LibGuides: Spanish Language & Hispanic Studies: SPAN 6330

Finding Books

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.

To find books written in Spanish, you can use Spanish words or you can search using English words and limit your results to Spanish language.

Some helpful keywords:

novela negra

novela policial

Latin America and detective fiction

Helpful Subject Headings

Go to the BGSU Libraries Catalog and do some subject heading searches:

Detective and mystery stories -- Bibliography

Detective and mystery stories, Argentine -- History and criticism

Detective and mystery stories, Cuban -- History and criticismDetective and mystery stories, Latin American -- History and criticism

Detective and mystery stories, Mexican -- History and criticism

Detective and mystery stories, Portuguese -- History and criticism

Latin American fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism

Finding Articles Written in Spanish

SPAN 6330: La Novela Policial en América Latina

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. Specific directions for each of the recommended databases is provided.

Information about finding and including images in your project is also available.

Core Database: Literary Resource Center (Gale)

Searches information about authors and their works. Includes biographies, portraits, critical essays, excepts of literary criticism, summaries of works, and full-text journal articles.

HIGHLIGHT: Use this resource to find background information before you begin your research. You will find information about some Latin American writers. Some information may be in Spanish, though the content in this database is primarily in English. To find articles written in Spanish, use the advanced search feature and select Spanish from the drop-down list of languages.

When you type a search term in Basic Search, you get several options to select how broad or focused you want your search to be. You can improve the precision of your search by putting phrases in quotes. A search on Novela Negra (no quotes) will return all items that contain the word Novela and the word Negra within a few words of each other. A search on "Novela Negra” (in quotes) will return only items that contain that exact phrase.

Among the Basic Search options you'll find:

Person – by or about will bring back items that were written by that person or that contain a significant amount of information about him or her.

Name of work searches titles of works (poems, plays, books, etc.) discussed in the collection as well as for any copies of the work itself that may be present.

Keywords is for finding your terms in key parts of each document in the product, such as the title of the item or subject terms or abstracts associated with it.

Literature Resource Center (Gale)

Core Datatabase: MLA International Bibliography

MLA indexes thousands of books and articles published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics every year, including works about literature transmitted orally, in print, or in audiovisual media and about human language. Coverage 1926 to present.

HIGHLIGHT: This database, considered to be the most comprehensive literature database, indexes materials written in Spanish but the indexing is in English. Search this database using English, though titles of works will be in Spanish. Additionally, this database will provide links to the full-text resources available in JSTOR, Project Muse, and other full-text resources.

MLA International Bibliography

Additional Databases

You may also find these databases helpful for your project:

Academic Search Complete
A multi-disciplinary full-text database that includes peer-reviewed journals, and a great resource for finding articles on any topic. Indexing and abstracting are 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 Advanced Search link and then from the Language list, select Spanish. Another strategy is to search using terms in Spanish.
Fuente Academica
A unique collection of scholarly academic journals from Latin American and Spanish publishers. This database provides full-text coverage (including PDFs) for nearly 200 scholarly Spanish-language journals. Almost all articles are in Spanish, but you can search in Spanish or English. How is this possible? Although most articles are in Spanish, indexing and abstracting are in English and Spanish.
JSTOR
A full-text database of scholarly journals in humanities, sciences, and social sciences. The included titles go back to the first issue, although the most recent 3 to 5 years are not included. Be careful: this database searches the full text of articles, not just indexing and abstracting. To find articles written in Spanish, use the advanced search feature and select Spanish from the drop-down list of languages. You will need to search using both languages to conduct a thorough search.
Literary Reference Center (EBSCO)
Literary Reference Center (LRC) contains detailed information on authors and their works, combining information from major respected reference works, books and literary journals to provide plot summaries, literary criticism, authors' biographies, articles from literary journals, and book reviews. Items are primarily in English.
Project Muse
A comprehensive selection of peer-reviewed journals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. It is also the sole source of complete, full-text versions of titles from many leading university presses and scholarly societies. Coverage varies (1993 to present). You can access articles in Project Muse via MLA, but its search capabilities allow you to conduct full-text searches of articles, not just searches of indexing and abstracting. Search using both languages to be thorough.

Latin American Mystery & Detective Writers

Latin American Mystery & Detective Writers
This document includes a list of Latin American Mystery & Detective Writers.

Select Web Sites

Centro Virtual Cervantes
The CVC is a freely available web site with biographical and critical information about well-known authors who write in Spanish.
Literature in Latin America - LANIC
Information about authors and their work arranged by country. Also includes links to full-text literary publications.

Images

Check out these resources for finding images for your project:

ARTstor
Contains over 60 image collections, including collections from the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the American Institute of Indian Studies, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Art, as well as most of the former AMICO archive. Search or browse images within ARTstor and then print, download or save images for educational use.
Images: Finding and Using Images for Research and Instruction
A guide to finding images for classroom, Internet, publication, and presentation use, including links to sites with information about citing images. Created by BGSU librarians.