LibGuides: H327 Latin American History: Search Techniques

Research Techniques for Latin American Research

Using the Discovery Catalog

Watch these instructional videos for information on using the Powell Library's Discovery Catalog and conducing scholarly research.

Introduction to Discovery: Simple Search

Find Databases

InterLibrary Loan

Basic Research Skills

Seven Steps to Successful Research

See also these related Research Guides: History Research and Global Studies Research.

For Historical Information About A Country

Copy and paste the following search queries into the Discovery search box on the Powell Library Web site:

>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

NOTE: Any book the Powell Library does not have can be obtained via InterLibrary Loan

For General Background Information on a Country

Use the World Factbook and Encyclopaedia Britannica. Use these Britannica Academic Research Tools as well: "Compare Countries" and "The World Factbook"

Also, find encyclopedias and dictionaries on Latin America or an individual country with the Powell Library Catalog. Use the following search query as a template identifying encyclopedias and dictionaries on a specific country:

>su:encyclopedias OR dictionaries AND su:latin america AND x0:book

When the results list is retrieved, consider further focusing the results with the Filters to the left, i.e. by Year of Publication, Academic Discipline, Language, etc. See image below.

"xo:book" limits the search to books (hardcopy or softcopy) thus eliminating book reviews (articles) about encyclopedias. Alternatively, leave it out of the search query and use the Resource Format filter to the left of the results list to limit to just books, print books, eBook, etc.

Last updated March 2025.

Databases for Latin American History

Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
Covers over 15 different academic subjects. To access content available to TMUS, search a topic then select “Only show content I have access to” from the refining options to the left.
ClasePeriodica (FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
Index of Latin American journals in the sciences and humanities. Last updated 2011.
CLASE indexes documents published in Latin American journals specializing in the social sciences and humanities. PERIODICA covers journals specializing in science and technology. This index contains information from articles, essays, book reviews, monographs, conference proceedings, technical reports, interviews and brief notes published in journals edited in 24 different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from publications that focus on Pan-American issues. Clase: 1975 to present; Periodica: 1978 to present. Index updated quarterly.
Compare Countries (Britannica) This link opens in a new window
Choose two countries and compare their country profile, geography, history, population, area, and other important facts in the form of statistical charts, maps, images, articles and related resources.
Countries, Peoples & Cultures (Salem Reference) This link opens in a new window
Includes Central & South America; Central, South & Southeast Asia; Western Europe; Easter Europe; Middle East & North Africa; Eastern & Southern Africa; Western & Central Africa; North America & The Caribbean; and East Asia & The Pacific.
Defining Documents in World History (Salem Reference) This link opens in a new window
A collection of important historical documents ranging from the ancient world to the twentieth century.
Global Issues (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Analyze important global issues and events through Topic Overviews, International Viewpoints, Academic Journals, Primary Sources, Reference Sources, Biographies, Infographics, Images, Videos, Audio, News, Magazines, Statistics, Websites, and Related Topics..
Great Events From History (Salem Reference) This link opens in a new window
A collection of titles organized around significant events from ancient times to the 21st century.
Great Lives From History (Salem Reference) This link opens in a new window
Provides biographies of important people from all historical periods and from every part of the globe and covers achievements of thousands of individuals in numerous disciplines, including science, politics, arts and humanities.
Hospitality & Tourism (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Quickly access articles from scholarly journals and other trusted periodicals. Includes Topic Finder, Subject Guide Search, and Publication Search..
Informe Académico (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Search across full-text Spanish and Portuguese language scholarly journals and magazines from and about Latin America.
Milestone Documents (Salem Reference) This link opens in a new window
Primary source documents covering African American History, American History, World History, World Religions and American Leaders.
Nations of the World (Salem Reference) This link opens in a new window
A Political, Economics and Business Handbook, 2018 edition.
OAIster (FirstSearch) This link opens in a new window
Contains digital resources from open archive collections. Represents multidisciplinary resources from more than 1,100 contributors worldwide. Records contain a digital object link allowing users access to the object in a single click.
Digital resources including: digitized books and articles, born-digital texts, audio files, images, movies, datasets,

Collections including: Theses, Technical reports, Research papers, Image collections.

