Collins Memorial Library: SPAN 311: Literature of the Americas: Articles

What's a secondary source?

In secondary sources, authors analyze and interpret primary source materials.

Secondary sources can be scholarly or popular. Scholarly sources (sometimes called "academic" or "peer-reviewed" sources) are written by and for experts and typically include bibliographies and citations. Popular sources are written for a general, non-expert audience and can be authored by anyone.

Recommended Databases

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
The key database for identifying scholarly books, essays, articles, and dissertations on modern literature in all languages. Also covers cultural studies, folklore, film studies, and linguistics.
Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database containing full text journal, magazine & newspaper articles, many from peer-reviewed titles. This scholarly collection covers information in nearly every area of academic study.
Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
Offers full text plus abstracts and indexing of an international array of peer-selected publications, including coverage of Latin American, Canadian, Asian and other non-Western art, new artists, contemporary art, exhibition reviews, and feminist criticism.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing, abstracts and some full-text, for international periodicals. Covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Music Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing, abstracts and full-text, for international music periodicals. Content covers the full spectrum of subjects and all aspects of music, including music education, performance, ethnomusicology, musical theatre, theory, popular music forms and composition.
Film Index International This link opens in a new window
A resource focusing on entertainment films and personalities. Produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute (bfi) it is based on the Summary of Film and Television (SIFT) database collated by the bfi over the past 70 years.

Latin America & Iberian Database
Full-text access to academic journals that are published in many Latin American countries, Spain, and Portugal. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, social sciences, education, and humanities.

PRISMA Database (Publicaciones y Revistas Sociales y Humanísticas) This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive reference resource providing scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities for the interdisciplinary academic study of Hispanic and Latin America and the Caribbean Basin. Content is available in Spanish, Portuguese and English

How to Search for Spanish Language Material in Databases

Depending on the database, there are a few strategies to find resources written in Spanish:

You can:

conduct your search in English and then, once you have a list of results, click on the Search Options and then from the Language list, select Spanish.
search using Spanish search terms.
locate the Thesaurus or Subject Terms and appropriate Spanish terms.

Be aware of databases that auto correct Spanish words to similar English words.

Class Exercise

Evaluating Online Information

Let's say your topic is examining how Mariana Enriquez's novels use horror to explore Argentinian history. You find the following articles:

Cuerpos que aparecen, "cuerpos-escrache": de la posmemoria al trauma y el horror en relatos de Mariana Enriquez/Bodies That Appear, "Escrache-Bodies": From Post-Memory to Trauma and Horror in Short Stories by Mariana Enriquez

An Argentinian allegory: Our Share of Night, by Mariana Enriquez

Scan the article and answer the following questions.

What is this article about? Jot down any keywords or main ideas that you see.
Is this a scholarly article or a popular article?
What differences and similarities do you notice between the two articles?

News Resources

To find media coverage of contemporary issues, try the following:

Latin American Newsletters (LatinNews) This link opens in a new window
Provides expert political, economic, and security analysis on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Access limited to 1 simultaneous user.
Access World News This link opens in a new window
Find global information on topics related to business and economics, the environment, global issues, health, international studies, literature, performing and fine arts, politics and government, science, social issues, technology and more from a variety of news media featuring newspapers, videos and web-only content.
International Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Provides the most recent news content outside of the US and Canada, with archives which stretch back decades featuring newspapers, newswires, and news sites in active full-text format.
Nexis Uni (formerly LexisNexis Academic) This link opens in a new window
Access to news, business, governmental and legal sources.
Los Angeles Times This link opens in a new window
One of the largest metropolitan newspapers in the U.S. The Times' is the largest news gathering operation in California. Each issue of every newspaper is indexed thoroughly, giving access to top news stories, and detailed information on the arts, sports, business, and popular culture. Even such items as editorials, editorial cartoons, obituaries, and letters to the editor from well-known people are indexed.
New York Times (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Includes The New York Times; Late Edition (East Coast), New York Times Magazine, and New York Times Book Review.

General Database Search Tips

Try these strategies to become a better, more efficient searcher -- and help you find articles that you can actually use:

Build your search vocabulary -- keep a running list of key words, phrases, concepts, synonyms, and any related terms or ideas that you find.
Use advanced search features -- narrow your search with "AND," expand your search with "OR," or search in specified fields (i.e., author, title, publication, abstract).
Use search limits -- control the types of results you get (academic journals? language?) and how they are displayed (date? relevance?) so that you're only looking at results you can use.
Try multiple searches and evaluate your results -- try to figure out why you got the results you did, and adjust your search until you get closer to results you can use.
Use database descriptors -- once you find an article that looks good, see what descriptors or "subject headings" were assigned to it in the database. You can use these to search only for articles that have the same descriptors attached.

Tipasa: Interlibrary Loan

If your article is not available at Collins Library, you've got another option for getting it. Use Tipasa, our interlibrary loan service.

Tipasa is linked to your library account so you'll need to log in to use it.

Once you are logged in, either go directly to Tipasa and manually enter the information, or, if you're using a database, look for a shortcut link to automatically fill out the form:

Allow at least a week for the article to come. If your article is delivered in electronic format, you'll receive an email with a link to follow as soon as it's arrived.