Guide to library reference sources
Norma Corral, April 2002
Last Updated: July 13, 2004
IDS 100A: Introduction to Development Studies
The following list is intended to lead you to sources which provide useful information on a variety of topics relating to International Development Studies. Unless otherwise noted, these titles are located in YRL Reference & Instructional Services of the Young Research Library. Many other general reference sources on the Internet may be reached from the Reference Collection Online.

subject headings
The UCLA Library uses the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). A few subject terms that might be useful in the UCLA Library Catalog are:
  • developing countries statistics
  • women developing countries
  • economic development [country]
  • commercial products

atlases & maps
  • Kurian, George Thomas. Atlas of the Third World. 2nd ed. New York: Facts on File, 1992.
    (*G 1046 G1K8 1992/Atlas Case A4)

bibliographic guides
  • Guide to Reference Books.  Ed. by Robert Balay, 11th ed.  Chicago:  American Library Association, 1996. (Z1035.M88g.1996/Core Reference Desk)

bibliographies
  • Ghorayshi, Parvin. Women and Work in Developing Countries: An Annotated Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. (Z 7963 E7 G48 1994/RIS Reading Room)

country information

  • Africa South of the Sahara. 1971- . London: Europa Publications. (DT 352 A258/RIS Desk)
  • RIS has the latest edition only, older editions are located in the YRL stacks.

  • Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States. 1992- . London: Europa Publications. (HC 244 E225/RIS Desk)
  • RIS has the latest edition only, older editions are located in the YRL stacks.

  • Europa World Year Book. 1989- . London: Europa Publications. (D 904 E93/RIS Desk)
  • Includes a list of international organizations.
  • RIS has the latest edition only, older editions are located in the YRL stacks.

  • Far East and Australasia. 1969- . London: Europa Publications. (DS 4 F22/RIS Desk)
  • RIS has the latest edition only, older editions are located in the YRL stacks.

  • Middle East and North Africa. 1964- . London: Europa Publications.
    (DS 49 A1M58/RIS Desk)
  • RIS has the latest edition only, older editions are located in the YRL stacks.

  • South America, Central America and the Caribbean. 1985- . London: Europa.
    (F 1406.5 S68/RIS Desk)
  • RIS has the latest edition only, older editions are located in the YRL stacks.

  • Countries

dictionaries, encyclopedias & handbooks
YRL Reference & Instructional Services has many subject encyclopedias and dictionaries which can be found under the appropriate subject heading and the subdivisions DICTIONARIES or ENCYCLOPEDIAS or HANDBOOKS. A good scholarly dictionary, encyclopedia or handbook will often provide an overview of a topic.

  • Arnold, Guy. Historical Dictionary of Aid and Development Organizations. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1996. (HC 60 A738 1996/RIS Reading Room)

  • Arnold, Guy. The Third World Handbook. 2nd ed. London; New York: Cassell, 1994.
    (D 883 A76 1994/RIS Desk)

  • Brogan, Patrick. World Conflicts. 3rd ed. London: Bloomsbury, 1998.
    (D 842.2 B76 1998/RIS Reading Room)

  • Clodfelter, Michael. Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Reference to Casualty and Other Figures, 1618-1991. 2 vols. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1992.
    (D 214 C55 1992/RIS Reading Room)

  • Dictionary of Development: Third World Economy, Environment, Society. 2 vols. New York: Garland Pub., 1990. (HC 59.7 D513 1990/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Conflicts Since World War II. 4v. Armonk, NY: Sharpe Reference, 1999.
    (D 843 E46 1999/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Ecotourism. Ed. By David B. Weaver. New York: CABI Pub., 2001.
    (G156.5 E26 E53 2001/RIS Reading Room)

  • Fry, Gerald. The International Development dictionary. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1991. (HF 1359 F79 1991/RIS Desk)

  • International Encyclopedia of Public Policy and Administration. Boulder, Co.: Westview Press, 1998, 4 vols. (H97 .I574 1998/RIS Reading Room)

  • Kurian, George Thomas. Encyclopedia of the Third World. 4th ed. New York: Facts on File, 1992. 3 vols. (HC 59.7 K965e 1992/RIS Desk)

  • New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics. New York: Stockton Press, 1987, 4 vols.
    (HB 61 N49 1987/RIS Reading Room)

  • Rosenberg, Jerry M. Encyclopedia of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the New American Community, and Latin American Trade. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1995.
    (HC 94 R668 1995/RIS Reading Room)

  • Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women’s Issues and Knowledge. New York: Routledge, 2000, 4 vols. (HQ 1115 R69 2000/RIS Reading Room)

  • Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues. New York: Garland Pub., 1998. (HQ 1870.9 W6548 1998/RIS Reading Room)

periodicals: indexes, abstracts, full-text

  • AccessUN. 1966-2002.
  • Premier index to United Nations documents including Offical Records, masthead documents, resolutions, meeting records, UN Sales Publications, and the UN Treaty Series citations. Also, included is the full-text of several thousand UN documents.

  • African Studies
  • Provides combined access to African Studies Abstracts and its predecessor, the catalogs of key African studies libraries around the world, and other databases. Covers economics, history, development, politics, music, business, literature, etc.

  • Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals
  • Index to journals on military and related topics, 1990 to the present.

  • America: History and Life. 1964-
  • Indexes articles, books, dissertations about all aspects of US history.

  • Bibliography of Asian Studies
  • Index of western-language monographs, articles, and book chapters on all parts of Asia published 1971 to the present.

  • Columbia International Affairs Online
  • Designed to be the most comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs. It publishes a wide range of scholarship from 1991 on that includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, and proceedings from conferences.

  • LexisNexis Congressional
  • Full text of U.S. legislative documents.

  • EconLit
  • Index to economic journals 1969 to the present.

