Research Subject Guides: Asian American Studies: For my research, I need . . .

For my research, I need ...

Gale in Context: Biography
Courtesy of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and the Massachusetts Library System
Current and historic biographies with links to full-text articles from hundreds of magazines and newspapers. Search by name, occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth/death dates and places, or gender. Some obituaries.

Asian American autobiographers : a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook by Guiyou Huang Asian Americans have made many significant contributions to industry, science, politics, and the arts. At the same time, they have made great sacrifices and endured enormous hardships. This reference examines autobiographies and memoirs written by Asian Americans in the twentieth century. Included are alphabetically arranged entries on 60 major autobiographers of Asian descent. Some of these, such as Meena Alexander and Maxine Hong Kingston, are known primarily for their writings; others, such as Daniel K. Inouye, are known largely for other achievements, which they have chronicled in their autobiographies. Each entry is written by an expert contributor and provides a reliable account of the autobiographer's life; reviews major autobiographical works and themes, including fictionalized autobiographies and autobiographical novels; presents a meticulously researched account of the critical reception of these works; and closes with a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. An introductory essay considers the history and development of autobiography in American literature and culture and discusses issues and themes vital to Asian American autobiographies and memoirs, such as family, diaspora, nationhood, identity, cultural assimilation, racial dynamics, and the formation of the Asian American literary canon. The volume closes with a selected bibliography
Call Number: Remote Annex PS366.A74 A85 2001
Publication Date: 2001

EIU Viewpoint and Country Reports (Economist Intelligence Unit)
Contains Country Reports, Country Finance, and Country Commerce, plus special reports on current international issues. Updated continuously.
Disclaimer: Whilst efforts have been taken to verify the accuracy of this information, neither The Economist Group Limited nor its affiliates can accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this information. Please note: The Terms of Access for EIU content contain restrictions on the download and storage of content offline as well as the use of AI tools in connection with EIU content - please review these carefully. https://www.eiu.com/n/terms/
Europa World Plus
An encyclopedia with detailed entries covering political and economic information in more than 250 countries and territories. Not limited to Europe! Frequently updated.
Includes the reference work, Africa: South of the Sahara
Foreign Policy
Global news magazine providing insights and analysis as well as original reporting.
Policy Commons
Reports, working papers, policy briefs, data, and audio and visual media drawn from a directory of thousands of government, nongovernment, and intergovernmental institutions and research centers.
Statista
Brings together data and graphs on every imaginable topic from business to government, surveys, sports, and scientific topics. Under the Reports dropdown menu, there is a collection of reports on Countries & Regions.with demographic data.

BBC News Country Profiles
Authoritative source for country information, reports, white papers and studies.

Library Media Collections

Academic Video Online (Alexander Street Press)
Academic Video Online Premium provides video content to a broad range of subject areas, including documentaries and journalistic content on topics in business, politics, history, music, public health, education and more. Training videos are also available.
Many films include closed captions, searchable transcripts and clipping functionality for accessibility and teaching support. Limited public performance rights include classroom showings and extracurricular viewing as long as no admission is charged.
Docuseek
Documentary films for higher education including the Good Docs Collection.
JVC Video Anthology of World Music and Dance (Alexander Street)
This 30-volume video streaming series includes over 500 performances from 100 countries.
Kanopy Streaming
A curated collection of films for the Northeastern community, including feature films as well as high-interest documentaries. You may use Scholar OneSearch to find out if Northeastern has a particular film. Closed captions and transcripts included. Films provided by HBO and Neon Films cannot be viewed outside of the U.S.
Instructors may request access via the request form in Kanopy.
Many public libraries offer Kanopy and other streaming services for free use with a library card, so check with your local library if you wish to use Kanopy outside of academic use.

Open resource, or free video collections online include:

Video of Ellie Lee, "A Kind of wisdom"

Create an account to access current digital editions of these newspapers--

Financial Times
London-based and international in scope, with extensive business, marketing, economic, political, news and trends worldwide. Also hosts subject-focused newsletters, podcasts, and live conferences. Access to the Financial Times requires registration with a Northeastern or NU London email address.
Northeasterns subscription includes both the International and UK editions.
New York Times via NYTimes.com
Northeastern offers current and archival access to the New York Times. Please use the link above to register with a Northeastern email address. Once registered, users can log in directly at https://www.nytimes.com or use the New York Times app on a smartphone or device. Our subscription does not include access to the Cooking, Games, or Athletic sections of nytimes.com.
If you have an existing paid subscription to NYtimes.com, you will need to first cancel it by contacting customercare@nytimes.com or calling 800-591-9233. Archives go back to 1980. For prior years, there may only be partial access. Please use Proquest New York Times (1851-2014) (Opens in new window) for archival searching and retrieval.
Wall Street Journal
Leading economic, business, finance, and political news, information, commentary and analysis. For historic WSJ content dating back to 1985, please use Factiva (Opens in new window). Individual registration using a Northeastern email address is required.
Washington Post
Washington D.C.'s newspaper, with coverage of the city and region, national events, and coverage of federal government "inside-the-beltway" news. For off-campus access, please create an account and then follow these instructions (PPT)(Opens in new window) to link our university subscription. Once registered, users can log in directly at www.washingtonpost.com.

