UC Library Search
Recommended Resources
Finding Spanish or Portuguese language books is not different from finding English language books. The key is using the right keywords to search your topic. Likewise, finding ebooks is not different from finding print books. Commonly in literary studies, you need to find:
- Books about authors and their work in general (such as biographies)
- Books about literary criticism where it analyzes an author's specific work or works
- Books about a literary movement e.g., Romanticism, Modernism, or the participation of an author(s) in a particular literary movement
Similarly, if you are looking for books about linguistics, useful sample searches are:
- Spanish [AND] linguistics
- Portuguese OR “Brazilian Portuguese” AND linguistics
- Catalan [AND] linguistics
To make sure that you only get books results when you search the UC Library Search:
- Go to the Advanced Search and select “Books” under Material Type, so your result list only books (both print and ebooks). You can further narrow the search by dates or language.
- Can't find a book? On the left side menu in the UC Library Search, Select: “WorldCat” under External Search. After you find the book you need, Click on: “Get it at UC”. This will get you back to our system, where you can request the book through interlibrary loan.
Here are more tips for searching for books:
- To find books about a specific author, search for their name under “Title”
- To find books written by an author, search for them using the “Author” option.
- If you want to find Spanish or Portuguese language books, narrow down your results by language using the Advanced Search option in any UCSB Library Search or any literature database. Look for the words, filter, or limit to control the results list.
- If you have questions about searching for books in Spanish, contact me!
In addition, you can search eBooks collections that focus only in Latin American Studies and/or Iberian Studies. Some of them are Open Access while others are licensed by the library. See below for some examples.
- Iberoamericana-Vervuert eBook CollectionIberoamericana Vervuert is a leading scholarly publisher in Spanish and Latin American and Caribbean Studies.The collection covers the history, literature, art and language of Latin America, the Spanish Caribbean and Spain. Most books are in Spanish, German, and English. Few are in Portugese and French.
- 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 Americas.
- Biblioteca Digital CamõesO Camões, I.P. disponibiliza um conjunto de textos e documentos de grande relevância cultural e linguística na sua Biblioteca Digital, pretendendo, assim, fazer chegar o Português a um universo cada vez mais amplo de falantes e estudantes.
You can search for individual journals that focus on Spanish or Portuguese language studies as well as Latin America and Iberian Studies. Sometimes these journals may have what is called a special issue where the whole volume focuses on a particular topic, e.g. bilingualism. To find which Spanish or Portuguese journals are available online visit the Journal Search (see link below). Type Spanish or Portuguese 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.
- Spanish & Portuguese DatabasesA list of the Most Recommended databases to find academic/scholarly/peer-reviewed journal articles for Spanish and Portuguese studies
- Latin American & Iberian Studies DatabasesA list of the Most Recommended databases to find academic/scholarly/peer-reviewed journal articles for Latin American and Iberian Studies.
Remember to always login all databases with your UCSB netID and password to access licensed resources
Here are my recommended databases to search for articles (AKA as academic/scholarly/peer-review articles) for Spanish and Portuguese:
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowThe MLA International Bibliography is a subject index for books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. Excellent place to start your research!
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) This link opens in a new windowCSA Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) assists both generalists and specialists in keeping abreast of cutting-edge developments in disciplines concerned with the nature and use of language. The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Complete coverage is also given to various fields of linguistics including descriptive, historical, comparative, theoretical and geographical linguistics.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowJSTOR allows you to search by subject, and they have excellent coverage for Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American and Iberian Studies journals.
- 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's 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 and Iberian Studies to improve your search results.
- Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) This link opens in a new windowAuthoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States. HAPI Online contains complete bibliographic citations to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works, and other materials appearing in more than 400 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world.
- Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) This link opens in a new windowThe Handbook is a bibliography on Latin America consisting of works selected and annotated by scholars. Edited by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, the multidisciplinary Handbook alternates annually between the social sciences and the humanities. Each year, more than 130 academics from around the world choose over 5,000 works for inclusion in the Handbook. Continuously published since 1935, the Handbook offers Latin Americanists an essential guide to available resources. Updated monthly, HLAS Online provides rapid, comprehensive access to future, current, and retrospective volumes of the Handbook.
Finding Films
- UC Library Search Advanced 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. Portugal, 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
- Cine en Línea - Filmoteca UNAMSince 2009, Cine en Linea offers free access to the film archives of the UNAM (National University of Mexico). The offers include from silence movies to documentaries. All films are in Spanish with not subtitles. There is an option for autogenerated captions but only for Spanish.
- Retina Latina"The platform, created by six national cinematographic institutions [...], pools together high quality Latin American cinema that might not have made it to movie theatres. Sign up and watching the movies is free, and you can access them in the partner countries of Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay and Colombia".
Finding Music:
- Musica de la Frontera Digital LibraryThe Arhoolie Foundation's Strachwitz Frontera Collection of commercially produced Mexican and Mexican-American Recordings (the Frontera Collection) is the largest repository of Mexican and Mexican-American vernacular recordings in existence. This site allows you to sample thousand of songs from this collection. If you are doing research on Mexican and Mexican American music this is a good place to identify materials that you may later request to UCLA Music Library.
- 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. Formerly The Music Index Online provided by Harmonie Park Press, this database contains cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts of articles about music, musicians, and the music industry for more than 475 periodicals, as well as book reviews, obituaries, news, and selective coverage for more than 230 periodicals. The comprehensive coverage of the music field and every aspect of the classical and popular worlds of music makes Music Index an invaluable resource for both novice and scholar. Music Index cites: • Book Reviews • Obituaries • News Periodicals • News and articles about music, musicians, and the music industry
- 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.
- El País-EspañaThe leading newspaper in Spain--available in Spanish and English.
- El País--Americas EditionThis edition focuses on news from the Americas--including the U.S. In Spanish.
- Diáro de NotíciasThe leading newspaper in Portugal. In Portuguese.
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowAccess World News provides full-text information and perspectives from U.S. and international news sources, each with its own distinctive focus offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. This archive provides comprehensive coverage of current events (history in the making) and historical events. Each newspaper or wire service provides unique coverage of local and regional news, including specific information about local companies, politics, sports, industries, cultural activities, and the people in the community. Paid advertisements are excluded.
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) provides access to more than 17,000 news, business and legal sources from LexisNexis. Nexi Uni has three primary collections: 1) full-text access to thousands of news sources in the U.S. and abroad back to the 1970s; 2) aggregated economic data on businesses, corporations, and industries in the U.S. and abroad; 3) full-text legal documents, including U.S. Federal and State court cases, and law reviews from the late 18th century to present.