Guide to library reference sources
Norma Corral, April 2002
Last updated: June 2, 2005
Latin American Studies 197/250B
The following list is intended to lead you to sources, which provide useful information on a variety of issues relating to Latin American Studies.  It illustrates the types and variety of sources that are available. Unless otherwise noted, these titles are located in YRL Reference & Instructional Services (RIS) of the Young Research Library.   Many other general reference sources on the Internet may be reached from the Reference Collection Online.

bibliographic guides
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Bibliographic guides provide an overview of reference sources which might be consulted to find specific information on a topic or discipline.

  • Guide to Reference Books.  Ed. by Robert Balay, 11th ed.  Chicago:  American Library Association, 1996. (Z 1035 .M88g 1996/Core RIS Desk)

  • Latin America and the Caribbean:  A Critical Guide to Research Sources.  New York:  Greenwood, 1992.  (Z 1601 .L3225 1992/RIS Desk)

  • McNeil, Robert A. Latin American Studies: A Basic Guide to Sources. 2nd. ed., rev. and enl.  Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1990.  (Z 1601 .L324 1990/RIS Reading Room)

  • Werlich, David P.  Research Tools for Latin American Historians:  A Select, Annotated Bibliography.  New York:  Garland, 1980.  (Z 1601 .W47/RIS Desk)

encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks
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  • Anderson, Sean.  Historical Dictionary of Terrorism.  Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1995.  (HV 6431 .A537 1995/RIS Reading Room)

  • The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Latin America and the Caribbean.  2nd ed.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.  (F 1406 .C36 1992/RIS Reading Room)

  • The Cambridge History of Latin America.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press, 1984-  .  (F 1410 .C1834 1984/RIS Reading Room)

  • DiCanio, Margaret.  Encyclopedia of Violence: Origins, Attitudes, Consequences.  New York: Facts on File, 1993. (HM 291 .D4857 1993/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures. London/New York: Routledge, 2000.  3 vols.  (F 1406 .E515 2000/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Guerrilla Warfare.  Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1999.
    (U 240 .B43 1999/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Human Rights.  2nd ed.  Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis, 1996.
    (JC 571 .E67 1996/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture.  New York: Scribner's/Simon & Schuster Macmillan.  1996.  5 vols.  (F 1406 .E53 1996/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of Political Revolutions.  Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1998. 
    (JC 491 .E63 1998/RIS Desk)

  • Encyclopedia of Propaganda.   New York : Sharpe Reference, 1998.   3 vols.
    (HM 263 .E53 1998/RIS Reading Room)
  • Look at Vol. 2. under Honduras-El Salvador War.

  • Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict.  3 vols.  San Diego ; London : Academic Press, 1999.  (HM 291 .E625 1999/RIS Reading Room)

  • Encyclopedia of World Terrorism.  Armonk, New York: Sharpe Reference, 1997.  3 vols. 
    (HV 6431 .E53 1997/RIS Reading Room)

  • Handbook of Middle American Indians.  Robert Wauchope, general editor.  Austin:  University of Texas Press, [1964-76].  16 v.  Supplement 5 v. [1981/86- ]
    (F 1434 .H19/RIS Reading Room)

  • Handbook of South American Indians.  Julian H. Steward, editor.  Washington:  U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946-63.  7 v.  (Series:  U.S. Bureau of American Ethnology.  Bulletin 143.)  (F 2230 .S84h/RIS Reading Room)

  • International Military and Defense Encyclopedia.  Brassey Inc.: New York, 1993. 6 v.
    (U 24 .I58 1993/RIS Reading Room)

  • Patterns of Global Terrorism.  1983- .  Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of State.
    (HV 6431 .U533/RIS Reading Room)
  • RIS keeps latest five years, older editions in YRL stacks. 

  • Political Handbook of the World.  New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1975-  .
    (JF 37 .P752/RIS Desk)
  • Latest edition in Reference.

