Databases
To enhance the quality of your research, it is recommended to conduct preliminary research on your topic. Once you have completed this step, you can proceed to consult subject-specific databases to expand your knowledge further.
Subject Databases
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new window Best database for world history. Lists scholarly articles from history journals. Allows you to search by journal name. Each article is summarized. Covers the history of civilization (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
- Informe This link opens in a new window Informe Académico provides access to Spanish- and Portuguese-language scholarly journals and magazines. The database offers a wide range of content both from and about Latin America. Informe Académico proporciona acceso a periódicos y revistas especializadas de lengua española y portuguesa. La base de datos ofrece una amplia gama de contenidos sobre América Latina.
- MEDLINE with Full Text This link opens in a new window Authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals.
- World News Archive - Latin American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2 This link opens in a new window Latin American Newspapers, Series 1 & 2—part of CRL's World Newspaper Archive—feature nearly 300 historical Latin American newspapers. Titles from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Venezuela, and elsewhere offer unprecedented coverage of the people, issues, and events that shaped this vital region between 1805 and 1922.
- World Scholar: Latin America And The Caribbean This link opens in a new window World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean provides a portal with access to reference, periodicals, multimedia, reports, studies, journals, newspapers, and statistical data. An archive of digitized primary documents focus on the history of Latin America and the Caribbean back to the early 1800s through the contemporary period sourced from collections in the U.S. and abroad. The archive and portal serve as both integrated and standalone resources.
- Sociological Abstracts Contains scholarly works in sociology and related disciplines. Provides citations and summaries for articles, dissertations, books and association papers in sociology and related disciplines.
Multidisciplinary Databases
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Scholarly, multidisciplinary database containing more than 6,100 full-text journals, and indexing/abstracts for more than 10,100 journals.
- Ethnic Diversity Source This link opens in a new window This full-text database is a dedicated resource covering the culture, traditions, social treatment and lived experiences of different ethnic groups in America. It provides full text from a growing list of sources including peer-reviewed journals, magazines, e-books, biographies and primary source documents.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window Contains almost 1,000 full-text journals spanning multiple disciplines. Some journals go to back to the mid-1800's. There is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issues and the issues available in JSTOR.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window MLA International Bibliography offers a detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association, the electronic version of the bibliography dates back to the 1920s and contains over 2.2 million citations from more than 4,400 journals & series and 1,000 book publishers. The indexed materials coverage is international and includes almost 60 titles from J-STOR’s language and literature collection as well as links to full text.
- ProQuest This link opens in a new window A multidisciplinary database of over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. Subjects covered include business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.
Open Web Databases
- Slave Images Database (SID)The images in Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life have been chosen from a wide range of sources, most dating from the period of slavery before 1900. The collection currently has over 1,200 images and serves as a resource for those interested in the experiences of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas.
- Slave Voyages Database (SV)The SlaveVoyages website compiles and provides access to records of the largest slave trades in history. It documents the origins and forced relocations of over 12 million African people transported across the Atlantic on slave ships, along with the trafficking of hundreds of thousands more within the Americas. The records also cover rebellions, loss of life, perpetrator identities, and more.
- Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520–1820The Vistas Gallery is part of Vistas: Visual Culture in Spanish America, 1520-1820. It displays more than 300 images, such as paintings, sculptures, architectural monuments, and everyday objects from Spanish America between 1520 and 1820. This period covers the time from the Conquest to Independence.
Spanish Language Resources
You can easily find Spanish language resources in most databases by using the "Language" filter. However, you can skip this step with the following databases. It's important to be familiar with your terms in both Spanish and English, as some of these databases may not produce results when using only English terms.
- HLAS Online - Handbook of Latin American Studies A selective annotated bibliography of scholarly works on Latin America, the multidisciplinary Handbook alternates annually between the social sciences and the humanities.Works reviewed include books, journal articles, book chapters, and conference papers. Published since 1935.
- Red ALyC Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe. A portal to the full text of over 100 journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal.
- SciELO Scientific Electronic Library Online. A cooperative project that is developing full-text libraries of journals in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- Bibliografía Mesoamericana This link opens in a new window Bibliographic data for the published literature pertaining to the anthropology of Mesoamerica. Content includes archaeology, ethnography, ethnohistory, art history, linguistics, physical anthropology, and other related disciplines.