  • Ethnic NewsWatch
  • Contains the complete text of articles since 1990 from 200 publications of the ethnic, minority, and native press, along with archival material dating back to the mid 1980's. Covers news, culture, and history, and is searchable in both English and Spanish.

  • Expanded Academic ASAP (Formerly Magazine & Journal Articles). 1980-
  • Includes many full-text articles.

  • Geographical Abstracts: Human Geography. 1989-
  • (Z6001 G295/RIS Reading Room)
    Formed by the union of: Geographical Abstracts. C, Economic Geography (1986), Geographical Abstracts. D, Social and Historical Geography, and Geographical Abstracts. F, Regional and Community Planning.

  • GenderWatch
  • Contains the full text of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas from the 1970's to the present. Provides in-depth coverage of subjects that are uniquely central to women's lives.

  • GPO Access
  • Access to Full Text Government Information from the U.S. Government Printing Office.

  • Handbook of Latin American Studies. 1935-

  • HAPI: Hispanic American Periodicals Index. 1975-
  • Many articles are not in English.
  • Also in print: (Z 1605 .H21/RIS Abstracts & Indexes Table)
  • Earlier coverage in: Index to Latin American Periodicals, 1961-1971. (Z 1601 .I38/RIS Abstracts & Indexes Table) and Index to Latin American Periodical Literature and Supplements, 1929-1965. (Z 1601 .I379/RIS Abstracts & Indexes Table)

  • Historical Abstracts. 1960-
  • Indexes articles, books, dissertations about all aspects of world history since 1450 except for the United States.

  • International African Bibliography. 1971-
  • Continuation of a bibliography published quarterly in the journal Africa from 1929 to 1970. (Z3501.I605/RIS Reading Room)

  • International Development Abstracts. 1982-   (HC 59.69 I57/RIS Reading Room)

  • International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. New York: Elsevier, 2001. 26 vols. (H41 I58 2001/RIS Desk)

  • JSTOR
  • Complete text and index of core journals in the social sciences & humanities from their starting date to about 5 years ago.

  • LexisNexis Academic
  • Complete text and index of articles in newspapers and periodicals for about the last 20 years in a wide range of topics including current affairs, business, law, and medicine.
  • (Click "News" to search the widest variety of periodicals.)

  • PAIS International, 1972-
  • Index (with abstracts since 1985) to articles, books, conference proceedings, and government documents on social and political policy, political science, public administration, current affairs, and related topics.

  • Periodicals Contents Index
  • An electronic index to the contents of thousands of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences, from their first issues to 1995. Every article is indexed and there are links to full-text in JSTOR.

  • Population Index
  • Index to journals and other materials on world demography and population issues from 1986 to the present.

  • Project Muse
  • Complete text and index of current issues (from about 1990) of over 100 scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities published by Johns Hopkins University Press.

  • South African Studies
  • Provides combined access to several databases, including the Index to South African Periodicals, the South African National Bibliography, and others. Covers history, literature, business, current affairs, etc. Indexes articles, books, dissertations, manuscripts, newspapers, and more.

  • UNESBIB
  • Bibliography of over 100,000 UNESCO documents, publications and Library holdings.

  • Web of Science
  • Online access to Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), with collective coverage of over 8,000 scholarly journals from 1975 to the present.

  • Women's Studies International
  • Combined access to several women's studies databases from 1972 to the present, including Women Studies Abstracts, Women's Studies Database, POPLINE, and Women of Color. Covers feminism, history, ethnic studies, health, social sciences, U.S. and worldwide.

  • World agricultural economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts. 1959-
  • (HD 1401 893/RIS Reading Room)

internet resources

news sources
Newspapers and radio or television broadcasts are primary source materials that provide information on how an event was reported and analyzed as it occurred, in contrast to scholarly journal articles which might offer quite different interpretations. Many news services are now available on the Internet.

  • ISLA: Information Services on Latin America. 1972-
    (F 1401 .I82/News Indexes & Digests)
  • Clippings of Latin American political, social, and economic news from various English language newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and the Miami Herald. The most recent six months of ISLA are in RIS, the earlier volumes are in the YRL Stacks, 4th floor.

  • Los Angeles Times.  Index. 1972-    (AI 21 .L891/News Indexes & Digests)

  • Historical Newspapers Online
  • Indexes the New York Times on the Internet from 1851-1922, and the Palmer’s Index to The Times, 1790-1905; Official Index to The [London] Times from 1906-1980

  • London Times. Index. 1790-    (AN L Index/News Indexes & Digests)

statistics

  • Index to International Statistics: IIS. Washington DC: Congressional Information Service, 1983. (HA 36 .I52/Government Resources Table)
  • Indexes international statistical publications, which are available on microfiche.

  • Mitchell, Brian R. International Historical Statistics; Africa, Asia and Oceania, 1750-1993. 3rd ed. New York : Stockton Press, 1998. (HA 4675 M552 1998/RIS Desk)

  • Mitchell, Brian R. International Historical Statistics: Americas, 1750-1993. 4th ed. New York: Stockton Press, 1998. (HA 175 M55 1998/RIS Desk)

  • Mitchell, Brian R. International Historical Statistics: Europe, 1750-1993. 4th ed. New York: Stockton Press, 1998. (HA 1107 M692I 1998/RIS Desk)

  • Statistical Abstract of Latin America. 1955-    (HA 931 C12/RIS Reading Room)
  • Major social economic, and vital statistics data are presented in this source. Thematic essays on topics of current interest, such as Mexico's 1982 financial crisis, are included. Beginning in 1970 a supplement series focusing on specific topics was published (HA 931 C121/RIS Reading Room)

  • Statistical Handbook on Poverty in the Developing World. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1999.
    (HC 59.72 P6S73 1999/RIS Reading Room)