Latin American Studies  Tags: latin_america caribbean latino hispanic mesoamerica andes history  

The following databases index scholarly journals, general interest periodicals, ephemera, and primary-source documents potentially relevant to Latin American and Caribbean Studies:

Academic Search Premier (full-text resource) - The Libraries' most comprehensive, multi-disciplinary journal database; It provides full-text access to more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals, many of which are relevant to the study of history.

Anthropology Plus - Anthropology Plus brings together into one resource Anthropological Literature from Harvard University and Anthropological Index from the Royal Anthropological Institute in the U.K.

Anthrosource -  Full-text of current and past journals from the American Anthropological Association.

Digital Dissertations - The definitive guide to more than 2 million doctoral dissertations and master's theses. Digital Dissertations help you identify more than 90 percent of the doctoral dissertations accepted each year in North America. The database also covers thousands of dissertations and theses from around the globe. Each dissertation published since July 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1861, and more than 55,000 new citations are added to the database every year. Full-text Temple University dissertations from 1997 on are available for free download along with 24-page previews of thousands of other recent dissertations.

eHRAF (Electronic Human Relations Area Files) - The Human Relations Area Files database (HRAF) is the premier source for locating information about indigenous and other groups. The database is a collection of full text materials on more than 365 cultures around the world, that has been "complexly indexed to facilitate worldwide comparative studies of human behavior, society, and culture."

"Compared with conventional library research, retrieval of information from the electronic (eHRAF) collections is like a day compared to a month. When comparing or measuring things about a number of cultures, it is not necessary to devote weeks to building bibliographies for each of your sample cases; to search for the relevant books and articles and dissertations, which might have to be obtained by interlibrary loan; to read every page of a source that does not have an index to find all of the passages with relevant information; or to bring any sources back to the library. If the researcher's institution belongs to the HRAF consortium, and the culture(s) of interest are included in eHRAF, it is easy to access the text passages that contain the particular kinds of information sought." (Ember, M. (2001). Databases, Core: Anthropology and Human Relations Area Files (HRAF). In International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Vol. 5, pps. 3237-3240). New York: Elsevier.)

Ethnic NewsWatch - A full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press. A rich collection of articles, editorials, columns, and reviews provide a broad diversity of perspectives and viewpoints -- the other side of the story.

History Reference Center (full-text resource) - Designed for advanced high school students and undergraduates, Ebsco's History Reference Center "features cover-to-cover full-text for more than 750 historical encyclopedias and non-fiction books. . . . nearly 60 leading history periodicals. . . . 58,000 historical documents; 43,000 biographies of historical figures; more than 12,000 historical photos and maps; and 87 hours of historical film and video". An interesting combination of primary and secondary source material. Useful for browsing a range of materials on a particular topic.

In the First Person (FIRP) - FIRP indexes and links to "first-person" material in selected Alexander Street Press databases including Early Encounters in North America, Oral History Online, and Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000. Since FIRP indexes more than just oral histories (letters, diaries, autobiographies), it will eventually contain many more records than are available in the Oral History Online database. Currently, for example, FIRP contains 16,000 records versus ORHI's 15,400. FIRP can be used to find primary source material available on the free web, and is itself a free resource.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (full-text resource) - Search thousands of full-text, general-interest newspapers and magazines. Also includes sections on government and political news, as well as updated archives of state and federal case law, statutes and regulations. Primarily of interest to those researching the recent or "contemporary" past.

PAIS International (1915-present) - "The PAIS International database from CSA contains references to more than 553,300 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed." Highly relevant for public and international affairs and political science research.

Periodical Abstracts - More than 800,000 records describing significant articles from more than 1,500 top general and academic journals. Contains records for transcripts of significant segments of more than 80 news and lifestyle oriented television and radio programs. Covers January 1987 to the present. Adds new records weekly.

Population Index -  Population Index, published since 1935, is the primary reference tool to the world's population literature. It presents an annotated bibliography of recently published books, journal articles, working papers, and other material on population topics.The entire published database for 1986-1998 (Volumes 52-64) is available on-line and can be searched by author, subject matter, geographical region, and year of publication. We are happy to announce that we have added a free-text search capacity to our Web pages. Free-text search is now available for all issues from 1986 to 1998. It enables you to search for text anywhere in a citation, including the title, series, and abstract.

Sociological Abstracts -  Provides comprehensive coverage of the world's literature on sociology and applied aspects of sociology. Over 1,800 journals are indexed along with relevant dissertations. Citation andabstract included for each record.

Social Science Research Network - Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a world wide collaborative of leading scholars that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research. It is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences. Each of SSRN's networks encourages the early distribution of research results by reviewing and publishing submitted abstracts and by soliciting abstracts of top quality research papers around the world. The Networks encourage readers to communicate directly with other subscribers concerning their own and other's research. The services email abstracting journals currently reach over 35,000 people in approximately 70 different countries, and cover 100 different subject areas. The Abstract Database contains information on over 76,100 scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers. The Electronic Paper collection currently contains over 52,000 downloadable electronic documents in Adobe Acrobat pdf format."

Social Sciences Index - Provides indexing (1907- ) and abstracting (1994- ) for more than 600 key social sciences publications, 200 of which are available full-text.

Urban Studies Abstracts - Includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to urban studies, including urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of key relevance. Records are selected from many of the top titles within the discipline, including Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Studies, and Canadian Journal of Urban Research.

Urban Studies & Planning: A SAGE Full-Text Collection - A searchable collection of bibliographic records with links to the full text in PDF format of 12 journals published by Sage. Seven of the journals are available in their totality, from volume one to the present. The collection covers subjects such as Anthropology, Economic Development, Economics, Education, Environmental Science, Planning Pedagogy, Planning Practice, Planning Theory, Policy Analysis, Political Science, Public Administration, Regional Geography, Regional Science, Residential and Community Development, Social, Spatial, and Cultural Dynamics, Sociology, Urban and Regional Planning, Urban Culture, Urban Geography, Urban Policy, Urban Politics, and Welfare Economics.

Web of Science - Incorporates the Arts & Humanities (1975-) and Social Sciences (1956-) Citation Indexes. Web of Science indexes to thousands of art, humanities, and social sciences journals. These databases do not include abstracts but do allow searching by "cited author" and "cited work". In other words, find out who's citing whom.