Literatures in Spanish & Portuguese: Finding Print and Electronic Books and Texts

An introductory guide to doing research in Spanish and Portuguese language, literature, and cultural studies.

Finding Books

There are many resources to use to find books at UCSD, as well as in the broader San Diego, California, and Global Community. UC Library Search (displayed and accessed at the center of the UC Library Homepage) allows users to search the local UCSD and UC wide catalogs. UC Library Search also incorporates records from many databases (so you can search for articles at the same time that you search for books, microform, government documents, and more) and it also includes faceting, which helps you to narrow down the results of your search by format, subject, or other criteria. In addition, it is possible to expand a UC Library Search to include global results via WorldCat. See also the Keyword Search Strategies and Tools Box by Scrolling Down on the Search Strategies tab of this guide.

PLEASE CONSULT THE LINKED GOOGLE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS ON USING UC LIBRARY SEARCH.

For advice and help searching for and accessing eBooks, see the eBooks Resarch Guide.

UC Library Search

UC Library Search, accessible from the search box on the library's homepage, helps you locate books, film, music, maps, and various other materials at the UC San Diego Library and beyond. It also contains a limited number of online journals and newspaper articles. You may search by keyword, title, and author, and filter your search to what is available online. You can also place an interlibrary loan request through UC Library Search for materials at other UC campuses or libraries worldwide using your Single Sign-On credentials.

Search Tips

Sign in to access full results lists, electronic resources, request items, and save records. To access electronic resources, you must be logged into the VPN.
Capitalize the operators AND, OR, NOT when combining key search terms.
To request items that the Library doesn't have click the Request button.
Click Digitalization to request scans of print book chapters or print articles.

UC Library Search is one part of your complete search.

UC Library Search does not include all the content to which the Library subscribes. To extend your search, try a database. The database you use depends on the topic or subject you have chosen and the type of information you need to access. You may choose among broad subject areas (e.g., biology, art, political science, etc.), as well as interdisciplinary databases or ones that search across multiple disciplines.

A-Z Databases

Archival Print and Electronic Texts

Library of Congress's Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape
Online presentation of a selection of recordings taken from the Library of Congress's series of audio recordings of renowned poets and prose writers reading from their work in their native languages. Includes writers from the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S. .Launched in Sept 2015 as part of the Library's celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month. the Library of Congress today launched an

Several collections of text in different formats are featured on the "Beginning Your Research Tab" on this Research Guide.

Online and Subscription-based Ebook Collections

Regionally Specific Resources for Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American Literary Materials

americanismo (CEEIB and Redial)
Portal providing access to Latin American resources identified by two scholarly networks dedicated to scientific and academic cooperation between Spain and Latin America: the Consejo Español de Estudios Iberoamericano (CEEIB) and the Red Europea de Documentación de Información (Redial) sobre América Latina. Includes links to online periodicals, unpublished presentations, digital libraries, and bibliographic databases.
Biblioteca Cervantes Virtual
Contains full text of a number of digitized works in both Spanish and Latin American literature. Includes literature, history, articles from journals, and children's literature.From the Fundacion Joaquin Diaz.
Red de Bibliotecas Virtuales de Ciencias Sociales de América Latina y el Caribe
Contains the publications of 159 research organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean that form the membership of CLACSO. Spanish Language.
Biblioteca Digital Andina (Andean Digital Library)
Provides digital access to representative works of the cultural tradition of Andean countries. Books are categorized by topic, including: Classical Works, Aboriginal Languages, Biodiversity, and Andean Culture.
Biblioteca Digital Hispanica National Library of Spain's online digital library
Contains more than 10,000 works dealing with Spanish history, culture, and civilization. Of particular importance are the Obras Maestras representative of Spanish culture. Includes over 2500 literary works.
The Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal's Biblioteca Nacional Digital
cibera
German collaborative project providing access to library catalogs, internet resource links, periodical databases; newspapers, and wikis with content for Latin America, Spain, and Portugal
CSIC Digital
Contains digitized books, portions of books, articles, working papers and other scholarly information in language, literature, and culture collected in the CSIC (Spain's National Research Council) digital repository.
Digitalia
Over 8000 electronic books from Spain and Latin America spanning arts, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology. Includes more than 2000 e-journal issues. Most items published in Spanish or English, with some French, Catalan, and other languages.
Ibero-American Electronic Text Series
Project developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison devoted to Latin American and Iberian works in the Humanities. Digitizes Latin American and Iberian texts from the Middle Ages to the present.
Latin American Women Writers
Extensive searchable collection of prose, poetry, and drama composed by women writing in Mexico, Central America, and South America. Also included are essays by Latin American feminists and about the feminist movement that address both the universal concerns of women in every age and the distinctive issues of their struggles in the region. The database features 103,624 pages of prose, poetry and drama.
Latino Literature
Collection of poetry, and drama written citizens and residents of the United States whose heritage is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, and South American provided by Alexander St. Press. The majority of Latino Literature is in English, with selected works of particular importance (approximately 25% of the collection) presented in Spanish; more than 6,000 pages of bilingual text; and many Spanglish works. There are approximately 60,000 pages of fiction; 32,000 pages of poetry; and 450 plays, 200 of which are previously unpublished
Portal Academico de Lillian von der Wlde Moheno
Web site identifying an extensive network of sites providing electronic texts and critical information on both Peninsular and Latin American literature from all periods at academic institutions and research institutes throughout the world. Complied by a professor at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana de Itzapalapa in Mexico.
Out of The Wings
A searchable online database of information in English on Modern Spanish, Golden Age and Spanish American theatre and playwrights and translated excerpts of plays.

More general resources including Iberian and Latin American literary content

ACLS Humanities eBooks
Full-text and full-page-image access more than 5,100 books in the humanities and area studies, recommended by scholars as significant contributions to their respective fields. From the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).
Black Drama
Contains approximately 1,462 plays by 233 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, and production companies, as well as selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
Black Short Fiction and Folklore from Africa and the African Diaspora
Constitutes the most comprehensive collection yet created of stories from Africa and the African Diaspora, offering short stories and folktales, ranging thematically from oral traditions that date back many hundreds of years to contemporary tales of modern life. In addition to these works, the database includes complete runs of selected literary magazines.
HathiTrust
The HathiTrust Digital Library is a digital preservation repository and an access platform. It provides long-term preservation and access services for public domain and copyrighted content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives. Content is full-text searchable; most items published before 1923 are full-text viewable and downloadable.
Find Ebooks @ UC San Diego Research Guide
The Find Ebooks @ UC San Diego Research Guide points to many of UC San Diego's Ebook collections and also provides pointers to searching the catalog for Ebooks or searching within specific Ebook collections for material on the subject you are researching.
JSTOR e-book collection
Schomburg Black Studies Center
Includes fulltext journals and indexing from the International Index of Black Periodicals, newspapers and essays from the Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience.

Cambridge Companions to Literature and Classics
Thousands of essays on major authors, periods, and genres.