Current and Historical Newspapers

Boston Globe (1872-present) (Proquest Historical Newspapers)
Historical and current access to the Boston Globe, one of two major daily newspapers in Boston. Historic content (1872-1990) includes a PDF view of the newspaper including illustrations, charts, and advertisements. After 1990, only text is available. Link to the most recent issue.
Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest)
Interdisciplinary, bilingual (English and Spanish) full text newspapers, magazines and journals of American ethnic, minority and indigenous communities. Offers additional viewpoints from those proffered by the mainstream press. .Advanced Search option to filter for Asian/Pacific Islander resources.
Includes the Bay State Banner, an independent newspaper primarily geared toward the interests of Boston's African-American community, and the Boston Irish Reporter.
Los Angeles Times 1881-2012 (Proquest)
Fully digitized newspaper Los Angeles Times from 1881 to 2012.
New York Times (1851-2020) with Index (1851-1993) (Proquest)
PressReader
PressReader provides online access to today's newspapers from over 100 countries around the world in over 60 languages in a full-color, full-page format. This is a 90 day archive. PressReader can also be accessed via email registration. Go directly to the home page, click 'Sign In,' then 'Library or Group,' then select Northeastern University from the dropdown menu to create your account.
Rafu Shimpo Digital Archive
Rafu Shimpo is the longest running Japanese American newspaper in the United States. Full text. In Japanese and English, 1914-2021.
Rafu Shimpo began in 1903 supporting the small but growing Japanese community in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles, California. By the 1940s it was the most widely circulated paper in the region and included a weekly English section for second generation Japanese Americans. It was forced to cease publication and its publisher was imprisoned by the government during World War II, but it was reestablished in 1946, and continues today as a bilingual, print and digital newspaper.

Washington Post Archive (1877-2005) (Proquest)
Text-only online, easily-searchable news and commentary focused on Washington DC, federal government news, and international news.

What are primary sources?

Some examples of Primary Sources:

Audio recordings of a speech or oral history
Autobiographies, diaries, or letters
Certain government documents, such as congressional hearings or agency reports
Interviews
Journal articles which report first hand observations
Newspaper accounts of events
Photographs or moving images of an event
Records of an organization, often kept in Archives

Primary Source Collections in Archives and Special Collections include:

Boston Public Schools Desegregation Collection (Northeastern University)
This project was partially funded by the Boston Library Consortium.
Reports, correspondence, memorandum, newsletters, flyers, posters, legal proceedings, newspaper clippings, and photographs documenting the desegregation of the Boston Public Schools and its effect on students, parents, and communities.
Documents and images selected from the Citywide Educational Coalition records, Frieda Garcia papers, Frank J. Miranda papers, Carmen A. Pola papers, Phyllis M. Ryan papers, and Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. records held by the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections.
Boston's Asian Community History (Northeastern University)
Over 7,000 records from the Chinese Progressive Association, selected from the Northeastern Library’s Archives and Special Collections. Records are in English and Chinese, and document Asian American activism in Boston, including tenants' rights, workers' rights, political empowerment, and local Chinatown issues.
Public Housing, Racial Policies, and Civil Rights: The Intergroup Relations Branch of the Federal Public Housing Administration, 1936-1963 (Gale)
NEW! Among the documents are civil rights correspondence, statements and policy about race, labor-based state activity records, local housing authorities’ policies on hiring minorities, court cases involving housing decisions, racially-restrictive covenants, and news clippings.

Oral History Collections

UCLS Asian American Studies Center--Yuri Kochiyama Exhibit and Archives
UCLA Center for Oral History Research
UCLA has collected oral histories of Asian Americans.

South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
3,068 items in the largest publicly accessible archive of South Asian American history.
South Asian Oral History Project
The South Asian Oral History Project (SAOHP) at the University of Washington Libraries. The SAOHP represents one of the first attempts in the U.S. to record pan-South Asian immigrant experiences in the Pacific Northwest using the medium of oral history
Go for Broke National Education Center
The Hanashi (“to talk” in Japanese) Oral History Collection contains over 1,200 audiovisual interviews with Japanese Americans WWII veterans, along with their contemporaries of WWII and the Japanese American experience.

Library of Congress Collections include:

Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar. Search the collection for photos, prints and drawings.

Other Resources:

Densho Encyclopedia has images of documents and photographs.
Calisphere--a search for "japanese American internment" retrieves about 6,000 items
Inheriting: a new podcast from LAist Studios and NPR about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations.
Japanese American National Museum -- check under Education Resources and under Exhibits, such as the Henry Sugimoto Collection and letters from the Clara Breed Collection
Japanese American Internment. National Archives
Images of Internment, a virtual exhibition at the FDR Presidential Library & Museum
Ireizo--National Names Monument Honoring Persons of Japanese Ancestry Incarcerated in the US During WWII
Primary Source Set from Digital Public Library of America
Yuri Kochiyama Collection at UCLA - Digital Exhibit and Collection complied by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center

Here is a sampling of open resource special collections

UMass Amherst Guide of Reparations in the United States--Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2022 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Universities, Corporations, and Communities
Asian Resource Hub is a searchable directory created by Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California and Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC to provide data and resources on the Asian American community, while also drawing attention to incidents of anti-Asian discrimination and hate. Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese

Asian American Studies : For my research, I need . . .

Asian American Studies Librarian

For my research, I need ...

Library Media Collections

Open resource, or free video collections online include:

Create an account to access current digital editions of these newspapers--

Current and Historical Newspapers

What are primary sources?

Primary Source Collections in Archives and Special Collections include:

Oral History Collections

Library of Congress Collections include:

Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar. Search the collection for photos, prints and drawings.

Other Resources:

Here is a sampling of open resource special collections