The Jahn Library holds a large amount of critical sources on African literatures. Apart from general critical sources without regional reference, with relevance to African literatures as a whole or from more than one part of Africa, there are also more specific critical sources on West, Central, East and Southern African literatures. The library also collects monographs as well as edited volumes of criticism on the literary work of a great number of individual African writers.
Not all titles available at the Jahn Library can be searched through the university's online catalogue. The shelf marks of many of the titles aquired before 1995/1996 can only be searched locally through the card catalogue of the library of the Department of Anthropology and African Studies and a complementary database.