The African Studies Companion: A Guide to Information Sources (review)

The fourth edition of The African Studies Companion is an exceptional resource. Almost twice the size of the third edition—and therefore a different resource entirely—the volume lists nearly three thousand print and Web resources on Africa. Anyone who wants to learn more about Africa as a professional, student, or amateur will find it useful.

The African Studies Companion includes twenty-five sections, including those on major general reference tools in print and electronic format; bibliographies and abstracting services; biographical resources; guides for African languages; sources of statistical, economic, demographic, and geographic information; guides to films and videos; journals, news sources, and the African press; African studies libraries; academic libraries and national archives in Africa; African studies programs, centers, and associations; organizations and sources for Africanist documentation; publishers, dealers, and distributors of African studies materials; major African and international organizations; foundations, donors, and aid agencies; online forums and mailing lists; awards and prizes; and abbreviations and acronyms.

Zell provides annotations that are substantial and full of insights into the usefulness of each source. The extensive lists of organizations include telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, Web sites, and contacts. The list of African studies programs includes entrance requirements and degrees awarded. Overall, the lists and annotations provide an excellent education into a large portion of the contemporary landscape of African studies. Browsing turns up happy surprises everywhere.

In an era when undergraduate students expect to complete research for papers online, The African Studies Companion is an especially useful tool for guiding students to authoritative current resources. Not only does Zell include many hundreds of excellent Web sites, but he also provides a lengthy chapter on mining the Web using Google and other search engines for African studies research. To those who purchase the print version, Zell gives access to an online version of The African Studies Companion, which is current and includes sources discovered since the publication of the print edition. The online site is fully searchable and includes hundreds of live links. It could be improved by the ability to search the whole database using key words, much as one can search the journal listings by country and by topics normally considered.

Much of the information contained in this volume can be found by searching the Web. It is not difficult, for example, to find the Web site of the Democratic Republic of the Congo or that of the National Library and Archives of Egypt. Moreover, the African studies portals at Columbia, Stanford, and other universities and colleges provide guides to a rich variety of Web resources. However, The African Studies Companion provides information about books and about organizations that do not have Web sites, and it points the way to resources that might remain out of sight in Web searches. Moreover, the entries will save researchers time because information is presented in a consistent, easily accessible manner.

The African Studies Companion delivers high value for its high price. Hans Zell deserves high praise for this volume and for the many other bibliographic resources he has provided to his African studies colleagues for more than thirty years. The work belongs in the collections of most libraries as well as those of many government agencies, companies, nonprofit organizations, and individuals.