Request an article or book!
- UCSB Interlibrary Loan
The Interlibrary Loan service allows UCSB students, faculty, and staff to borrow from other libraries if items are not available at the UCSB Library. To learn more how to request journals' articles and book chapters, visit the link!
UC Library Search
Tips for using the UC Library Search Box
- You can search in English, Spanish and Portuguese
- If you want to control your results don't type keywords in the basic search box, instead, click on the Advanced Search link (below the search box), where you can control what type of material you want to search for first, e.g. books, articles, films, etc.
- If using phrases, use quotation marks to make sure your research results are relevant to your topic, e.g. "Latin America" AND "political candidates"; "Caribbean Elections" AND Corruption
Recommended Resources
You can search for individual journals that focus on Caribbean Studies. Sometimes these journals may have what is called a special issue where the whole volume focuses on a particular topic, e.g. migration, politics, economics, etc. To find which Caribbean Studies journals are available online, visit the Journal Search (see link below). Type "Caribbean Studies" or just Caribbean to see a list of journals with that title. If you know the title of a journal, you can search for it too, and see what type of access we have at the library.
- Journal SearchA searchable index of all our online journals. Type the journal title in the search box or browse by alphabetic order.
Tip: Caribbean Studies is an inter- and multidisciplinary research field, therefore you can search for Caribbean Studies topics in other subject databases. For example, you can search a Political Sciences database to search for articles about political issues in the Caribbean as a region or a specific country.
Sample searches:
- Elections AND Barbados
- Tourism AND Cuba
- Rastafarianism AND Jamaica
- Political Database of the Americas (PDBA)PDBA is an Open Access resource that offers centralized and systematized information about institutions and political processes, national constitutions, branches of government, elections, political constitutional studies, and other subjects related to the strengthening of democracy in the region. The Caribbean is considered part of the Americas, so you can search this database for Caribbean countries.
- Caribbean DatabasesMany databases that focus on Latin America also include journals on the Caribbean. So feel free to search Caribbean topics on any database that include Latin America.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowA good database when starting your research!
- Literary Sources from Gale This link opens in a new windowYou can find biographical information and literary text from Caribbean writers in this database.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowTip: Go to the Advanced Search and scroll down until you locate Latin American Studies. You can check off the box near that discipline to search only journals within that discipline. Many Caribbean topics are discussed within Latin American studies journals. Also, you can expand the menu by clicking the arrow and scroll down to identify journals that specialize in Caribbean Studies and search within that journal.
- Project Muse Journals This link opens in a new windowProject MUSE is a searchable collection of hundreds of university press and other journals. Searching is available by author, year, journal title and keywords from titles, subjects or full-text. Similarly to JSTOR, you can use the Advanced Search to select journals from Latin American and Caribbean Studies to improve your search results.
- Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new windowThis journal index allows you to search journals in/about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States. Content is 80% Spanish, 20% English from more than 400 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world.
You can search for print and ebooks on the Caribbean from the library website. You can search for books that talk about the region or about a specific country. Books, eBooks, articles, and films are available in English and Spanish.
Sample searches:
- "equal rights" AND "Caribbean"
- "human rights" AND Cuba
- "LGBT rights" OR "Gay rights" AND Jamaica
- Literature AND Martinique
Tips:
- Go to the Advanced Search and select "Books" under Material Type, so your result list only books (print or eBook)!
- Always use quotation marks for phrases, e.g. "Cuban Santeria"
In addition, you can search eBooks collections that focus only in Caribbean Studies. Some of them are Open Access, while others are licensed by the library. See below for some examples:
- Cervantes VirtualCervantes Virtual is the portal of the Biblioteca Virtual de Miguel de Cervantes. You can freely access a wide variety of classic Spanish language literature from Spain and the Spanish Caribbean.
- LANIC E-Text Collection This link opens in a new windowThe LANIC (Latin American Network Information Center) e-text Collection has many documents that focus on Cuba, e.g. Castro Speech Data Base and Cuba in Transition.
- OECD iLibrary This link opens in a new windowOECD iLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) including books, papers, and statistics, and is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data. You can "Browse by Country" or "Browse by Theme and Country", to find information about Caribbean countries.
- Caribbean National WeeklyOnline weekly periodical targeted to the Caribbean community in South Florida. Includes news from the broader Caribbean.
- Caribbean Newspapers & MagazinesAn online portal that gives access to local newspapers and magazines from a selection of Caribbean countries (Mostly in English). Tip: Check the links periodically since some of these sites' URLs may change or cease to exist.
- Caribbean News Search EngineThis used to be a searchable database but that functionality doesn't work anymore. What this site is useful, though, is the list of National newspapers from the Caribbean.
Newspapers' Databases:
- ProQuest News and Newspapers Databases This link opens in a new windowYou can search for current news about the Caribbean from U.S. newspaper sources such as Chicago Defender, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post. Limit your search by dates to make sure you get the most current news!
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowYou can search for international newspapers in this database, including Caribbean Countries!
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowSome Caribbean countries newspapers are available in this database. Search by country or by newspaper title!
Finding Films
- UC Library SearchTo search for films/videos from a particular country in Latin America or the Iberian Peninsula, Go to the Advanced Search, click on "Library Catalog", type the country you are looking for, e.g. Mexico, and select "Video" under Material Type, then search to get a list of the films available at UCSB.
- Latin American and Spanish Videos Freely Available on the Internet: A Guide to Web ResourcesThis is an excellent resources created by Jesús Alonso-Regalado, librarian at SUNY Albany to help you find freely available films and videos from/about Latin America and the Caribbean on the Web
Finding Music:
- Music Index Online This link opens in a new windowThe Music Index is a comprehensive guide to music periodicals and literature featuring digitized content from 1970 to present. You can search for articles about music from the Caribbean
- Music Online: Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive resource on musical cultures of the world's peoples, the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music online comprises 9 volumes, each devoted to a specific region, plus a tenth volume on general perspectives and reference tools. The regional volumes each contain an overview; a survey of the regional heritage, traditions, and themes; and descriptions of specific musical genres, practices, and performances.
- Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries This link opens in a new windowSmithsonian Global Sound, produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, includes the published recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival audio collections of Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon, and other labels. The collection also includes music recorded around the African continent for the International Library of African Music (ILAM) at Rhodes University, as well as material collected by recordists on the South Asian subcontinent from the Archive Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE), sponsored by the American Institute for Indian Studies.
- Music Online: Contemporary World Music This link opens in a new windowContemporary World Music contains a blend of contemporary and traditional world music recordings from many labels throughout the world. When complete, the database will contain 50,000 tracks, including genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz. Traditional genres will include Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more. Liner notes to all the albums are included in PDF format.