Columbus's Coat of Arms in the Hispanic Reading Room

The Hispanic Division, with its excellent staff of reference librarians and subject specialists, is the first stop for researchers interested in finding both primary and secondary sources concerning Latinas in English and in foreign languages. The division has a useful collection of general reference works in several languages. The staff can also advise new researchers about specialists in other divisions, some of whose materials will be described below.

Another cluster of sources can be found by accessing the Hispanic Division's Web site at <http://www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic>. There you can find links to many sites, including American Memory's

• Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age
• Spain, the United States, & the American Frontier: Historias paralelas
• The World of 1898: The Spanish American War.
• Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande

One unique source, The Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS), is produced in the Hispanic Division. Beginning in 1935, HLAS contains annotations of works in the humanities and the social sciences published in a variety of languages. Although its main focus is on Latin America, its annotations include material on migration to the United States, historical information from 1492 to the present, and comparisons between Latinas and populations still residing in the home country. Its database can be found at <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/hlas>.