Research Tools
The following research tools that are included in this section of the guide are: scholarly databases, archival collections, and datasets.
- Databases are searchable collections of vetted materials in a variety of modalities including eBooks, journal articles, citations, and images.
- Archival collections include descriptions of primary source materials, many of which may be digitized.
- Datasets are collections of original research in a digital format that can be reused or incorporated into original research projects.
At the bottom of this page, you can also use the link to schedule a research consultation for support in accessing and using the research tools available through the library.
Recommended Research Tools
- Chicano Database This link opens in a new windowProduced by the Ethnic Studies Library at the University of California, Berkeley, the Chicano Database bibliographic index covers a wide range of materials focused on the Mexican-American and Chicano experience, as well as the broader Latino experience of Puerto Ricans, Cuban Americans and Central American immigrants from 1992 onwards.The Chicano Database includes nearly 70,000 records from more than 2,400 journals and other resources including newspapers, books and book chapters. The database provides coverage dating back to the 1960s and selective indexing dating back to the early 1900s. Subject coverage includes art, bilingual education, education, labor, literature, mental health, law, poetry, politics and sociology. Updated on a quarterly basis, the Chicano Database offers uniform subject access to a continuously growing body of literature.
[Coverage: 1967-present] - APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowAPA PsycInfo is published by the American Psychological Associations and provides comprehensive indexing and abstracts of the international psychological literature from the 1800s to the present. Documents indexed include journals, articles, books, dissertations and more. 90% of the 3,000+ titles indexed in APA PsycInfo are peer-reviewed.
[Coverage: 1840-present] - Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America (Formerly Bibliography of Native North Americans) This link opens in a new windowCitations to books, journal articles, essays, conference papers, and US and Canadian government documents about native peoples of North America published from the sixteenth century to the present.
[Coverage: 16th century to current] - Indigenous Histories and Cultures in North America (Formerly American Indian Histories and Cultures) This link opens in a new windowThis full-text collection documents "interactions between American Indians and Europeans [in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico] from their earliest contact, . . .[through] the civil rights movement of the mid- to late-twentieth century." The documents are drawn from Edward E. Ayer Collection at the Newberry Library. Also includes maps and images, scholarly essays to provide context and bibliographies to suggest further reading.
- Black Studies Center This link opens in a new windowBlack Studies Center brings together historical and current material for research projects on African-Americans, the wider African Diaspora, and Africa. It is comprised of three modules: Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience. The International Index to Black Periodicals. a database covering some 150 scholarly and popular Black Studies journals, many of them in full text. Newspapers, including the full text backfile of the influential Afro-American newspaper, The Chicago Defender (1910-1975).
- Black Thought and Culture This link opens in a new windowSearchable and browsable database of non-fiction works by African-American leaders and others who have dealt substantially with issues of race in America. Includes books, essays, articles, speeches, letters, interviews, and other materials, some of which have not previously been published. Includes brief biographical information for all authors.
- ClasePeriodica This link opens in a new windowIndex of Latin American journals books, essays, book reviews, conference proceedings, technical reports and interviews. Covers 24 different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on Pan-American issues, topics in the social sciences, humanities, sciences and technology from over 2,600 scholarly journals published in the Spanish, Portuguese, French and English languages.
[Coverage: 1975-2009] - HAPI Online (Hispanic American Periodicals Index) This link opens in a new windowHAPI Online is the searchable Web version of the Hispanic American Periodicals Index. HAPI is your source for authoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics in the United States. From analyses of current political, economic, and social issues to unique coverage of Latin American arts and letters, HAPI Online contains complete bibliographic citations to articles, book reviews, documents, original literary works, and other materials appearing in more than 400 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world.
- Classic Mexican Cinema This link opens in a new windowCollection of popular movie periodicals, archived in the Filmoteca of UNAM in Mexico City. It includes Cinema Reporter (1943-1965), Cine Mundial (1954-1955), El Cine Gráfico (1935), the weekly El Mundo Ilustrado (1902-1910), and Cinelandia (1931-1947), as well as ephemeral materials such as film flyers and scrap books of Fernando de Fuentes (1894-1958), a leading Latin-American filmmaker, supplement the full-text periodical articles.
[Coverage: 1902-1960s] - Arte Público Hispanic Historical Collection This link opens in a new windowSeries 1 The life of U.S. Latinos and Hispanics. Approximately 60,000 historical articles, hundreds of political and religious pamphlets and broadsides, and complete texts of over 1,100 historical books of Hispanic literature, political commentary and culture. The content is 80% Spanish and 20% English.
[Coverage: 19th century - 20th century] - ARTstor This link opens in a new windowContains a library of digital images, covering many time periods and cultures, and documents the fields of architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design, as well as many other forms of visual culture.
- Art & Architecture Source This link opens in a new windowArt & Architecture Source (formerly Art Source) includes full-text coverage of more than 600 journals and 220 books on "a broad range of related subjects, from fine, decorative and commercial art, to various areas of architecture and architectural design." It also includes "a collection of over 63,0000 images" It indexes publications from the late 1920s to the present.
[Coverage: 1929-present]
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text information and perspectives from over 600 U.S. and over 700 international sources, each with its own distinctive focus offering diverse viewpoints on local, regional and world issues. The Davis Enterprise is among a selection of California papers. Access World News also includes a selection of Spanish language newspapers from the United States and other countries. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper.
