Outline of this guide: Reference Works Books Articles

Other useful links: Book Review Sources RefWorks: A Guide Research Log Research Planner

• Dictionaries
  To find dictionaries, go into the Library Catalog and do a "Subject" search for one of the following Library of Congress Subject Headings:
  • Spanish language dictionaries
  • Spanish language dictionaries English
  • English language dictionaries Spanish
  Some useful dictionaries include:
  • Collins Spanish-English, English-Spanish Dictionary. Colin Smith. 3rd ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.
    Reference R 463.2 S644c
  • Diccionario de la Lengua española (Real Academia Española). 22nd ed. 2 vols. Madrid: Editorial Espasa Calpe, 2001.
    Reference R 463 A16d22
    The library also has earlier editions of this dictionary.
  • Diccionario de uso del español. María Moliner. 2nd ed. 2 vols. [Madrid]: Gredos, 1998.
    Reference R 463 M722d2
    The library also has the CD-ROM version; it is shelved at the Circulation Desk.
  • Oxford Spanish Dictionary. Ed. Beatriz Galimberti Jarman and Roy Russell. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003.
    Reference R 463 O98 2003
  • Pequeño Larousse ilustrado. Ramón García-Pelayo y Gross. Paris: Ediciones Larousse, 1976.
    Reference R 463 L332p-g
  • Tesoro de la Lengua Castellana o Española. Sebastian de Covarrubias Orozco. Madrid: Editorial Castalia, 1994.
    Reference R 463 C873t
• Spanish Literature & History
  • Bibliografía de la literatura picaresca; desde sus orígenes hasta el presente. Joseph Laurenti. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1973.
    Reference R 016.8 L383b
  • Bibliographie internationale de l’Humanisme et de la Renaissance. Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1965– .
    Reference R 016.94 B582
  • Biography Reference Bank. H.W. Wilson, 2003- .
  • Diccionario de literatura española. Ed. Germán Bleiberg and Julian Mariás. 3rd ed. Madrid: Revista de Occidente, [1964].
    Reference R 860.3 D553
  • Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1978- .
    Reference R 928.1 D554
  • Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula. Ed. German Bleiberg et al. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993.
    Reference R 860.3 D5532
  • Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Ed. Joseph R. Strayer. 13 vols. New York: Scribner, 1982–1989.
    Reference R 909 D554
  • Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Ed. Paul F. Grendler. 6 vols. New York: Scribner’s, 1999.
    Reference R 940.2 E56
  • The Feminist Encyclopedia of Spanish Literature. Ed. Janet Pérez and Maureen Ihrie. 2 vols. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
    Reference R 860.9 F329
  • Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402-1975. Ed. James S. Olson. New York: Greenwood, 1992.
    Reference R 914.6 H673
  • Manual de literatura española. Felipe B. Pedraza Jiménez, Milagros Rodríguez Cáceres. 14 vols. Pamplona: Cenlit, 1980–2000.
    Little Library Stacks 860.9 P371m
  • Medieval Iberia: An Encyclopedia. Ed. E. Michael Gerli. New York: Routledge, 2003.
    Reference R 946.02 M489
  • The Oxford Companion to Spanish Literature. Ed. Philip Ward. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
    Reference R 860.3 O98
  • Reference Guide to World Literature. Ed. Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast. 3rd ed. 2 vols. Detroit, MI: St. James Press, 2003.
    Reference R 809 R332
  • Spanish Literature, 1500-1700: A Bibliography of Golden Age Studies in Spanish and English, 1925-1980. Comp. William Moseley et al.. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1984.
    Reference R 016.86 M898s
  • Spanish Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Source Book. Ed. Linda Gould Levine et al. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1993.
    Reference R 860.9 S735

