In the Service of Learning through Information
 RESOURCES of LAT:  MATERIALS and SERVICES
TO LATweb or BrazHomepage  ¤  2006  ¤ Questions or Comments to Prof. Edward A.  "Ted" Riedinger

             |    For the duration of the 2006-2009 renovation of the Thompson (formerly Main) Library, LAT is functioning at the Ackerman Library (600 Ackerman Road). 
The move has altered some aspects of LAT resources.      |            

The Latin American Studies, Spanish, and Portuguese Collection (LAT) at Ohio State University Libraries is the premier resource in Ohio for study and research in these disciplines and comprises an extensive array of materials and services.

These are available for students and faculty at OSU and, through OhioLINK, to all colleges and universities in the state of Ohio.  These resources are also available to the general community.  While materials may only be loaned to students and faculty, the general community may use any of the resources by visiting LAT or consulting with its personnel.  LAT resources consist primarily of materials and services.

 I.  Materials                                    

1.  Books – Nearly 250,000 volumes devoted wholly or in part, directly or indirectly, to Latin America, Spanish, and Portuguese.  These volumes cover all disciplines of the social sciences and humanities together with areas of the physical sciences and fine arts.  While they are stored principally in the Main Library, they can also be found in the Music, Geology, Fine Arts, Journalism, and other specialized libraries on campus.  A highlight of the book holdings is a collection of several hundred rare first edition translations of Don Quixote, the literary classic of Hispanic and world culture.

2. Periodicals – More than 400 subscriptions from the US and other countries to current periodicals, reviews, journals, and magazines on Latin America, Spanish, and Portuguese.  There is a rare run from the early twentieth century of the famed Argentine magazine of social and political satire, Caras y caretas.

3. Databases – Online access to the Hispanic American Periodicals Index, the Handbook of Latin American Studies, Ethnic Newswatch, the Bibliograifa de la literatura española, and Teatro español del siglo de oro.

4. Microforms – Thousands of primary source documents stored on microfilm or in microfiche that include manuscripts, correspondence, maps, charts, biographies, and reports for the early colonial, national, and modern periods of the history and cultures of the Americas, reproducing holdings, among others, of the British Library and the libraries of Harvard and Yale Universities.

5. Maps – Numerous general and specialized atlases and raised physical relief maps of the regions and countries of Latin America and Iberia.

6. Videocassettes – Over one hundred video titles related to study and teaching of the Spanish language and to classics of Latin American and Iberian literature, including interviews with noted contemporary writers and cultural figures, such as Gabriel García Márquez and Carlos Fuentes.

7.  CDs/DVDs – Several thousand digitized texts of works of Hispanic American literature and history and hundreds of recordings of Latin American and Iberian classical and popular music.

ACQUISITIONS AND FUNDING AVAILABILITY
The strategy for acquiring LAT materials is  based on the amount of library funding available for the mass of materials produced by the worldwide print and electronic publishing industry.  A budget of approximately one hundred thousand dollars annually allows, at most, the purchase of no more two thousand monographs.  Purchases must  include, nonetheless, not only books but also audio-visual and online resources.
Priority in book acquisition is given to scholarly materials in English, Spanish, Portuguese, and other languages, related to Latin American studies and Hispanic languages and  literatures.  The volume of  publishing on these topics from university and research presses in the Western Hemisphere and Europe amounts to tens of thousands of titles annually.  Priority in purchasing, therefore, occurs based on immediate and long-term usage.  Thereby, materials selected are primarily for English-language titles from specialized Anglo-American presses and for Spanish or Portuguese-language titles from selected Latin American and Iberian publishers.
Every effort is made to accommodate all acquisition requests from library users either through the direct on-site holding of materials or by obtaining access to holdings at other sites.  OSU Libraries acquire such access through numerous agreements with state, regional, national, and international inter-library loan services and have contracted-access to numerous full-text retrieval databases.   However, given the limited and declining nature of state and university funding for library acquisitions, specialized collection development on a large scale and/or over an extended period of time requires cooperative and collaborative funding among interested university units. 

 II.  Services                        

1. Reference – Questions about research and topics related to Latin America, Spanish, and Portuguese can be answered by making an office appointment in LAT, sending an e-mail message (riedinger.4@osu.edu), or by phone (614-688-8797) or fax (614-292-1918). 

2. User Education and Bibliographic Instruction – Classroom instruction or individual tutorials are available in using the general LAT Collection or in specialized subjects by contacting riedinger.4@osu.edu.

3. Web Site – The web site of LAT is LATweb.  It offers a basic tutorial in the use of library materials for Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese research.  It also includes access to newspaper, radio, and television media from Latin America.

4. Media Links – LATweb also offers links to online newspapers and news magazines, music, and TV and radio channels from Latin American and Iberian countries.

5. Newsletter – To be regularly informed about new materials arriving in LAT, you may subscribe to the electronic Monthly Bulletin of New LAT Acquisitions by sending an e-mail message to riedinger.4@osu.edu.

AVAILABILITY TO GENERAL PUBLIC OF MATERIALS AND SERVICES
The materials and services described above are available to all students, faculty, and visiting scholars at Ohio State University, at Ohio colleges and universities, and residents of Ohio.  The loaning of materials can only be done to OSU personnel or within the OhioLINK system.  The consulting of materials and use of services are available to all.

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