- American Prison Newspapers, 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside This link opens in a new windowCollection of digitized newspapers originally published by incarcerated persons in United States prisons. Provides important documentation of the prison experience across 220 years, and an important voice for criminal justice advocacy. Includes penal institutions of all kinds, including women’s-only institutions and early debtors’ prisons. Includes the news, issues, and commentary that mattered to prisoners. The collection, at its completion, is projected to include The Prison Mirror (Stillwater Correctional Facility, MN, 1887-present), The Angolite (Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, 1952-present), and San Quentin News (San Quentin Prison, CA, 1941-present). American Prison Newspapers is one of several thematic Reveal Digital primary source projects. Content is sourced from special collections that come from a wide array of libraries, museums, historical societies, and individual collectors.
[Coverage: 1800-2020] - Hispanic American Newspapers (1808-1980) This link opens in a new windowOver 360 Spanish-language newspapers from 15 states (including California) published in the 19th and 20th centuries. Search, browse and view article and page images.
- Indigenous Newspapers in North America (Formerly American Indian Newspapers) This link opens in a new windowA digital archive of national, local and student newspapers published in the US and Canada by Indigenous peoples between 1828-2016 including: British Columbia, Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada and Oklahoma.
[Coverage: 1828-2016]
- Bracero History Archive This link opens in a new windowStarted in 1942, the Bracero Program brought millions of Mexican guest workers to the United States, and over the next two decades, more than 4 million Mexicans came to work in the country. This public history resource from the Center for History and New Media at Georgetown University brings together oral histories and artifacts pertaining to the program. Visitors can read the "About" section to learn more about the program and its legacy and then move on to browse the documents. The document archive can be searched in its entirety, or users can also move through areas that include "Images", "Documents", and "Oral Histories". Educators will want to look over the "Teaching" area, as it features three different learning activities which draw on the archive's documents. Also, the "Resources" area includes a video tutorial on how to use the archive effectively and several interview questions for those who might know some former Bracero workers.
- Archives of Sexuality and Gender This link opens in a new windowPrimary source collection on the history and study of sex, sexuality, and gender research covering disciplines such as social, political, health, and legal issues impacting LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) communities around the world. Formats include books, articles, images and manuscripts. The archive includes gay and lesbian newspapers from more than 35 countries, reports, policy statements, and other documents related to gay rights and health, including the worldwide impact of AIDS, materials tracing LGBTQ activism in Britain from 1950 through 1980, and more. Modules include: International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture (UC acquired 2021) and LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940 & Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries (UC acquired 2019).
[Coverage: 16th-20th Century] - ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new windowArchiveGrid is a database designed specifically for locating archival collections held in libraries, museums and other institutions. It combines all the archival records in WorldCat with others pulled from various archives Web sites. Included are all of the item records added to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) after 1987, as well as many records from earlier years. (NUCMC includes records added before 1987, especially of smaller archives, that are not found in ArchiveGrid.)
- Calisphere This link opens in a new windowCalisphere is the University of California's free public gateway to a world of primary sources. It includes over 2 million digitized items -- including photographs, documents, newspaper pages, political cartoons, works of art, diaries, transcribed oral histories, advertising, and other unique cultural artifacts -- that reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history. Calisphere's content has been selected from the libraries and museums of the UC campuses, and from a variety of cultural heritage organizations.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new windowSocial Explorer provides quick and easy access to current and historic census data and related demographic information. Users can create custom maps, download data, and export, save, and print maps and reports. Includes hundreds of thousands of data indicators across demography, economy, health, education, religion, crime and more. Data can be examined at many geographic levels including: national, state, county, ZIP, neighborhood and more. All data are curated, organized and processed for ease of use.
Contents include:
- the entire US Census from 1790 to the present, as it is available, with projections
- entire American Community Survey (ACS)
- annual updates from the American Community Survey (ACS)
- InfoGroup data on religious congregations
- Religious Congregations and Membership Study
- Resource Center for Minority Data (RCMD) This link opens in a new windowProvides data resources from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) that can be used in the analysis of issues affecting racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States.
- PolicyMap This link opens in a new windowPolicyMap is a fully web-based online data and mapping application that gives you access to over 15,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, crime, mortgages, health, jobs and more. Data is available at all common geographies (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, MSA) as well as unique geographies like school districts and political boundaries. Data comes from both public and proprietary sources
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Data This link opens in a new windowU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data access point. Labor statistics include prices, inflation, employment, consumer price indices data and tables.
- California Department of Education Data & Statistics This link opens in a new windowData and statistics collected from California schools and learning support resources to identify trends and educational needs and to measure performance. DataQuest has Reports for accountability (e.g. API, AYP), test data, enrollment, graduates, dropouts, course enrollments, staffing, and data regarding English learners. Ed-Data has State, county, district, and school level reports covering topics such as students, staffing, finances, and performance rankings.
- California Open Data This link opens in a new windowIncludes links to numeric and geographic data covering a variety of topics including demography, health statistics, state contracts, traffic records. Statistics and data sets are available from state agencies and links are provided to other data sources - local, federal and other sources.
- data.census.gov This link opens in a new windowData.census.gov provides access to demographic and economic data available from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Search Help
See the FAQ page for info on data available, censuses conducted, and using the database.
Research Consultations
- Schedule a Research ConsulationWhether you are a student in need of research help with a class assignment, a seasoned researcher seeking expert consultation on literature searches (including systematic reviews), data management and more, or a health professional looking for assistance with finding quality clinical evidence, we are here to support all of your research needs.