Guides and databases: Black Studies: Other libraries and resources

Other Libraries

One way of accessing material not available in UCL libraries is to use Library Hub Discover, an online catalogue that gives you access to details of materials kept in many UK national, academic and specialist libraries.

Here are some libraries and archives in London that may be of specific interest, not all of them include their catalogues within Library Hub Discover so you may need to go direct to the library's own catalogue.

If your favourite library is missing from this list, please let us know.

British Library
The British Library website includes guides on how to find their Black British, Caribbean and Latin American and African resources. UCL staff and students can all apply for a Reader Pass.
Bishopsgate Institute Special Collections and Archives
Collects archives around social, political and cultural activism and change. This includes the archives of Bernie Grant, Frank Crichlow, and the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group.
Black Cultural Archives
Archive focusing on the history of people of African descent in Britain. Access to the library and reading rooms is by appointment.
Institute of Historical Research Wohl Library
The IHR has significant holdings on the history of Africa.
London Metropolitan Archives
LMA has a number of key black and Caribbean community archives, including the archives of Eric and Jessica Huntley and their business Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications Limited, black publishers and booksellers of Ealing.
Senate House Library
Senate House's collections include Commonwealth Studies and Latin America and Caribbean Studies. UCL staff and students are all able to join and borrow items.
SOAS Library
SOAS's African collection covers the fields of languages and cultures, arts and humanities, and law and social sciences.UCL staff and students can apply for SOAS access - see the using other libraries link below.
Stuart Hall Library
Part of Institute of International Visual Art. Covers art from Indigenous, African, Caribbean, Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern and UK artists of diverse cultural backgrounds. A reference only collection of 10,000 publications such as artist books, artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, and zines. Membership is open to all and applications can be made on the website.

Find out more about using other libraries and links to other library catalogues.

Worldwide repositories for African Studies

Connecting Africa
Hosted by the Netherlands African Studies Association (NVAS). This free, online portal connects to worldwide institutional repositories, many in African nations. It provides free access to digital resources, full-text of publications, images and sound.

Useful websites

The Africa Centre
Cultural hub of African culture and heritage in the UK.
Africa in the Photobook
A collection of digitised photobooks made by African artists or books printed in African countries. The collection reveals the changing visual representation of Africa as expressed through the medium of the photobook.
Ahmed Iqbah Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust
Archives the life stories of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities in Manchester.
The Black Arts Movement
Research guide produced by Washington University in St Louis. The Black Arts Movement was a politically motivated, loosely connected group of poets, painters, musicians, dramatists, and other artists active in the African American community from 1965 to 1976. The movement is often cited as the 'artistic sister of the Black Power Movement'.
Black Cultural Archives
National heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.
Black Equity Organisation
A charity setup to promote economic, legal social and political equity for Black communities in Britain.
Black Europeans
A series of features guest-curated by Mike Phillips for the British Library Online Gallery.
BlackPast
Dedicated to providing comprehensive, reliable, and accurate information concerning the history of African Americans in the United States and people of African ancestry in other regions of the world. Includes an encyclopedia, timelines, complete text of nearly 300 speeches, full text primary documents, and bibliographies.
Black Screen History
Digital trail of an exhibition at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter. Curated by Chloé Jarrett-Bell.
Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery
Traces the impact of slave-ownership on the formation of modern Britain.
Cite African Feminists
Reading list focusing on African feminist scholarship.
Decolonial aesthetics
A wiki hosted by Monoskop that lists initiatives and research projects, artists and scholars, and publications, many available in PDF.
Eclipse: The Black Radical Tradition
A free on-line archive focusing on digital facsimiles of 1960s and 70s radical small-press writing by Black authors.
The George Padmore Institute
An archive, educational research and information centre housing materials and documents relating mainly to black communities of Caribbean, African and Asian descent in post-war Britain and continental Europe.
Global Social Theory
A free resource for students, teachers, academics, and others interested in social theory and wishing to understand it in global perspective.
The International Slavery Museum
Based in Liverpool, the International Slavery Museum highlights the international importance of slavery, both in a historic and contemporary context, and works to increase the understanding of transatlantic, chattel and other forms of enslavement.
Museumand: The National Caribbean Heritage Museum
Nottingham-based, travelling museum focussed on the Caribbean contribution to life in the UK.
Museum of London Docklands
London museum with a permanent exhibition 'London, Sugar and Slavery' looking at how the city was shaped by the sugar and slave trades.
Runaway Slaves in Britain
A searchable database of British eighteenth century newspaper advertisements placed by masters and owners seeking return of enslaved people who had escaped.
Slave Voyages
Publicly accessible database of records documenting slavery in the Atlantic world.
The Studio Museum in Harlem Digital Archives
The Studio Museum Archives collects, organizes, preserves, and provides access to historical materials related to the Museum’s rich history in supporting artists of African descent. Includes digitised exhibition catalogues and ephemera, and an event archive of audio and video recordings.

Finding out more about other libraries

British Library subject guides
Find subject guides for Africa, Americas (for Latin America and Carribean), and Black Britain.
Senate House collections
Details of the Commonwealth Studies and Latin American (including Caribbean) Studies collections.
Apply for a British Library Reader Pass
Join Senate House Library
SOAS African collection

Search - Library Hub Discover (Jisc)

Library Hub Discover Library Hub Discover, gives access to details of materials held in many UK national, academic and specialist libraries. It contains content created and contributed by 160 institutions.

Find books at other research libraries.

UCL library doesn't have the item I need

If you identify a piece of information that would be beneficial to your research and you can't access it via UCL, the library will try and source a copy for you via the Inter Library Loans service.
To make a request: log into UCL Explore and then click on the three dots 'show more' menu to access the Inter Library Loan Request form.

Inter library loans