviews or references to the reviews.
Kindly send inquiries and submissions to the 2024 Conover-Porter Award Coordinator:
Ms. Heather Martin (Chair, ALC Collections & User Services Committee)
Librarian for African and African American Studies
Duke University
236 Bostock Library
Box 90195
Durham, NC 27708-0195
Email: [email protected]
Conover-Porter Award | alcasa The Conover-Porter Award is presented every two years by the Africana Librarians Council of the African Studies Association (US). The award recognizes outstanding achievement in Africana bibliography and reference tools among works published in the preceding two years.
13/02/2023
This US Public Broadcasting System NOVA series episode featuring a Senegalese astronomer’s work effectively brought together the prehistory of skywatching technology (African megaliths), traditional Muslim astronomy practices and the science of keeping time, education, and participation in a current NASA scientific mission. A decidedly respectful, informative, and uplifting approach!
NOVA | Star Chasers of Senegal | Season 50 | Episode 2 | PBS A visionary scientist investigates the deep history of astronomy in West Africa.
2022 Conover-Porter Award for Africana Bibliography or Reference Work
The winner: A Dictionary of Mozambican History and Society (Revised)
The Conover-Porter Award Committee is pleased to announce on behalf of the Africana Librarians Council and the African Studies Association, that the 2022 award-winning work is A Dictionary of Mozambican History and Society (Revised), by Colin Darch and Amélia Neves de Souto, 2022, HSRC Press.
The award was presented during the 2022 Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, held in November 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Award committee members found this reference work fills an important knowledge gap for an important, but lesser-known, African nation. With many clear, concise, and engaging entries, the quality is consistently very good-to-excellent through the book. It is well suited not only to reference users but also for developing one’s understanding of this Lusophone country’s social, political, and historical context. It clearly elucidates many complex and specialized topics relating to language, geography, economics, and regional conflicts. It is also notably well organized, with a clear introduction, a guide to unfamiliar acronyms found in the text, a chronology of Mozambican history, an appendix, notes on the authors, useful cross-references and some images.
We note that the authors of this work, who are both from the continent (Mozambique & South Africa), have published extensively on Mozambique. This is a great moment and opportunity to highlight, promote, and support such worthy scholarship and scholars from the continent.
The Conover-Porter Award was established in honor of two pioneers in African studies bibliography: Helen F. Conover and Dorothy B. Porter Wesley. Helen F. Conover was senior bibliographer, African Section of the Library of Congress, serving 32 years before her retirement in 1963, and Dorothy B. Porter Wesley was librarian of the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, retiring in 1973 after 45 years of service. The Award is presented every two years jointly by the Africana Librarians Council and the African Studies Association (US). The award recognizes outstanding achievement in Africana bibliography and reference tools among works published in the preceding two years and includes a prize of $300.
2022 Award Committee
Florence Nthiira Mugambi, Chair, Northwestern University
Daniel A. Reboussin, University of Florida
Atoma Batoma, University of Illinois