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>>.
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.
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.
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.
Last updated November 2024.
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 2024.
For Historical information about a country or region, use these search query patterns:
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. Find them easily with this search query formula:
Last updated November 2024.
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
Last updated November 2024.
Library of Congress Classification System
The TMS library use the LC Classification System
D – History: General and
F – 1201-3799 History: Latin
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
