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African American History Online: A Resource Guide

Online Search Strategies

The Library of Congress collections contain over 162 million books, periodicals, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources. The Library of Congress Catalog contains 17 million records describing these collections. You can search Catalog records by keyword or browse by authors/creators, subjects, names/titles, series/uniform titles, and call numbers. Browse lists also include searching aids such cross-references and scope notes.  To begin your research in our Catalog or Digital Collections, it is important to remember to use search terms related to historical time periods. We suggest starting with "African American" or "Afro-American" or "Black" or "Negro" or "Colored." 

Begin by browsing the subject heading "African Americans" in the Library of Congress Online Catalog:

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