The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill maintains extensive research collections in Latin American and Iberian studies. Materials on microform are located primarily in the main University library, Davis Library, though smaller collections can be found in other campus libraries.

Resources available on microfiche, microfilm, microcard and other micro-forms include copies of medieval and modern manuscripts, dissertations, literary works, diplomatic records from the United States Department of State Decimal Files, newspapers, journals and much more. All items document the cultural, social, political and economic heritage of specific countries or regions in Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.

Recently acquired materials and materials on order are included in the searchable database and will appear in searches. See the description of catalog status to identify new materials.

Most items in the searchable database of microforms are also cataloged in the main catalog of the University library system. http://www.lib.unc.edu

Contact the Latin American and Iberian Resources bibliographer, Teresa Chapa (tchapa@email.unc.edu), or the assistant to the bibliographer, Becky Huckaby (huckaby@email.unc.edu), for more information or suggestions.

The searchable database of microforms for Latin American and Iberian resources is simply a finding aid, not a formal catalog. Though it functions much like a catalog, the titles, authors, subjects, etc. in the database are not always standardized the way they are in the main library system's catalog. (For this reason, researchers should not rely on the citations presented by the search engine to cite the works in formal papers.) Here are some tips for finding items:

Your first search
Use the pull down options to do a general search by country and perhaps by language.

• By country: "Cuba"
• By language: "Spanish"

Wildcards
Use the percent (%) sign to do wild card searching between words or to substitute for characters with foreign accents. The title, author, subject and call number fields already assume wild cards at the beginning and end of the search text.

example: Title  women%Brazil

returns all microforms with the words women and Brazil in that order.

example: Author  Garc%a

returns all microforms with García and Garcia

Diplomatic Records
These include documents issued by or between consulates, legations and other official governmental bodies and can be located in two ways:

• By subject: "Diplomatic"
• By number: "M##" in the Call Number field.

Medieval Manuscripts
Medieval manuscripts can be located in at least three ways:

• By title: Medieval manuscripts generally have two titles, the original title as it appears on the work and the more common, or shortened title. Both titles have been included in the database. A simple keyword search on the title field should produce results.
• By Ms. number: "429" or simply "Ms." will list many of the manuscripts in the collection. (The ms. number assigned by the national library that owns the original work is generally included in the title.)
• By historical period: "Latin America:History:Precolombian (-1607)" or any of the other early historical periods. Use the country option to select a newspaper from a specific country.

Newspapers
Use the Document Type pull down box to select all newspapers.

Anything entered in this field searches the subjects assigned to the work. Subjects are loosely entered following Library of Congress standards.

The search engine already assumes a keyword search on the subject. So if a partial subject is entered, there is no need to include a wildcard symbol (* or %) at the beginning or end.

example: Diplomatic not *Diplomatic*

Browse the current list of subject headings in the "Browse subject headings" option in the top menu bar of the webpage.

(See also Browser Requirements)

To query the database with text that contains accents, you can do one of two things:

1. Substitute the accented characters with a wild card (%)

example: Garc%a Marquez not García Marquez
This will allow the search engine to find items with or without an accent on that particular character.

2. Enter the search criteria (author, title, etc.) with accented characters. To do this, you must use Internet Explorer and have the appropriate language settings on your computer:

An international language setting. In Windows, go to the Start menu in the bottom left hand corner of your screen. Under settings, select Control Panel. In the Control Panel, double click on Regional Options. In the Input Locales make sure the input language is English (United States) and the Keyboard Layout is set to United States-International. If it is not, click on Properties and reset it.

Your Internet Explorer browser must have the following settings:

Character set established as Western European (ISO). In Internet Explorer, go to View - Encoding. Select Western European (ISO). If you visit other websites, this setting may get lost. Check it periodically and reset it when necessary.

On American keyboards, the most common accents are located to the left of the Enter key and above the Tab key.

(See also Accents to set up your computer to find titles or authors with accents in their names)

To search the database of microforms, Java Script and style sheets must be enabled in your browser. To set these in Netscape Navigator, go to Edit - Preferences - Advanced. Click on Enable Java, Enable Java Script and Enable Style Sheets. The latest versions of Internet Explorer always allow for Java Script and style sheets, so there is no need to make changes that browser.

Anything entered in this field searches the title, alternate title (or uniform title), and series title fields in the database. For medieval manuscripts, the popular, more commonly known title usually appears in the alternate title listed below the main entry in the citation.

Anything entered in this field searches the author and alternate author fields in the database. The author is entered last name first. In some cases, translators' and editors' names appear as the author.

example: Paz, Octavio, 1914- or United States. Dept. of State.

When a country is selected, the citations that appear represent those items in the collection that are about that country.

Each microform has been assigned to one country. If an item is about several countries or about Latin America in general, it is labeled with the country "General." Those items that cover several countries but are predominantly about one have been assigned to that one. So for example, to find information about the Rio de la Plata, be sure to look in countries "Paraguay," "Uruguay," "Argentina," "Brazil" and "General."

Historical periods are general descriptors of the historical or literary period of the work. When an item spans several periods, it is either categorized in the most relevant one or put into the general history or general literature category.

This field is currently under construction, so the "All" option is recommended. Researchers are welcome to try the other options, but may not receive a complete list of items in the collection. More microforms will be assigned an historical period as the project progresses.

Select one of these options to narrow your search to

• Serials - magazines, journals and other items published periodically over time
• Newspapers
• Monographs - books
• Dissertations - masters and doctoral theses

For serials and newspapers, the notes in the citation generally indicate the libraries' holdings.

example: 1. año, no. 1 (4 de junio de 1927)-1. año, no. 3 (2 de julio de 1928).

This is the language in which the item is primarily written. Use this field with caution. Some works, including medieval manuscripts, were written in several languages. When this occurs, the language assigned to the work is arbitrarily chosen as the first language that appears in the bibliographic notes. Read the notes to learn about other languages that may appear in the document.

The call number appears at the end of each citation. It consists of several parts and all of these parts must be presented to the microforms librarian in order to locate the microforms in the collection.:

• Library: several campus libraries have microforms related to Latin American and Iberian studies.
• Acquisition Number: a number assigned to the microform when it comes into the library.
• Format: items on microcard, fiche, film and other formats may be located in different parts of the microform collection according to the special storage requirements for each type of material.
• Document Type: Newspaper, Serial, Monograph or Dissertation. Each format may be stored in a different location in the microform collection.
• Department: the department for a dissertation.
• Catalog Status: Items requested by researchers and approved by the bibliographer can be monitored by the catalog status that appears in each citation. If an item is marked "Cataloged," it is currently in the collection. The different statuses are: On order, not received; Received, not cataloged; Cataloged. (Note: This search engine does not monitor items that are checked out. Contact the microforms librarian to confirm availability.)

Bibliographic notes can include added entries for such things as translators, tables of contents, edition qualification statements, subtitles and more. Microfilm collections that contain many works may be entered simply under the collection title (e.g. Hispanic Culture Series). In the case of a single entry for a collection, the notes field may contain additional information that describes its contents in more detail. Search the main library catalog for individual titles within a microfilm collection.