  • Political Parties of the Americas, 1980’s to 1990’s: Canada, Latin America, and  the West Indies.  Westport, CT:  Greenwood Press, 1992.
    (JL 195 .P4 1992/RIS Reading Room)

  • Protest, Power, and Change : An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from  ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage.  Editors, Roger S. Powers, William B. Vogele ;  New York: Garland Pub., 1997.    (Series:  Garland Reference Library of the Humanities; vol. 1625)
    (HM 278 .P76 1997/RIS Reading Room)

  • Revolutionary and Dissident Movements : An International Guide.  3rd ed.  Harlow, Essex, U.K. : Longman Current Affairs, 1991.  (JC 328.3 .R48 1991/RIS Desk)

  • Rossi, Ernest.  Latin America: A Political Dictionary.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, 1992.   (F 1406 .R67 1992/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)

  • Shavit, David.  The United States in Latin America: A Historical Dictionary.  New York:  Greenwood Press, 1992. (F 1418 .S494 1992/RIS Reading Room)

  • South America, Central America and the Caribbean.  London:  Europa, 1985-  .
    (F 1406.5 .S68/RIS Desk)

  • Thackrah, John Richard.  Encyclopedia of Terrorism and Political Violence.  London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. (HV 6431 .T56 1987/RIS Reading Room)

  • Women in the Third World : An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues.  New York: Garland Pub., 1998.  (Series:  Garland Reference Library of Social Science ; v. 760)
    (HQ 1870.9 .W6548 1998/RIS Reading Room)

directories
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  • Directorio de Organizaciones de Derechos Humanos de Centroamérica y Panamá. San José, Costa Rica: Centro de Documentación, Educación, 1999.
    (JC 599 .C35D57 1999/RIS Reading Room)

  • Extremist Groups: An International Compilation of Terrorist Organizations, Violent Political Groups, and Issue-Oriented Militant Movements.  Chicago, IL: Office of International Criminal Justice, 1996.  (HV 6431 .E97 1996/RIS Desk)

  • Janke, Peter.  Guerrilla and Terrorist Organizations: A World Directory and Bibliography.  Brighton, Sussex: The Harvester Press, 1983. (JC 328.6 .J36 1983/RIS Reading Room)

bibliographies
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  • Bennett, John M.  Sendero Luminoso in Context: An Annotated Bibliography.  Lanham,Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1998.  (Z 1870.3 .B46 1998/RIS Reading Room)

  • Delorme, Robert.  Latin America: Social Science Information Sources, 1967-1979.  Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Information Services, 1981. (Z 7165 .L3D44/RIS Reading Room)
  • Supplemented by:
  • Latin America, 1979-1983: A Social Science Bibliography.  1984.
  • (Z 7165 .L3D439 1984/RIS Reading Room)
  • Latin America, 1983-1987: A Social Science Bibliography.  1988.
  • (Z7165.L3D4395.1988/RIS Reading Room)

  • Johnson, Peter.  Cuba, From Colony to Revolution: A Bibliography of Microforms.  Austin, TX: SALALM, University of Texas at Austin, 1996.
    (F 1751 .J646 1996/RIS Reading Room)

  • Woodward, Ralph Lee.  Nicaragua.  Rev. and expanded ed.  Oxford, England ; Santa Barbara, Calif. : Clio Press, 1994.  (Series:  World bibliographical series ; v. 44)
    (Z 1481 .W66 1994/RIS Reading Room)

biography
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  • Archivio Biográfico de España, Portugal e Iberoamérica: una Compilación de 300 obras biográficas...  Münich:  Saur, 1986-1989; and the 2nd ed., 1993. (Microfiche DP 58 .A52)
  • World Biographical Index Indexes huge microfiche collection (located in YRL Reference) of short biographical entries from a variety of sources about eminent individuals who lived in North and South America, Western and Central Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania. Indexes many biographical archives which YRL Reference & Instructional Services has in microfiche. The fiche contains the complete texts of the biographical descriptions, while the Web site indicates birth and death years, occupation, source quoted (archive, fiche-number and page) and bibliographic information about the sources used.

  • Biographical Dictionary of Latin American and Caribbean Political Leaders.  New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.  (F 1414.2 .B48 1988/RIS Reading Room)

  • Mundo Lo, Sara de.  Index to Spanish American Collective Biography.  Boston: G.K. Hall, 1981-1985.  4 v.  (Z 1609 .B6M86/RIS Reading Room)

  • Thomas, Jack Ray.  Biographical Dictionary of Latin American Historians and Historiography.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984.
    (F 1409.8 .A2T48 1984/RIS Reading Room)

library catalogs
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Many libraries have special collections which provide rich sources of information for scholars in other locations.  In order to make the contents of these collections accessible, their catalogs have been published in book form and are now accessible on the Internet.  Two major Latin American collections are the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and the University of Texas at Austin Benson Latin American Collection.  The Benson Collection has a rich collection with an emphasis on Mexico.

