Reference Sources for Background Information

Encyclopedia Latina: History, Culture, and Society in the United States. Clapp Ref E184 S75 E587 2005 4 vols.

Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy. Clapp Ref E 183.7 E52 2002 3 vols.

Encyclopedia of Cuba. Clapp Ref F 1754 E53 2003 2 vols.

Encyclopedia of Latin American Politics. Clapp Ref F1410 .E56 2002. Chapter on Cuba.

U.S. Latin-American Relations. Clapp Ref F 1418 F457 2005

Foreign Relations of the United States. Clapp Docs JX 233 .A3

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic, then when you find a useful title, see what its subject headings are. Then click on these subject headings to find more about your topic.

Once you have found a useful record in the catalog, click on the call number and then view the "extended display". This is as if you are looking at the books on the shelf.

Try the following subject headings and their subheadings:

Cuba
Cuba politics and government 1959 1990
Cuba politics and government 1990
Cuba foreign relations
Cuba United States foreign relations

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Articles

The following databases provide either full-text articles or citations (information about when and where the article was published). Once you have a citation for an article, use the Find It! @ Wellesleylink from each citation to search one or more electronic journal sources through the Wellesley College Library Catalog. Use the name of the journal as the title and make sure you look at the dates covered carefully! If Wellesley does not own the article, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). See our A-Z list for additional databases; think of which database will have the information for the approach you want.

Look for ways to limit your search (by date, by subject headings, to scholarly or peer-reviewed sources).

Use Ulrich's Periodicals Directory to determine if a particular journal is scholarly or to to find out where to search for articles in a particular journal. In Ulrich's, search for the journal, look at the record, and click on the Indexing/Abstracting tab. Match the indexing/abstracting sources listed with the databases on our A-Z list. Then go to that database that indexes/abstracts your journal and put the journal title in the search box as a source along with your topic keywords.

     Suggested databases for this class:

PAIS - articles about political, social & economic issues, public affairs from 1937+. Index and abstracts only.

CIAO [Columbia International Affairs Online] - theory and research in international affairs from 1991 onward. Includes working papers from university research institutes, occasional papers series from NGOs, foundation-funded research projects, proceedings from conferences, books, journals and policy briefs. Note: using the advanced search feature will yield much better results. Note: working papers and policy papers are full text. Books and journal articles are selected full text. Search for the book or journal title in our catalog to see if we have access to the full text. Otherwise, use Interlibrary Loan.

Academic Search Complete and Expanded Academic ASAP - great starting points for scholarly & popular articles in every discipline from 1990+. Full text.

Web of Science (and Social Science) 1965+. Interdisciplinary subject searching of scholarly articles in the social, physical, and life sciences. Search for articles that cite known journal articles or books.

Latin America Database Archive - Economic & political news articles & analysis of Latin America 1986+. Check the box for CubaSource.

Periodical Index Online (PIO)- index to articles published (1665-1995) in 4,698 periodicals in the humanities & social sciences in 40 languages. Full text available to over 200 journals. Periodicals Archive Online (PAO) is the full-text component of PIO.

JSTOR- online archive from the first issue of core journals in Economics, Demographics, Political Science. Journals can be browsed by category or title or searched by keyword. Full text in Adobe Acrobat [.pdf] format. Articles within 3-5 years of current.

Project Muse - Academic journals in the humanities & social sciences, from the past five years

Alt-Press Watch - Full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press from 1995-present. This isn't the most scholarly source, but it is full text and can give you some leads.

Google Scholar - Google product that searches for academic, scholarly articles. Will link to full text at Wellesley.

Historical Abstracts - articles on world history since 1450, excluding US & Canada, 1954+.

ArticleFirst - an index to articles in all scholarly fields and popular culture from 1990+. Selected full text. This database is updated daily , so is useful for very current articles.

