The Library has recently subscribed to theProQuest One Literaturedatabase. This is an upgrade to an existing database called Literature Online (LION). ProQuest One Literature is a key database for staff and students working on all areas of literature, and offers access to primary texts, criticism and reference works. Significantly the database will open up access to diverse areas of content that will support the University’s work in the areas of diversity and decolonising the curriculum.

Staff and students will now be able to use collections including:

African American Poetry

African Writers Series

Black Short Fiction and Folklore

Black Women Writers

Caribbean Literature

Commenting on the African Writers Series,Professor Willy Maleyfrom the School of Critical Studies said: “The African Writers Series, founded in 1962 by Heinemann publishers, with Chinua Achebe as Editorial Advisor, marked a transformational moment in world literature, giving voice to generations of emerging authors from a rich and diverse continent. Achebe, with two landmark novels – Things Fall Apart (1958) and No Longer At Ease (1960) – under his belt, acted as a magnet for the very best in new writing, encouraging and promoting experimental and innovative works of fiction which, at a time of censorship in the UK, were freely taught as set texts in the new schooling system in decolonial Africa. This literature, bound up with independence and expressive of a growing sense of postcolonial confidence, is an invaluable resource for a University like Glasgow committed to decolonising the curriculum. The African Writers Series is a marvellous addition to the Library’s holdings and offers students access to a treasure-trove of texts.“

In addition the database includes audio recordings of thecomplete set of Shakespeare playsand thePoetry Archive audio collectionas well as a number of significant German, Portuguese and Spanish language collections.

Categories:Library

Tags:database,decolonisation,diversity,literature