OAIster is a union catalog of metadata linking to digital resources. OAIster provides access to digital resources by "harvesting" their descriptive metadata (records) using OAI-PMH (the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting). (Please note: The Open Archives Initiative is not the same thing as the Open Access movement.)
Oxford Reference This link opens in a new window
The premier online reference product, spanning 25 different subject areas, bringing together Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias..
ProQuest Dissertations This link opens in a new window
The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses..
The official digital dissertations archive for the Library of Congress and the database of record for graduate research. The database offers full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997 and strong retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637. Full Text includes millions of searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the present day together with over a million full text dissertations that are available for download in PDF format.
Research Complete (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Search across multiple databases: biography, business, communications & mass media, computer science, economics, environmental studies, fine arts, gender studies, global issues, health & medicine, history, opposing viewpoints, physical therapy and sports medicine, pop culture, religion & philosophy, science, vocations and careers, war & terrorism.
War and Terrorism (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Quickly access articles from scholarly journals and other trusted periodicals. Includes Topic Finder, Subject Guide Search, and Publication Search..
World History (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Uncover information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in world history from a variety of sources.

Last updated March 2025.

Open Access & Web sites for Latin American History

ARDA: Association of Religion Data Archives This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the best data on religion. The archive is a collection of surveys, polls, and other data submitted by the foremost scholars and research centers in the world.
Founded as the American Religion Data Archive in 1997 and going online in 1998, the initial archive was targeted at researchers interested in American religion. The targeted audience and the data collection have both greatly expanded since 1998, now including American and international collections and developing features for educators, journalists, religious congregations, and researchers. Data included in the ARDA are submitted by the foremost religion scholars and research centers in the world. Currently housed in the Social Science Research Institute, the College of Liberal Arts, and the Department of Sociology at the Pennsylvania State University, the ARDA is funded by the Lilly Endowment, the John Templeton Foundation, Chapman University and the Pennsylvania State University.
California Digital Newspaper Collection This link opens in a new window
The California Digital Newspaper Collection contains significant historical California newspapers published from 1846-present, including the first California newspaper, the Californian, and the first daily California newspaper, the Daily Alta California. It also contains issues of several current California newspapers that are part of a project to preserve and provide access to contemporary papers.
All newspapers published before January 1, 1923 are in the public domain and therefore have no restrictions on use. If publishing, quoting from, or otherwise reproducing the images from this collection, we request that you credit the CDNC as follows: California Digital Newspaper Collection, Center for Bibliographic Studies and Research, University of California, Riverside, .

All newspapers published on or after January 1, 1923 may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
DRH: Database of Religious History This link opens in a new window
DRH is a gateway to reliable, comprehensive knowledge concerning the history of religions and culture around the world. Entries are authored by academic scholars.
GeoNames Gazetteer This link opens in a new window
Geographical database covers all countries and place-names and includes statistics and postal codes.
Handbook of Latin American Studies This link opens in a new window
Contains scholarly assessments of publications related to Latin America, from the 1930s to the present, including books, articles, maps, e-resources, and more.
This database contains bibliographic records found in the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) from the 1970s to the present. HLAS includes annotated citations for books, journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, maps and atlases, and e-resources.
International Mission Board Archives This link opens in a new window
The Archives collect, preserve, and make available resource materials that document Southern Baptist field personnel and missions history while networking with Southern Baptist Convention entities on research requests, records management practices, information sharing, and special projects.
OAC -- Online Archive of California This link opens in a new window
Provides free public access to detailed descriptions of primary resource collections maintained by more than 200 contributing institutions including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California and collections maintained by the 10 University of California (UC) campuses.
World Digital Library This link opens in a new window
This collection contains cultural heritage materials with descriptive metadata and narrative descriptions of books, manuscripts, maps and other primary materials in libraries, archives, museums and educational institutions around the world.
World Factbook This link opens in a new window
Provides information on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities. The Reference tab includes: maps of the major world regions, as well as Flags of the World, a Physical Map of the World, a Political Map of the World, a World Oceans map, and a Standard Time Zones of the World map.
World Radio Map This link opens in a new window
Now you can listen to the live broadcast of all FM and AM radio stations from major cities around the world. Just select a city on the map, review the full frequency list and click on the station name to listen online. Happy listening!