Tips to find UCSB archival collections!
- UC Library Search for Archival CollectionsYou can search for archival collections using UC Library Search!! Select the option UCSB Special Research Collections at the top of the screen. Then, in the search box, type your keywords, e.g., Chicano, Chicana, or "Mexican American," to see what collections we have access to
- Doing Research at the ArchiveArchives are different from libraries since you need to request an appointment to access their physical collections. Visit the UCSB Library's Special Research Collection to learn what you need to do to get started!
- Create a Special Collections Research Account!Special collections are different from libraries. To materials in special collections do not circulate outside the archive. Instead, they need to be viewed on site. For that you need to make an appoint to see the material. At SRC, you need to create a research account. Follow this link to learn more about how to create your very own research account and set up an appointment to visit SRC!
UC Library Search
Primary Sources
Primary Sources are documentary evidence of events as remembered by the people that experienced. There are a wide variety of sources that can be labeled "primary" such as:
- Artwork (painting, sculptures, pottery, posters)
- Diary, memories, and autobiographies
- Interviews in a newspaper or magazine
- Letters
- Performance (like a play or a ballet or a flash mob)
- Poem and other types of literature (novels, short stories, fables, etc.)
- Treaty and other legal documents that document decisions such as bills of sales, wills, etc.
Sometimes, a secondary source (a source that analyzes primary sources to understand why a phenomenon happened, such as scholarly articles published in academic journals, research books, biographies, textbooks, etc.) can be treated as a primary source depending on the context of your research. For example, if you are doing a research study about how biology teaching has changed through time, then biology textbooks are considered a primary source.
Primary sources can be found both in libraries and archives. Many have been digitized and accessible online, while others are only accessible by visiting an archive or getting a print book at the library or through Interlibrary Loan. Explore the tabs on this page to see where and how you can find and access these sources!
Caption: One of 634 drawings from the collection, "They still draw pictures", which is part of the Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection housed in the Mandeville Special Collections Library at UC San Diego.
The UCSB Library, as well as the rest of the UC campuses, hold rich collections of archival materials from Latin America, the Caribbean and Iberia. Some collections are accessible physically at UCSB Special Research Collections while others can be accessed online through the Online Archive of California (where you can search for finding aids) and Calisphere, the portal to digital collections from California's libraries, archives, and museums.
Explore these resources following the links below:
- Calisphere
Calisphere aggregates digital materials from all UC's, and libraries, archives, and museums across the state. A great resource to find images and other digital resources related to Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. You can search across all collections, search for specific collections, or search within any of the UC campuses sites. Try to search by country or a topic, such as the "Spanish Civil War". Tip: Use quotation marks to search for phrases!
Newspapers are a type of primary source used in history. Many archives have newspaper collections, and some of them have even been digitized and may available online.
Note: As any primary source used for historical research, be aware of the strengths (first witness accounts) and weakness (bias, forgetfulness, sensationalism) of this type of source.
Historical Newspapers Databases:
- Hemeroteca Digital de la Biblioteca Nacional de EspañaThe Digital Periodical and Newspaper Library is part of the Hispanic Digital Library project, the aim of which is public reference and internet dissemination of the bibliographic heritage held in the Biblioteca Nacional.
- Colección Digital de Revistas y Periódicos Españoles at UConnThis guide gives free access to a selection of Spanish magazines and newspapers from UConn's Archives and Special Collections. This selection of digitized periodicals reflects the complex history of Spain through these magazines and newspapers from the XVIIIth, XIXth and early XXth century, with the majority of the collection focusing in the XIXth century. You can research literary, political, and gender topics by exploring these digital pages.
This is a selection of archival online resources available through UCSB Library. For more online resources available on the Web, check out the tab labelled, Finding Spanish & Portuguese Primary Resources!
- Brazilian and Portuguese History and Culture: The Oliveira Lima Library This link opens in a new windowThis is digitized collection of about 4000 pamphlets held at the Oliveira Lima Library at the Catholic University of America, published chiefly in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Topics include Brazilian and Portuguese history, literature, and politics, but nearly all topics and time periods beginning with the colonial era are represented.
- Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro This link opens in a new windowThis full text database contains the most important dramatic works of sixteenth and seventeenth century Spain. Each play is reproduced in full, including the "Preliminaries" which contain "aprobaciones", "censuras", "privilegios" etc. Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro contains hundreds of plays written by 16 dramatists including Lope de Vega, Calderûn de la Barca, Agustìn Moreto, etc. The texts are in Spanish and fully searchable;
This is a selection of archival online resources available through UCSB Library. For more online resources available on the Web, check out the tab labelled, Finding Spanish & Portuguese Primary Resources!
- Latin American Women Writers This link opens in a new windowIn Literature, it is the text written by writers, (prose, poetry, drama, etc.) what is considered a "primary source." This database focuses on the literary output of Latin American women writers. It also includes essays by Latin American feminists and about the feminist movement in the region.
- Archivo Rubén DaríoEste archivo consta de 261 documentos entre los que se encuentran cartas, postales, tarjetones, tarjetas de visita, recibos, facturas, separatas, etc. La mayor parte de esta correspondencia data de 1902-1904, años en los que el escritor vivió en París como corresponsal de La Nación y cónsul de Nicaragua. Desde este micrositio también pueden consultarse 23 documentos sonoros de conferencias y tertulias sobre Rubén Darío que se realizaron en el antiguo Instituto de Cultura Hispánica (ICH) en la década de los 60.
This is a selection of bibliographic and archival material freely available for the study of Medieval Spain and Portugal. This is not an exhaustive list but a sampling of the great variety of content freely available online. If you want me to add a new resource, please contact me!
- Bibliography for the History of Medieval CataloniaGuide produced by historians Paul Freedman of Yale and Adam J. Kosto of Columbia University. Last updated in 2001.
- Cantar de Mio Cid Digital Project"The Cantar de mio Cid (Cid) web project is conceived as an educational tool that will allow students of the Spanish epic to understand and appreciate the oral essence of the genre and to recognize the enormous conceptual distance between an oral narrative poem and the modern textual editions used in the classroom."
- LIBRO: The Library of Iberian Resources OnlineOnline out-of-print university press books on Peninsular history from the 5th-17th centuries
- PhiloBiblonBibliographies of ancient texts in Spanish, Gallego, Portuguese and Catalan hosted by UC Berkeley.
- Europeana RegiaAn international project that digitize and made available over 1000 rare and precious manuscripts from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. All of them were once part of three great royal collections that are currently dispersed and which represent European cultural activity at three distinct periods in history: the Bibliotheca Carolina (8th and 9th centuries), the Library of Charles V and Family (14th century) and the Library of the Aragonese Kings of Naples (15th and 16th centuries). These manuscripts are now fully accessible on the websites of the partner libraries and have also been included in Europeana.