  • RIS has the  print version, Catalog of the Latin American Collection.  Boston: G.K. Hall, 1969.  31 v.  Supplements, 1-4, 1971-1977.  19 v.  Continued by:  Bibliographic Guide to Latin American Studies.  1978-.  (Z 1601 .T312c/RIS Reading Room)

indexes & abstracts
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  • Alt-Press Watch
  • Full text database of selected newspapers, magazines, and journals of the alternative and independent press. It contains articles from as early as 1983, but a bulk of the coverage is from 1991 to the present

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

  • Expanded Academic ASAP. 1980-
  • Includes many full-text articles.

  • Handbook of Latin American Studies.  1935-
  • Indexes scholarly works on Latin America from 1935 to the present, covering social sciences and humanities in alternating years.
  • Also available in print: (Z 1601 .H19L/Abstracts & Indexes Table)

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

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

  • JSTOR
  • Full text content of core journals in the social sciences, humanities and mathematics. Journals complete from their beginning to approximately five years ago.

  • Left Index
  • Indexes the diverse literature of the left, with an emphasis on political, economic, social and culturally engaged scholarship inside and outside academia, 1982 to the present. It also leads to significant but little known sources of news and ideas. Historically significant early Left publications such as The People (est. NY 1891), and The Class Struggle (1931-1937) along with classic texts by Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels and others, written in the formative years of the Left, also are covered. Many citations provide the complete text of the article.

  • PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service)
  • 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, from 1972 to the present

  • 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.

  • Project Muse
  • Full-text recent volumes of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics.

  • Readers Guide Retrospective. 1890-1982
  • Indexes the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States from 1890-1982.

  • 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.

news sources
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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.

  • Daily Report, Latin America. Index.  Foreign Broadcast Information Service, 1979-1996.
    (Please ask at the RIS Desk for location, F 1401 .D332)
  • Indexes material contained in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service Daily Report: Latin America (FBIS LAM), which is available on microfiche.

  • Facts on File. 1941–1979. (D 410 .F119/News Indexes & Digests)
  • Fulltext available on Internet from 1980 at Facts.com. World News Digest

  • Historical Newspapers
  • Includes Palmer's Index to the (London) Times, 1790-1905, with Palmer's Full Text Online, 1785-1870 (currently available: 1800-1870); and The Historical Index to the New York Times, 1851-1923 (currently available: 1863-1905, 1913-1922)

  • 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. 
  • (Note: The most recent six months of ISLA are in RIS, the earlier volumes are in the YRL Stacks, 4th floor.)

  • Keesing’s Record of World Events. 1931-   (D 410 .K258/News Indexes & Digests)

  • <LexisNexis Academic
  • Full-text news, business, and legal information.

  • Los Angeles Times
  • ProQuest - Current (1985-current)
  • ProQuest - Historical (1881-1923)
  • Index also available in print. 1972-   (AI 21 .L891/News Indexes & Digests)

  • New York Times
    ProQuest - Current (1999-current)
    ProQuest - Historical (1851-1998)
  • Index also available in print. 1851-   (AI 21 .N49/News Indexes & Digests)

  • El Pais.  Indice del ano 1984-1999. (AI 21 .P35/News Indexes & Digests)
  • The Times Index. 1785-    (AN L index/News Indexes & Digests)
  • Both of these indexes provide worldwide coverage of political events from a European perspective.

  • Wall Street Journal
  • ProQuest offers Historical full text from 1889-1984 and Current full text from 1985 to the present of the financial newspaper of record offering in-depth coverage of national and international finance as well as first rate coverage of hard news from 1985 to the present.

book reviews
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Many book reviews published may be identified in Current Contents since 1993 and Expanded Academic ASAP since 1980.

  • Book Review Digest. New York: Wilson, 1905-    (Z 1219 .B64/Book Review Indexes)

  • Book Review Index. Detroit: Gale, 1965-    (Z 1035 .A1B65/Book Review Indexes)

  • Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886–1974. Arlington, Va.:  Carrollton Press, 1979. (Z 1035 .A1C65/Book Review Indexes)

  • Guia a las Resenas de Libros de y Sobre Hispanoamerica:  A Guide to Reviews of Books From and About Hispanic America.  1960/64, 1972-1990.
    (Z 1035 .A1G94/Book Review Indexes)

government documents & statistics
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  • LexisNexis Congressional
  • Full text of U.S. legislative documents.

  • Enciclopedia Electoral Latinoamericana Y Del Caribe.  San Jose, Costa Rica: Instituto Interamericano de Derechos Humanos, 1993. (JL 968 .E53 1993/RIS Reading Room)

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

  • Mitchell,  B.K.  International Historical Statistics; the Americas 1750-1983.   4th  ed. London : Macmillan Reference ; New York : Stockton Press, 1998. (HA 175 .M55 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)