Spanish Research Guide
Reference Desk (413) 774-1509	Research Guides | Library Home

---

Selected Reference Sources

Use reference sources to choose a topic, understand terminology, locate background information, and identify good search terms.

• Diccionario de la Lengua Espanola, R 463.2 D545
• Oxford Spanish Dictionary (includes CD,) R 46.2 O98s
• University of Chicago Spanish Dictionary, R 463.2 U58
• The Firefly Spanish/English Visual Dictionary, R 463.2 C789fi
• The Facts on File English/Spanish Visual Dictionary, R 463.2 C789f
• 501 Spanish Verbs (conjugated in all tenses), R 463.2 K33f
• Using Spanish Synonyms, R 464 B328us
• The Statesman's Yearbook, R320.05 S797
• Countries and Their Cultures, R306.03 C855
• Encyclopedia of Latin American & Caribbean Art, R 709.8 E56
• St. James Guide to Hispanic Artists, R 709.8 S143
• Modern Spanish and Portuguese Literatures, R 860 M689
• The Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, R 867.909 C178
• Encyclopedia of Latin American Literature, R 867.909 E56
• Latin American Writers, R 867.909 L357
• Masterpieces of Latino Literature, R 867.909 M23
• The Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature, R 860.9 F330
• Encyclopedia of Contemporary Spanish Culture, R 946.082 E56
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures, R 972.01 O98
• Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures, R 980.03 E56co
• Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, R 980.03 E561

Finding Books (and more) in the Online Catalog

Books accumulate and synthesize information from various sources. Use the Online Catalog to find circulating books by searching by subject for terms relating to Spain and Spanish culture or Latin America and Latin American culture. Then browse the subheadings under the subject to narrow your search. Subject headings are often subdivided by place and time period. Examples:

• Spain - Art
• Spain - Artists
• Spain - Civilization
• Spain - Colonies - America
• Spain - History - 20th Century
• Spain - Politics and Government
• Spain - Social Life and Customs
• Spanish American - Fiction
• Spanish Language - Dictionaries
• Spanish Literature - 19th Century
• Latin America - Antiquities
• Latin America - Economic Conditions
• Latin America - Encyclopedias
• Latin American Literature - History and Criticism

The advantage of keyword searching is the ability to combine multiple concepts:

• Use "and" between major concepts (Boolean logic) to narrow the search so that all concepts are found in each record in the search results
• Example: Spain and history and 20th
• Combine the concepts used in subject headings into keyword searches
• Subject headings are always good search terms
• The same keyword search strategies can be utilized in research databases
• Many also assign subject headings to articles and allow subject searching
• Explore the advanced searching capabilities of the databases for better results

Finding Articles in Research Databases
(go to DA Orgs/Library for off-campus access)
Database handout with descriptions

Spanish Resources

• Informe
  Provides indexing, images and full text of over 300 Hispanic periodicals--includes a thesaurus
• Enciclopedia Universal en Español Online
  A comprehensive Spanish language encyclopedia from Encyclopedia Britannica--includes over 47,000 articles and 9,000 images, maps, and tables--covers art, geography, history, people, religions, science, and more
• Enciclopedia Juvenil Online
  An elementary Spanish language encyclopedia from Encyclopedia Britannica

General Databases

• Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (full text)
• EBSCOhost databases: Use EBSCOhost Web to search several databases at once--includes MLA, Literary Reference Center, and History Reference Center
  Academic Search Premier (full text plus citations and abstracts only)
  MAS Ultra - School Edition (1975-present)(full text)
  Provides articles from popular, high school magazines and reference sources--Student Research Center is a user-friendly, graphical interface for this database
• InfoTrac databases: Use InfoTrac Web to search several databases at once--includes Informe
  Expanded Academic (1980-present) (full text plus citations only)
  General Reference Center (1980-present) (full text plus citations only for general interest periodicals)
  General OneFile (1980-present)(full text plus citations only)
  Academic OneFile (full text plus citations and abstracts only for scholarly journals)
• JSTOR (full text)
  An archive of core scholarly journals back to the 1800's--does not include current issues from the last 3-5 years
• Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)(citations only for general interest periodicals from 1890-1982)

Specialized Databases

• Biography Resource Center (full text)(reference sources plus magazine articles)(Tutorial)
  Narrow the search by nationality in the Biographical Facts Search
• Grove Art Encyclopedia (full text)--search by artist or country
• CountryWatch (full text)
• History Reference Center (full text)
• History Study Center (full text)
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)(full text)(1991-present)
• Contemporary Literary Criticism (full text)
• Literary Reference Center* (full text)--provides information on thousands of literary works across disciplines and timeframes
• LitFinder (full text plus citations only)--offers searching by nationality
• Classical Music Library (audio service)
• Grove Music Online (full text) (demo)--see the entries for specific musicians or for the music of specific countries or regions (Spain, Latin America, etc.)
• Smithsonian Global Sound--audio for world music--search by country, cultural group, or artist
• Contemporary World Music
• Naxos Music Library--audio for world music--use the Advanced Search to search by country
• Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America (full text)

News

• Lexis-Nexis (news, law & legislation, statistics)(full text)
  Includes major U.S. and international newspapers plus non-English language publications--provides full text for over 70 Spanish language news sources (see News/Foreign Language News/Spanish Language Sources/Source List for a list of sources available)
• El Pais (Spanish newspaper)
  Website for this Spanish language newspaper published in Madrid--includes an archive--see Lexis-Nexis for full text back to 1996
• Latin American Newspapers (from LANIC)
• ABYZ News Links: Spain
• ABYZ News Links: Central America
• ABYZ News Links: South America
• ABYZ News Links: Caribbean
• Electronic Periodicals on Latin America and the Caribbean

Selected Internet Resources
(Websites should always be evaluated for authorship, accuracy, and currency)

General and Reference Sources

• Web Workbooks: Spanish (dictionary with audio, quizzes, vocabulary, verbs, grammar, library, and resources)
• Spanish dictionaries (from yourDictionary.com)
• Spanish (from Verbix)(conjugate Spanish verbs)
• History of Spain: Primary Documents (Brigham Young U.)
• LANIC: Latin American Network Information Center (can be viewed in Spanish)

Try the Countries & Cultures Research Guide for recommended websites for country information

See also the Latin America Research Guide

Need help with citing sources?
MLA Citation Style Guide
NoodleBib (citation management tool)