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Historical Research: Latin American History & Culture

Search techniques and resources for the field of history.

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Search Techniques for Latin American Ethnography

Use the Powell Library Discovery platform

The examples used here are for <<latin america>>. To get information on a specific country or people group, simply use the name of that country or people group instead of <<latin america>>.

NOTE:  Do not use the carrots << >> in the search.  These are simply delimiters used to indicate the beginning and ending of the characters to be used in the search.

From the Powell Library Web site:

 

Option 1:  A very broad keyword search ("keyword" searches all the metadata, i.e. author, title, subject, table of contents, summary, etc.)

<<latin america ethnograph*>> -- This tells the Discovery search engine to look for records containing the terms "latin" AND "america" AND because of the use of the * (asterisk) Discovery knows to look for the root word "ethnograph" and any variation thereafter, so it will look for ethnography, ethnographic, ethnographies.

Search Powell Library Discovery

 

Option 2:  A focused metadata search -- in this instance the search is limited to the Subject field.  The metadata code used in Discovery is <<su:>>

<<su:latin america ethnograph*>> -- This will limit the search to those records containing these key terms somewhere in the Subject. 

Search Powell Library Discovery

 

 

Option 3: A very focused metadata search --  in this instance the search is limited to the Title field.  The metadata code used in Discovery is <<ti:>>

<<ti:latin america ethnograph*>> -- Here the search is limited to those records containing these key terms somewhere in the Title.

Search Powell Library Discovery

 

 

Last updated November 17, 2016

Focus Further

Once you get your results list you can further focus your results or narrow down the number of results by the use of a variety of limiting options available to the left of the results list.  For example:


Last updated November 17, 2016

Resources for Latin American Research

Use the Library Web site Discovery platform along with the Research Worksheet to find resources for a study of Latin American History.

The Research Worksheet can be found here: <<http://masters.libguides.com/worksheet>>

Discovery can be found here: <<http://www.masters.edu/library>>

Discovery Advanced can be found here: <<https://masters.on.worldcat.org/advancedsearch?databaseList=>>

NOTE:  Do not use the carrots << >> in the search.  These are simply delimiters used to indicate the beginning and ending of the characters to be used in the search. 

For Historical Information About A Country, search Discovery: 

su:latin america history

su:latin america 20th century

su:latin america 21st century

"su:" tells the search engine to search in the Subject field for the following terms, in this instance "latin" AND "america" AND "20th" AND "century"]

For specific countries in Latin America, use the same search query but replace "latin america" with the name of the country.

su:chili 21st century

su:venzuela history

su:paraquay 20th century

 

For General Background Information Of A Country, use encyclopedias and dictionaries on that country:

In the first search box select [Subject] and type <encyclopedias OR dictionaries>. 
 
      NOTE: “encyclopedias” and “dictionaries” must be plural; “OR”must be in all caps. 
 
In the next search box, again change the field to "Subject" and then type in the name of your chosen country.   See Figure 1 below.
 
Figure 1
 
It is also very helpful to limit the Format: to Books; Audience: to Not Juvenile; and Content: to NonFiction.Consider limiting the Language: to English as well (see Figure 1 above).  The language limit is especially useful when searching Libraries Worldwide.


Last updated November 17, 2016

Indexes, Databases, Open Accesss for Latin American History

Lock Access Limited to TMU Users Only

 Open Access Resource (free to all)

Pay Per View Access Fee May Apply

Last updated November 17, 2016

Reference Librarian

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Janet "Miss T." Tillman
Contact:
Robert L. Powell Library
The Master's University
21726 Placerita Canyon. Rd.
Santa Clarita, CA 91321
1.661.362.2201
Website

Browse the Shelves with Dewey

Dewey Decimal Classification System

The DDC is used by the TMU library.

900-999 Geography, history and auxiliary disciplines

910   Geography and travel

   912 Atlases, maps, charts & plans

   917 Gography of & travel in North America

   918 Geography of & travel in South America

920   Biography

930-990 History of ancient world; of specific continents, countries, localities; of extraterrestrial worlds

972 Middle America; Mexico

979 Great Basin & Pacific Slope region (Spanish West, Pacific Northwest, American Southwest )

980 History of South America

   981 Brazil                                    982 Argentina

   983 Chile                                     984 Bolivia

   985 Peru                                      986 Colombia & Ecuador

   987 Venezuela                             988 Guiana

   989 Paraguay & Uruguay

 Detailed Summaries of the DDC outline can be found here <<http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/dewey/DDC%2023_Summaries.pdf>> 


Last updated November 17, 2016

Browse the Shelves with LC

Library of Congress Classification System

The TMS library use the LC Classification System

D – History: General and Old World

F – 1201-3799  History: Latin America. Spanish America

F1201-1392 Mexico                                    F1218.5-1221 Antiquities. Indians     

F1401-1419 Latin America (General)         F1421-1440 Central America

F1435-1435.3 Mayas                                 F1441-1457 Belize

F1461-1477 Guatemala                             F1481-1497 Salvador (El Salvador)

F1501-1517 Honduras                               F1521-1537 Nicaragua

F1541-1557 Costa Rica                             F1561-1577 Panama

F1601-1629 West Indies                            F1630-1640 Bermudas

F1650-1660 Bahamas                               F1741-1991 Greater Antilles

F1751-1854.9 Cuba                                   F1861-1896 Jamaica

F1900-1941 Haiti (Island). Hispaniola        F1912-1930 Haiti (Republic)

F1931-1941 Dominican Republic               F1951-1983 Puerto Rico

F1991 Navassa                                          F2001-2151 Lesser Antilles Groups of                                                                         islands, by geographical distribution

F2006 Leeward islands                              F2011 Windward Islands

F2016 Islands along Venezuela coast       F2033-2129 Individual islands Groups of                                                                     islands, by political allegiance

F2131-2133 British West Indies                 F2136 Virgin Islands of the United States

F2141 Netherlands West Indies. Dutch West Indies       F2151 French West Indies

F2155-2191 Caribbean area. Caribbean Sea          F2201-3799 South America

F2201-2239 General                                  F2251-2299 Colombia

F2301-2349 Venezuela                              F2351 Guiana

F2361-2391 Guyana. British Guiana         F2401-2431 Surinam

F2441-2471 French Guiana                      F2501-2659 Brazil

F2661-2699 Paraguay                              F2701-2799 Uruguay

F2801-3021 Argentina                              F3031-3031.5 Falkland Islands

F3051-3285 Chile                                     F3301-3359 Bolivia

F3401-3619 Peru                                     F3701-3799 Ecuador

Library of Congress Classification Outline Web site: <<http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html>>


Last updated November 17, 2016