University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
UpDate - Vol. 16, No. 20, Feb. 20, 1997

                  African-American poetry on database
  
  The University Library is celebrating Black History Month
by making available the "Database of African-American
Poetry, 1760-1900," which contains the full text of more
than 2,500 poems written by African-American poets in the
late 18th and 19th centuries.
  The poetry explores a multitude of topics, including
abolition, children, civil rights, dreams, education,
fugitive slave law, Indian raids, liberty, political issues,
prejudice and slavery. The variety of poetic forms is
equally broad, with the collection including allegories,
broadsides, children's poems, elegiac poems, epics, hymns,
odes, patriotic poems and sonnets. The poets are by such
widely known figures as Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurance
Dunbar.
  Researchers can trace the occurrence of a word or concept
across the works of one poet or the entire database. The
system also has an improved capacity to search for specific
lines or phrases and takes only a fraction of the time
needed to search print editions.
  The database is accessible from computers in the
microforms section on the lower level of the Morris Library.
  For information, call 831-2231.