article1pic1-200pixwide.jpg Photo from Kentuckian Digital Library

The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA) is a continuously updated reference tool for studying African Americans in and from Kentucky from the 1700s to the present day. The database is freely available online, and receives well over 100,000 hits each year. It was created by librarians Rob Aken and Reinette Jones, both at the University of Kentucky Libraries. Entries focus on relevant people, places, events, or activities. The database research is completed by Rob and Reinette as well as volunteers in Kentucky and other locations across the United States. In addition to the entries, the database provides the titles of sources where additional information may be found, and the homepage offers other links of interest.

NKAA started as a simple web page in2003 and became a robust database in 2007. It took nearly a decade of discussion about creating an in-house African American database before it actually happened. Reference statistics, regarded as an indication of insufficient demand and support; were the main hurdle. While the number of reference questions received had remained consistent over several decades, they were consistently unfulfilled. There was also the assumption that not enough published literature existed to support such a project. (For greater detail about the development of the NKAA Database, please see the article “Creating a Web Resource: African American Kentuckian Profiles” in the Journal of Library Administration, 2005.)

From the day in September 2003 when the NKAA Database went live as a web page with a few hundred entries, it was patron response that