U. researcher to implement digital bibliography to showcase historical Black literature

Meredith McGill, English Department chair, is collaborating with a Yale professor to implement the Black Bibliography Project (BBP), a digital database that will be dedicated to books, magazines and newspapers created by Black authors and publishers, according to an article from Rutgers Today.

The BBP is being funded by a grant of approximately $2 million dollars from the Mellon Foundation, and it aims to create an accessible reference of accurate, organized data about Black print, according to the article.

“We think of (Black abolitionists’) writings as appearing in books, but they were actually published in portable formats that could be sold or given away on their lecture tours,” McGill said. “And that’s why we’re interested in descriptive bibliography, to learn those types of stories that enrich our understanding.”

The mission of the BBP is to develop a centralized source of information that can be readily available to scholars and students to study literature, history, Black diaspora studies and more.

McGill is working on the project directly with Jacqueline Goldsby, a professor of English, African American and American studies at Yale, according to the article. Their initiative uses the work of scholars, librarians and private collectors to identify and allow access to primary written sources of Black Americans.

Scholars will be able to use this information to more easily gain access to uncover relationships in Black print that have not been previously known. Black authors will be linked with their publishers through the BBP database, which will also reveal where the writings were produced as well as important individuals who were affiliated with the works.

“I am tremendously excited by what this grant will bring to Rutgers and the many kinds of collaboration it will make possible,” McGill said.

The grant will fund support for the project through 2025 and allow the researchers to develop a larger team and connect with library and archival repositories across the country in order to build up a database, according to the article.

“Both Rutgers and Yale are known for their strengths in African American literary studies,” McGill said. “This grant from the Mellon Foundation will draw students and faculty from both universities together with rare book expert librarians and information design specialists to build an unprecedented knowledge base for African American studies.”