Women's Studies International - Indexes journal articles and books on women's studies, feminism, and gender studies, 1972 to present

Current News

RGE Monitor - ahead-of-the-curve information on global economic and geostrategic issues. Current news, blogs by economic experts, and timely analysis and issue reports.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service - English translations of foreign news and radio broadcasts, 1974-1996. Limit to Cuba by expanding Caribbean and checking the box. We have CD-ROMS that cover 1998-2004. You can also use the World News Connection in Westlaw Campus Research for news translations 2004+. Click on the Publications List link and type in World News Connection. Put a check in the box and add it to your search.

LexisNexis Academic News - worldwide coverage; dates vary, from 1980+.

• Choose World News, North and South America News Sources. There are no newspapers from Cuba included.
• Choose U.S. News, Florida, to search Florida papers
• Choose non-English language and Spanish language sources to search Spanish newspapers
• Search BBC News Monitoring to get English transcripts of foreign language news sources. Choose World News, North/South American News Sources, and put BBC Monitoring in the "Search this Publication" box.

LexisNexis Academic Business- Choose Country Analysis for detailed financial data and market conditions inside countries. Sources include Country Briefings and PRS Group International Country Risk Guides. Go to the Advanced Search to see individual sources.

Westlaw Campus Research - worldwide news coverage. May contain sources different from LexisNexis Academic. For English translations of foreign news broadcasts, click on the Publications List link and type in World News Connection. Put a check in the box and add it to your search.

Alt-Press Watch - Full-text collection of newspapers, magazines and journals of the alternative and independent press from 1995-present. This isn't the most scholarly source, but it is full text and can give you some leads.

U.S. Government Information

The Wellesley College Library is a selective depository for U.S. government documents. We have Congressional hearings in paper or microfiche from 1945 onward and House and Senate reports from 1945 onward. Ask me or ask at the reference desk.

• Use LexisNexis Congressional to find Congressional reports, hearings, and laws (statutes). Index from 1790 onward; full text from 1988 onward. Caution: sometimes the full text of Congressional hearings you find online is not really the entire hearing as published in print. The print hearing may have supporting information (reports, article reprints, statistics, etc.) that is not in the online version. You can also search LexisNexis Congressional by witness if you want to find out if someone has testified before Congress.
• Use the Catalog of U.S. Government Publications to search for information published by U.S. government agencies from 1976 onward.
• Use GPO Access to find the full text of congressional, judicial, and executive branch publications from about 1995+.

U.S. Dept. of State: Cuba

U.S. Interests Section: Havanna Cuba

Cuban Government

The Web site of the Government of the Republic of Cuba.

Gramma International (Cuban government newspaper)

Cuban News Agency

Key Scholarly Web Sites

The United Nations has full text of meetings, speeches, and other documentation on the Web, beginning in 1993. Documents will be added retrospectively. Wellesley has a complete set of United Nations documents on microfiche.

NOTE: Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

Cold War International History Project [Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars]

Center for International Policy's Cuba Program - Promoting a U.S. foreign policy based on international cooperation, demilitarization and respect for basic human rights.

CubaNet (based in Florida) - articles and reports from various sources.

Latin American Information Center Network Cuba [from UTexas] - gateway to resources, academic and general.

Cuba On-Line and Cuban Transition Project [Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies of the University of Miami] - full-text, searchable database that contains current economic, demographic, political, historical and business information on Cuba.

Cuban American National Foundation - non-profit organization dedicated to advancing freedom and democracy in Cuba. Established in Florida in 1981, CANF is the largest Cuban organization in exile.

National Security Archive [George Washington University] - the Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

Portals to the World: Cuba [Library of Congress] - links to sites about education, government, travel, etc.

Human Rights Watch: Cuba

U.S. - Cuba Cooperative Security Project [World Security Institute]

U.S. Cuba Trade Association

Citing your information

We have copies of various citation style guides on the Clapp reference desk or go to our online sources. Remember: if you find the full text online, whether an article in a database or info on the Web, you must cite the information from the online source. In a Wellesley database, look for a link to how to cite. Traditional citation style manuals will also include how to cite information found electronically.

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