Africa-Wide: NiPAD , subscription database., is a powerful database which indexes and provides some full text for recent items for multidisciplinary materials on Africa from the 19th Century to the present.  It is drawn from sixteen different databases created in Africa, Europe and the U.S. and contains more than 750,000 index references.  Some have full text of articles and many include abstracts.  Materials include books, news items, interviews, periodical articles, pamphlets, maps and musical recordings. Subjects include politics, history, economics, business, mining, development, social issues, anthropology, literature, language, law, and music. 

Africa-Wide NiPAD is published by: National Inquiry Services Centre in Grahamstown, South Africa, and is based on the collections of a major research libraries on Africa studeis, including a numer in South Africa and in other countries in Africa and elsewhere in the world, including the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, the University of California at Los Angeles; and the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala.

The breadth of coverage can be overwhelming in African Studies. On a technical note, i t is important to use the buttons on the screens to navigate rather than  back buttons on browsers. It is also helpful to work with the search screens to understand the functionality of this remarkable family of databases.  For example, after entering Globalization as a search, clicking the Index button brings up a complex subject structure, where one finds that under Globalization's Economic Aspects, there are three records that deal with the very specific topic of Kwazulu Natal. 

Search Examples as of  September 2006 

• Global*  in keyword gives some 33,000 hits.(* finds global, globalization, globalisation, etc.)
• Globalization in keyword, produced 6,328 articles
• Globalization in keyword, click INDEX button, see subject structure.
• Globalization and history in keyword found 472 items.
• Globalization and women found 401 items
• .Globalization and sociology found 134 items

• Global*  in keyword gives 7,336 hits.(* finds global, globalization, globalisation, etc.)
• Globalization in keyword, produced 1,558 articles
• Globalization in Subject, click Browse button, see subject structure.
• Globalization and history in keyword found 751 items.
• Globalization and women found 504 items
• .Globalization and sociology found 399 items