Latin American Studies
(written 1991, revised August 2003)
As used in this document, Latin America refers to some forty independent nations, colonies, territories and commonwealths of the Western Hemisphere. Latin America extends from the Mexican border with the United States to the end of the South American landmass, near the Antarctic Circle and includes the islands of the Caribbean. The major languages of the region are Spanish and Portuguese. However, Dutch, English and French, as well as dozens of autochthonous and Creole languages also flourish.
Clientele:
The principal users of the collections are scholars and students associated with Cornell’s Latin American Studies Program (LASP). LASP holds National Resource Center designation, one of twenty in the nation. LASP counts 45 members, 30 associate members and 120 graduate students from the humanities, social sciences, applied sciences, professional schools and the library. One of LASP’s particular strengths is the mixture of language and area studies with programs in applied social sciences, especially sociology, labor studies and developmental economics which make Latin American collection development a multi-library and multi-selector enterprise.
Collection Description:
Cornell’s largest, single aggregation of Latin American information sources resides in Olin Library, which houses the university’s principal collections in the humanities and social sciences. Mann Library (social and life sciences), Catherwood (labor), Engineering (geology) and the Cox (music and musicology) and Fine Arts libraries also hold considerable collections of Latin Americana. Current holdings exceed 300,000 monographic volumes and 4,000 periodical titles, placing Cornell among the nation’s ten largest Latin American collections. In recent years print holdings have been augmented, and in some cases replaced, by digital resources. The region’s major indexing tools, some of its journal literature and a burgeoning collection of titles published in Latin America are now available for consultation over the Internet.
The existing collections reflect the history of LASP and the research interests of its members. Disciplinary strengths in anthropology, history, and literature make for exceptional depth in those subjects, and the library’s commitment to acquiring primary source materials has made the collection of statistics and national-level documents a priority. The Andean region (Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador) became an early focus of collection building, as Cornell social scientists were prominent in pioneering scholarship there. Peru was Cornell University Library’s responsibility under the Farmington Plan and successive national acquisitions agreements. Currently, the Library retains a responsibility for maintaining research-level collections of Peruvian and Bolivian imprints. A long-term interest in Brazil, especially in its history, makes the Portuguese-speaking area of South America another area with strong library holdings.
Current collecting from the region follows a country, rather than a subject, approach and reflects both faculty interests and historical strengths, i.e.., the Andean republics and Brazil. Spanish and Portuguese-language materials, published in Latin America, comprise some 65% of current receipts, and though few in number, materials in autochthonous languages are acquired when they become available. Booksellers acting on instructions from the bibliographer purchase the bulk of these materials in Latin American book markets. Scholarly materials in English and other European languages are collected extensively, usually from advertisements prepared by booksellers or publishers.
Cooperative Arrangements:
Cooperation characterizes Latin American collection development. The Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (SALALM), of which Cornell is a charter member, actively coordinates efforts to preserve endangered materials and to identify gaps and unnecessary overlaps in North American Latin American Collections. The Library’s membership in the Center for Research Libraries and the Latin American Microform Project extends Cornell readers’ access to cooperatively-held Latin Americana, especially newspapers and microform sets. And the NorthEast Research Libraries consortium has greatly expanded access to electronic materials about Latin America through cooperative purchases.
Collection Conspectus:
Country
ECS
CCI
Mexico
3W
3+W
Central America (Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama)
2F
2F
Caribbean (29 island nations, colonies, territories and commonwealths)
2F
2F
Peru
4W
4W
Bolivia
4W
4W
Ecuador
3W
3+W
Brazil
4W
4-W
Colombia
3F
3F
Chile
3F
3F
Argentina
4-F
3+F
Uruguay
2F
2F
Paraguay
2F
2F
Venezuela
3F
3F
Surinam, Guyane, Guyana
2F
1+F
Formats and Exclusions:
Materials in all formats are collected. Printed books and journals predominate, although microforms, videos and, increasingly, digitized information enter the collection, as well.