• To find books at Davidson, search the following:
  • Library Catalog
    Includes information about books, government documents, and journals, magazines, and newspapers in the Library.
    • To locate videos, do a keyword search and limit your search by the format "video materials (VHS/DVD)."
    • To locate appropriate Library of Congress Subject Headings, start with a keyword search and then browse records.
      Useful subject headings include:
      • Picaresque literature
      • Picaresque literature, Spanish history and criticism
      • Rogues and vagabonds in literature
      • Spanish fiction
    • To locate works about a person, do a subject search for the person's name (last name first).
    • To locate bibliographies on a person or topic, do a keyword search and add the following: su bibliography.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use a dollar sign $
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "
    • Wildcard: use a question mark ?
• To find information about books that might be available from other libraries, search the following:
  • WorldCat
    Indexes books, periodicals, and other materials held by libraries around the world. Search WorldCat to identify additional books on your topic and then order the books on interlibrary loan.
    Note: It can be helpful to identify relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Library Catalogue first; you can then do a subject search in WorldCat to find additional items with these subject headings.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: insert a "w" between the words in a phrase (for example, "cold w war")
    • Wildcard: use a question mark ?

• Starting points
  • Academic Search Premier
    (1975 to present) Indexes popular and scholarly articles in a broad range of subject areas; also includes citations to book reviews and citations to articles in several national newspapers.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "
    • Wildcard: use a question mark ?
  • OmniFile Full Text Mega
    (1982 to present) Indexes articles from over 3,000 scholarly and popular periodicals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences; also includes the full text of selected articles from over 1,650 of these periodicals.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: unnecessary when using "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
    • Wildcard: do not use with "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use a question mark ?
• Core Resources for Spanish
  • ITER: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance
    (1842 to present [publication date of articles indexed]; 400-1700 [historical time period covered]) Indexes scholarly articles and books on topics related to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use a dollar sign $
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
    • Wildcard: use a question mark ?.
  • MLA International Bibliography
    (1926 to present). Indexes journal articles, books, and doctoral dissertations in the fields of English, American, European, Asian, African, and Latin American linguistics, modern languages and literatures, film studies, and folklore.
    For more information, see the MLAIB Search Planner.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
    • Wildcard: use a question mark ?
  • Notable Journals
    (All are indexed by the MLA International Bibliography.
    • Bulletin of Hispanic Studies
      Library holdings: 1950 to present.
    • Hispanic Review
      Library holdings: 1933 to present (1933-2002 available online through JSTOR).
    • Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
      Library holdings: 1996 to present (2000 to present also available online).
    • MLN: Modern Language Notes
      Library holdings: 1886 to present (1886-2000 available online through JSTOR; 1995 to present available online through Project Muse).
    • Renaissance Quarterly
      Library holdings: 1967 to present (1967–2002 also online through JSTOR).
    • Revista de Estudios Hispánicos
      Library holdings: 1967 to present.
    • Revista Hispánica Moderna
      Library holdings: 1947 to present.
    • Romance Quarterly (formerly Kentucky Foreign Language Quarterly)
      Library holdings: 1954 to present.
• Other Resources
  • Essay & General Literature Index
    (1985 to present) Indexes chapters and essays in edited collections.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: unnecessary when using "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
    • Wildcard: do not use with "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use a question mark ?
  • Historical Abstracts
    (Time period covered: 1450 to present; publication coverage: 1954 to present). Indexes journal articles, book chapters, doctoral dissertations, and book reviews.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "
    • Wildcard: use a question mark ?
  • Humanities Abstracts
    (1907 to present [publication date of articles indexed]) Indexes journal articles and some book reviews on all humanities subjects, including history, classics, art, archeology, literature, philosophy, and religion.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: unnecessary when using "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks ""
    • Wildcard: do not use with "All - Smart Search"; otherwise, use a question mark ?
  • JSTOR
    Includes pdf copies of scholarly articles from a core collection of journals; also includes book reviews. Note:JSTOR does not contain articles from the most recent 3-5 years.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use a plus sign +
    • Phrase searching: automatic
  • Periodicals Index Online
    (c. 1665-1995) Indexes journal and magazine articles as well as book reviews in a broad array of humanities, social sciences, and science subjects.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: automatic
  • Project Muse
    Includes pdf and HTML copies of journal articles published by university and scholarly presses.
    Search Syntax:
    • Truncation: use an asterisk *
    • Phrase searching: use double quotation marks " "