Spanish Language & Hispanic Studies  Tags: spanish_linguistics hispanic_literatures culture_studies spanish  

SPAN 3520: Spanish Composition & Communication II
Instructor: Cindy Ducar

The University Libraries subscribes to or owns a considerable amount of information written in Spanish.  In most cases, you can conduct your search in English and limit your results to Spanish language. I give specific directions for each of the databases I have recommended.

For your paper in SPAN 3520, I suggest that that you start by searching for articles and, if you're not finding enough information, branch out and search for books.

Academic Search Complete is multi-disciplinary full-text database that includes more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, of which 4,400 are peer-reviewed journals.  This is a great resource for finding articles on any topic. Indexing and abstracting in this database is in English, even when an article is written in another language.

To find articles written in Spanish, 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.  Another strategy is to search using Spanish search terms.  For your search to be comprehensive, you will want to search both ways.

Lexis-Nexis Academic is a a great database for business and legal research.  However, in this class, you will use it to find full-text newspaper articles from around the world.  

In Lexis-Nexis, if you want to retrieve articles in Spanish, you should search using Spanish words because the database searches all of the words in articles and does not contain extensive indexing and abstracting.

To find Spanish language articles, follow these steps once you connect to the database:

1. Select: Major World Publications (non-English)
2. Enter your search terms in Spanish.
3. Once you have a list of results, look in the left-hand sidebar for the available Result Groups.  Click on Language, and then on Spanish.

Depending on your topic, you may want to search one of the following databases.   All of these databases have some Spanish-language materials.

America: History & Life
A comprehensive bibliography of articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. AHL offers abstracts and citations for articles appearing in over 2,000 journals published worldwide in history, related humanities, and the social sciences.

To find articles written in Spanish, 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.  Another strategy is to search using Spanish words.  For your search to be comprehensive, you will want to search both ways.

Art Abstracts/Full Text
Indexes over 400 international art publications, including periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. Entries in the database also cite any art reproductions used to illustrate articles and advertisements, under the artists' names and covers titles published in European languages, as well as English-language sources.

Click on Show Limit Options and choose Spanish from the drop-down Language box.

Economia y Negocios 
This database is produced in Peru by ESAN (Escuela de Administración de Negocios para Graduados), the oldest graduate school of business in the Spanish-speaking world. This Spanish-language database, which focuses on business and economics, consists of more than 60,000 bibliographic records. Coverage dates back to the early 1980s and includes over 200 periodicals published in Latin America and Spain.

All in Spanish.

Education Research Complete
A comprehensive database of articles about all fields of education, including curriculum instruction, administration, policy, funding, and related social issues. Most coverage is from 1925 to present, but some titles go back as far as 1882.

Most of the articles in the database are in English, but some are in Spanish. To limit to articles in Spanish add (ZL "spanish") to your search.

EXAMPLE: (ZL "spanish") and escuela

Ethnic NewsWatch
A full text database of the newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press of the United States. The database provides articles from 200 publications in English and Spanish and is completely searchable in both languages.

Use the Document Language drop-down search box on the Advanced Search page.

View a short video of a search for articles.

Fuente Academica
A unique collection of scholarly academic journals from renowned Latin American and Spanish publishers. This database provides full text coverage (including PDF) for nearly 200 scholarly Spanish language journals. Content is provided in Spanish from respected publishers worldwide.

All in Spanish

Humanities International Complete
A searchable database of the full text of hundreds of journals, books and other published sources from around the world. Covers all fields of the humanities.

Most of the articles in the database are in English, but some are in Spanish. To limit to articles in Spanish add (ZL "spanish") to your search.

EXAMPLE: (ZL "spanish") and cervantes

International Political Science Abstracts
Includes current indexing and abstracts of the world's leading journals in political science. This database covers nearly 900 journals published from 1989 to the present.

Use Spanish search terms to retrieve articles written in Spanish.  There is no search option for limiting to Spanish in this database.

Library Liaison:

Amy Fyn
Email: afyn@bgsu.edu
Phone: 419.372.2869

Catherine Cardwell is on leave.

For your project, you may want to use articles because they tend to be shorter and more focused than a book.  However, books can be a great source of background information.  Visit the Finding Books link to learn more about accessing materials via the BGSU Libraries or OhioLINK:

Use IM to chat with staff at the Research & Information Desk. For information about how to visit us, phone us, or email us, visit the Ask Us! page.