The things I'll do to get into SURF

I spent Valentines Day in the basement of the Perkins Duke University Library looking at African newspapers on microfilm. However, most of my day was spent courting the small box of many-times-moved-but-never-recorded elusive roll of newspapers from British colonies in the early 20th century. Earlier this fall, I wrote a whopping 27-page research paper on the responses of British colonizers to epidemics in their African territories and analyzing the motives behind their reactions. I analyzed malaria in Sierra Leone, sleeping sickness in Uganda and influenza in the Gold Coast. My professor thought it needed a little extra oomph to make it into SURF and suggested I check out Duke University’s African newspaper collection. I agreed and off I went.

My two main goals were: to come away with a few primary sources for my paper and to avoid having to plunk down $35 for a Duke Library card. I asked the student worker at the reference desk about the newspapers and received a blank stare in return. “No one has ever asked me for them before,” she said. This was my first warning that my struggle was going to be a long one.

She suggested I look up the newspapers in the catalog and head over to Bostock Library where they were housed. There were two problems with this that interfered with my undercover operation to impersonate a Duke student: the computers were password protected and I hadn’t the faintest idea where the other library was. After a few awkward laps around the first floor, I managed to find a guest friendly computer where I searched for the newspaper archive numbers. Once I wrote them down, I studied a map of Duke to find the location of the other library. It was right next door. I didn’t even have to leave the building.

I approached the new student worker with my project. After telling me that no one had ever asked for such things before, she did some research on her computer and came up with a call number for a book. I was a bit confused as the newspapers were supposed to be on microfilm. I found myself back in Perkins, on the first floor, attempting to follow a somewhat foreign classification system. After a few more laps and some intense shelf-scouring, I found a slim volume of all the names of Duke’s African newspapers. Unable to bring the book through the censors, I scribbled down all the relevant titles: The Sierra Leone Weekly News, The Gold Coast Independent, Uganda Herald, etc.

I had the paper names. I had their numbers. I hadn’t counted on the fact that the collection had been moved… somewhere. As the student worker made a few phone calls, I felt a bit sorry for myself. I had been in the Duke Library for two hours, roaming from library to library, free computer to free computer, with nothing to show for my toiling but the former location of a bunch of African newspapers. Shouldn’t I be out on the sun-soaked lawn with a lover? Or at least nibbling some chocolate?

Finally, the student led me up the stairs, through the East Asian collection, to a shelf by the restrooms. I found my prize – a hot pink box full of microfilm spools. I fed the film through the reel and projected its contents onto the screen on my reader. I’ve never been so happy to see the musings of British colonial official’s on Ghanaian health.

 In this case, reading and interpreting the research was the easy part; the challenge lay in finding it. Although I had my struggles, I would recommend Elon students tap into the extensive resources of Duke and the other great Universities near us. For research to be new and innovative, it is usually also difficult to find. I sprung for Valentine’s night takeout on my way home from the library. I had saved $35, after all.

Kelly Parshall

February 16th, 2009