By Robert LeBlanc

“African American Communities” from Adam Matthew Digital is a new e-resource accessible via Falvey Memorial Library.

Focusing primarily on Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and cities in North Carolina, African American Communities chronicles the everyday lives of African Americans from the second half of the 19th century to today. The comprehensive collection includes text and visual materials, such as pamphlets, newspapers and periodicals, correspondence, government records, and oral histories, covering the key themes of desegregation, urban renewal, civil rights, race relations, and African American art and culture.

Large sub-collections include personal and family papers from prominent African American families as well as documents from the Atlanta History Center, HOPE  Inc., the Southern Historical Collection, the Newberry Library of Chicago, and archive collections from the University of Illinois and the University of North Carolina.

The document search function features useful filters, including document type, theme, and sub-collection limiters, making a visual search of the archives easy and intuitive. A large image gallery, a 360-degree object viewing gallery, and both audio and video oral history files provide an immersive and rewarding research experience. The collection also includes a powerful advanced search function.

For more information on this or any library resource, contact Robert LeBlanc, First-year Experience Librarian at robert.leblanc@villanova.edu.

In honor of the American Library Association’s annual Banned Books Week, which condemns censorship and urges free access to information, we asked Falvey librarians and staff to pick a book from the list of the most frequently banned and challenged books and tell us why it’s a must read.

“It is a brilliant book that, even though it is problematic because of the white perspective of the narrator, is indicative of the inherent racial disparity in the American justice system and a still relevant lesson in civics.” —Robert LeBlanc, First Year Experience & Humanities Librarian

Shawn Proctor, MFA, is Communication and Marketing Program Manager at Falvey Memorial Library. One of his favorite banned books is The Hate U Give.