The library at the Africana Studies and Research Center is named in honor of John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998), the distinguished historian who was instrumental in establishing the Cornell's Africana curriculum in the 1970s. The library houses a specialized collection of more than 20,000 volumes focused on the histories and cultures of people of African ancestry. Its print and electronic resources support Cornell's programs in African, African-American and Caribbean studies.

The library subscribes to more than 260 periodicals, including such major scholarly journals and magazines as Africa Today, The Black Scholar and Callaloo, as well as 15 black newspapers. In addition, back-runs of seven regional African-American newspapers are available on microfilm, including such early 20th-century publications as New York Amsterdam News and the Pittsburgh Courier.

An extensive collection of 300 audiotapes and more than 1,000 videotapes and DVDs focus on Africana. The collection also includes tapes of lectures and conference sessions presented at Cornell, interviews, syndicated programs, local information and news in a collection from the former Cornell WHCU-FM radio program "Night Sounds."

Recent additions to the library include more than 50 films from the "blaxploitation" era in American movies. Marketed to black audiences, most of these movies were produced during the 1970s, including "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (1970), "Education of Sonny Carson" (1972) and "Cornbread, Earl and Me" (1975).

The Africana library's collection contains more than 18,000 microforms on the U.S. civil rights and black power movements, including the papers of various African-American organizations and presidential papers of the Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Johnson administrations relating to race relations. In addition, the library holds an extensive clipping file of more than 10,000 microfiche from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Databases available at the library's CD-ROM workstation include African-American Culture and History, Black Studies on Disc, Scribner's American History and Culture, Mayibuye Centre Archive on the African National Congress and the Slave Trade Database

The Africana library home page, http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/, offers access to a wide range of information and services, including new acquisitions, library resources, related Web sites, the texts of talks presented in the Africana Lecture Series and abstracts of master's theses published by graduates of the Professional Studies Program at the Africana Studies and Research Center.

Eric Acree is Cornell's Africana librarian.