Brazilian Studies Linx

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Online electronic research resources for Brazilian Studies
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~ BRAZweb responds to the needs of two types of users: those worldwide accessing the web site of the Centre for Brazilian Studies at Oxford University, seeking online resources for research on Brazil, and those affiliated with the University. The databases on this site are mostly free public access, thereby serving the general public. Some databases, however, which are proprietary and subscribed to by Oxford libraries, are included in order to serve University users. The latter resources are accessible only by University members.
~ Many databases below concentrate on Latin America as a whole so that Brazil is a subsidiary focus within the larger concentration.
~ The databases are maintained at sites in various countries around the world so that BRAZweb provides a multinational focus for research on Brazil.

The three most essential types of electronic library research resources are:
1) Indexes ... information on what publications exist. 2) Catalogues ... information on what publications a library owns or holds. 3) Full-Text Retrieval Databases ... electronic access to the complete text of publications. 4) Online Reference Works and Orientation

_{________}1) Indexes_{__________}
Indexes list what articles and books exist and where they have been published.
● FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
REDIAL ... Red Europea de Información y Documentación sobre América Latina (site maintained in France)
CIBERA ... Biblioteca Virtual Iberoamericana / España / Portugal, interdisciplinary online library offering access to periodical indexes, catalogues, and full-text retrieval (site in Germany)
REDALYC ... La Red de Revistas Científicas de América Latina y el Caribe, España y Portugal (site in Mexico)
Handbook of Latin American Studies ... articles and books, with synopses, on and from Latin America, 1935- present (site in US)
Latin American Periodicals Table of Contents ... journal article contents for over 800 current periodicals from Latin America (US)
LATINDEX ... articles from numerous scholarly journals from all countries of Latin America (site in US)

● PROPRIETARY SUBSCRIPTION ACCESS through OxLIP
NOTE: OxLIP is the Oxford Libraries Information Platform, a portal to proprietary (subscription) databases
accessible by those affiliated with the University.
CLASE ... indexes journals in social sciences and humanities published in Latin America (site in Mexico)
PERIÓDICA ... covers journals specializing in science and technology related to Latin America (site in Mexico) CLASE and PERIÓDICA are accesssed under "databases" in FirstSearch.
Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) ... articles in and on Latin America, 1970-present (site in US)
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_{_________}2) Catalogues_{_________}
Catalogues store records of what books, periodicals, recordings, videos, and databases a library owns or holds.
● FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
Catalogues of academic, national, and research libraries in:
Brazil Portugal United Kingdom United States
See also CIBERA (in section one above)
Arquivo Nacional do Brasil ... descriptive finding aid for 662 collections; enter "serviços ao público" from homepage (site in Brazil)
Access to Archives (A2A) ... finding aids to archives in England and Wales from eighth century to present;
keyword entry "Brazil" results in 361 matches (site in UK)
NOTE: OLIS is the Oxford Libraries Information System, an online union library catalogue.

● PROPRIETARY SUBSCRIPTION ACCESS (OxLIP)
ArchiveGrid ... nearly a million descriptions of items from archival holdings around the world;
keyword search for "Brazil" brings up 2,126 matches (site in US)
WorldCat or FirstSearch (from OCLC, Online Computer Library Center -- Dublin, Ohio) … world's largest union library catalogue
with over 70 million bibliographic records (updated daily) from over 40 thousand libraries worldwide (site in US)

PLEASE NOTE: In searching indexes and catalogues, please keep in mind some basic strategies. Searching is based on access by author, title, subject, or keyword. Most library users, nonetheless, seek information on a particular topic or subject. Therefore, subject and keyword searching become the most applied and important to a user. Nonetheless, two precautions need to be kept in mind regarding subject and keyword searching. The former gives precise, focused results. However, if one does not know the correct phrasing for a subject heading, the search may produce no results. Keyword searching, on the contrary, offers a greater number of results. However, since it is searching only for keywords as they randomly appear in a record, many of the results may prove irrelevant. Therefore, one should always search for a topic using both subject and keyword searching. 1) Begin, therefore, with keyword searching. 2) From the results obtained from such searching, examine those records that are most relevant to your research. 3) Note from each record the subject phrase or phrases under which the item has been classified. This phrase gives the exact wording for effective and productive subject searching. 4) Re-do a search using the exact subject phrase(s). 5) From the combination of using keyword and subject searching, one can obtain both a broad yet focused range of results.
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   _{_________}3) Full-Text Retrieval_{_________}
  Books
● FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
Portuguese Literature   Brazilian Literature … classical works of writing in Portuguese (sites in Portugal and Brazil respectively)
Biblioteca Virtual of the Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales ... books and documents on contemporary
Latin American topics (site in Argentina)
Cybertesis ... Indexes and accesses university theses (masters and doctoral) worldwide, including numerous ones in/on Brazil (site in Chile)
Teses/Disssertações ... Index and full-text retrieval of Brazilian theses and dissertations (site in Brazil)
University of Virginia Online Text Centre ... books and illustrations in 13 languages (site in US)
Library of Iberian Resources Online ... books on history of Portugal (site in US)
History E-Book Project … includes sections for books on history of Brazil and Portugal (site in US)
See also CIBERA (in section one above).
World Factbook     Country Studies (sites in US)

Articles
● FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
SciELO ... articles from Brazilian scientific and scholarly journals in Portuguese, English, and Spanish (site in Brazil)
Google Scholar ... extensive global access to scholarly publications

● PROPRIETARY SUBSCRIPTION ACCESS (OxLIP)
JSTOR ... articles in major US and English-language academic journals (site in US)
Project MUSE ... articles in US and English-language academic journals (site in US)
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_{_________}4) Online Reference Works and orientation_{_________}
● FREE PUBLIC ACCESS
Online Reference Library for Brazilian Studies
Index of Brazilian History
Basic Guide to Online Research Resources for Brazilian Studies
Public Access (Non-Fee) Library Research Resources for Portuguese
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Please send questions or comments to Prof. Edward A. "Ted" Riedinger

BRAZweb offers internet information exclusively for educational purposes.
It does not promote or sponsor the content, opinions, or interests of any site.

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