Research Guides: From Marginalized Experience to Transformative Political Force: The Case of Latinas/os in Contemporary United States: Getting started in the library

Welcome

This is a library reseach aid for students enrolled in Professor Omar Rivera's Fall 2013 Case of Latinas/os in Contemporary United States Advanced Entry Seminar (AES). In it you will find suggestions for locating books, articles, databases and other resources. Please feel free to contact me for further assistance.

Digital reference sources

Credo Reference
A full-text online collection featuring entries from atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, and other reference books.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition

Why use encyclopedias & other reference works?

Reference works like encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, and other collections of information are useful for quickly identifying key facts or researching background information about a particular event or person. Background reading in reference sources can help you:

understand historical or social context
gather statistics and other supporting data
brainstorm ways to narrow or broaden your research topic
identify additional sources of information

Reference works can be printed or in digital form. Our library's print Reference Collection is on the first floor. Print and digital reference works can be located by searching the Worldcat@SU online catalog or by browsing the library's website.

Select titles in the library's print reference collection

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States
Call Number: R 973.0468 Ox25 v.1-4
Provides access to "information about the fastest growing minority population in the United States. With an unprecedented scope and cutting-edge scholarship, the Encyclopedia draws together the diverse historical and contemporary experiences in the United States of Latinos and Latinas from Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Central America, South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.

Below are a few of the reference works that have entries relevant to your class. Look alphabetically or in the books' indexes for names of people or places, events, concepts, etc. All the library's reference books are identified in Voyager; below is only a sampling.

The Handbook of Hispanic Cultures in the United States
Call Number: R 973.0468 H191 v.1-4
[vol. 1] History / edited and introduced by Alfredo Jimenez
[vol. 2] Anthropology / edited and introduced by Thomas Weaver
[vol. 3] Sociology / edited and introduced by Felix Padilla
[vol. 4] Literature and art / edited and introduced by Francisco Lomeli.
Latinas in the United States by Vicki Ruíz ; Virginia Sánchez Korrol
Call Number: R 920.72 L349 v.1-3
A comprehensive historical encyclopedia that records the contribution of women of Latin American birth or heritage to the economic, political, and cultural development of the United States.