History 356: Culture and Identity in Latin America

After searching the library catalog and databases, you may want to try the internet. There are good and bad points to this. 

• A LOT turns up in the result set unless you have a very carefully structured search phrase. 
• Access does not equal quality or accuracy, you will need to evaluate the content as with any other source (see Secondary Sources main page for how to evaluate.) 
• A hit does not guarantee you have access to the content (hello, Amazon!)
• Content may only be in pieces due to copyright or author restrictions. 
• Wading through unsuitable hits costs you time and effort and impacts your time to analyze your resources and write your paper! 

Prepare: 

• Strategize your search by using accurate and scholarly terms to describe your topic based on your prior research. 
• Set up your Google Scholar Preferences to provide links to material we have at CSUSM.
• Know that you may only find a citation and not the full text but you can request the item through Interlibrary Loan.
• Be critical of what you find.
  • Check for authority of the author
  • Check that is it up-to-date information
  • Compare with other sources
  • Look for proof! Just because you see it in print does not mean it is legitimate. 
• Ask for help! 

Here is how to set your Google Scholar Preferences to assist in accessing full text from the CSUSM collections. 

Some publishers, organizations, and universities have placed open-access books on the internet. They may be older editions, out of copyright, and in some cases, pirated versions. 

Google Books is one means to discover these works. 

• Lacks subject headings to find similar materials
• Does not always have the complete book due to copyright restrictions
• Text navigation features are limited in comparison to the standard e-book
• Cannot download content
• It may be easier to request through our Digitization on Demand service

Other collections are found in the following: 

• HathiTrust
• Internet Archive (AKA) archive.org and its subset, Open Library
• Project Gutenberg 
• Library of Congress' Book/Printed material collection
• Digital Library of America
• Digital theses and dissertation collections at various universities (although these are not recommended for your research, the bibliographies can be useful to find published works)

Google Books offers a range of access to book content that Google has digitized from a variety of library collections. The results may appear as: 

• Citation only (tells you the book exists, but you cannot access content)
• Snippet or Preview (access to some of the book, but maybe not the part you need)
• Full text (the whole book with some search ability to focus on the part you need.) 

Content

• Not only books, but newspapers and magazines are included unless you apply the appropriate filter. 
• US government documents (reports, hearings, etc.) are included.

Tools: 

• The Library function allows to to bookmark titles into a collection within Google (you are giving up some privacy.) 
• Search function within the book shows how many matches there are to your search term which is not necessarily the most useful evaluation tool.  
• Date limiter is the publication date, not the historical period. 

Limitations:

• Cannot filter for scholarly works only, meaning you might get works of fiction on your topic.
• Search results will only highlight the first term in your search (to find the other terms, 'clear search' and type in the new term.) 
• Anything under copyright (1924 and newer) will likely limit the amount of content. 
• You cannot download any book.
• You cannot print from Google Books (use screen capture to save a piece you need.)