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Spanish 521 Understanding Latin America: Electronic Resources

This guide is designed to support Ms. Munoz-Fernandez's Spanish 521 course.

Databases vs. Websites

Databases

  • Paid for by the library.  Often very expensive!
  • Cannot be searched in Google.
  • Includes sources written by professors, scholars, and journalists, etc.
  • Authority of information is verified by experts.

Websites

  • Access is free.  No one is paying for the content.
  • Anyone can publish a website.  The information included is often NOT verified by anyone.
  • Can be searched in a variety of search engines, including Google.
  • Must examine with a critical eye!

2020 Special Section on Latinos in the USA

Recommended Electronic Databases

Research and Instructional Librarian

Research Tip - Bibliography Mining

When you find a book or an article that is relevant to your topic, always check the bibliography or the reference list of that source cited by an author for other sources and then ask a librarian for help with finding them. This process is called "Bibliography Mining" or "Cited Reference Searching".  

Please take advantage of it, as the author of the book or article has already done much of your topic research for you, and they spent many weeks/months/years of his/her life doing research.