may06b.indd inter net resources Edward A. Riedinger Brazilian studies Online resources for researchers Tropical and exotic, mammoth and de­veloping, Brazil has hauntingly captured international interest for centuries. Its land mass makes it the fifth­largest country in the world, extending over half of South America and stretching from north of the equator to south of the Tropic of Capricorn. The Brazil­ ian population is also the world’s fi fth largest, with nearly 200 million people. Its language, Portuguese, is spoken by half the inhabitants of South America and a third of Latin America. Indeed, Portuguese is a major language among Atlantic Rim countries. Spoken from Brazil to Portugal and from Cape Verde to Guinea­Bissau and Angola, the lusophone population around the Atlantic basin amounts to nearly a quarter of a billion primary and secondary speakers. Brazil’s trillion­dollar economy is the largest in Latin America and among the top ten in the world. For students, researchers, and the gener­ ally curious, what online resources exist that can respond to their questions and interests regarding this extraordinary country? Re­ sources provided here fall largely into fi ve categories: indexes and catalogs, gateways, full­text retrieval databases, and audiovisual materials. Indexes and catalogs • Clase and Periódica. These two da­ tabases are maintained by the National Au­ tonomous University of Mexico for indexing periodical literature from Latin America in the humanities, social sciences, and physi­ cal sciences. Both databases are available through the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) and can be accessed in FirstSearch simultaneously with ArticleFirst. A keyword search in Clase and Periódica for Brasil brings up nearly 40,000 hits; and Brazil, more than 18,000. Access: http://www.oclc.org/news /releases/20031013.htm. • Handbook of Latin American Studies and the Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI Online.) These are the two ma­ jor English­language indexes that most com­ prehensively cover Brazil. Maintained by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, the handbook indexes and abstracts scholarly articles and books from and on Latin America and Brazil in all disciplines for the period from 1935 to the present. HAPI is housed at the University of California­Los Angeles and indexes scholarly articles on and from Latin American and Brazil for the period from 1970 to the present. Access: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ hlas/ and http://hapi.ucla.edu/. • Libweb. Libweb connects one directly to more than a dozen online catalogs of Brazilian academic and research libraries. Among them is the catalog of the library of the major university in Brazil, the University of São Paulo. Its library system uses MARC record standards and contributes to OCLC. Libweb accesses the two largest U.S. collec­ tions of Latin American and Brazilian holdings at the Hispanic Division of the Library of Edward A. Riedinger heads the Latin American Studies Library and is professor for Brazilian Studies at Ohio State University. He is also editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Brazilian History and Culture (Routledge, 2009) and will be a visiting researcher in the Centre for Brazilian Studies at Oxford University in the autumn. © 2006 Edward A. Riedinger 308C&RL News May 2006 http:http://hapi.ucla.edu http:http://lcweb2.loc.gov http://www.oclc.org/news Congress and the University of Texas­Austin. It also connects to the leading specialized col­ lections on Brazil: the Newberry Library, the Lilly Library at Indiana University­Blooming­ ton, the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, and the Oliveira Lima Library at the Catholic University of America. Access: http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb/. Full-text retrieval databases • Biblioteca Vir tual Cer vantes. The full­text library of Spanish­language mate­ rials here includes some works on Brazil in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Ac- cess: http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/ Buscar.html?texto=brasil&tipoMuestra =materias&idRes=0&PM=0&portal=0. • Biblioteca Vir tual Nacional of the National Library of Portugal. An extraor­ dinary array of historic texts on Brazil may be accessed through this site. It includes a digitized edition of the first history of Brazil (1576). Access: http://bnd.bn.pt/memorias/ historia/historia­lista­obras.html. • Full­text retrieval from the offi cial jour­ nal of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Hispania, is available at http://www.cervantesvirtual. com/FichaObra.html?Ref=3611. Retrieval of articles from Lusotopie, a French journal that focuses on Brazilian studies within the context of Portuguese colonization and the lusophone community, is available at http:// www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/som­ maire.html. • JSTOR and Project MUSE. For full­text scholarly articles on Brazil in English, the two major sources are JSTOR and Project MUSE. JSTOR includes the complete serial runs of five major Latin American­related journals (to which more will be added) with numerous ancillary journals in the humanities and social science. Project MUSE includes the major journal for Brazilian studies, the Luso-Brazil- ian Review, from the University of Wisconsin. However, full­text coverage only began with volume 42 (2004). JSTOR is soon to include the complete run. Access: http://www.jstor. org/ and http://muse.jhu.edu/. • N a t i o n a l L i b r a r y o f B r a z i l , t h e Fundação Biblioteca Nacional. The full­ text retrieval of books from the classics of Brazilian literature may be read at this site. One accesses the catalog of over 1,000 entries by clicking on “Digital Library.” The site is partially navigable in English. Access: http:// www.bn.br/Script/index.asp. • SciELO—Scientific Electronic Library Online. Online full­text retrieval of Brazilian scholarly periodical literature is provided through SciELO. It indexes and provides retrieval of journal articles primarily in the technical, physical, and medical sciences, but also in the humanities and applied social sci­ ences. It retrieves not only Brazilian scholarly texts, but also texts from Chile, Venezuela, Cuba, and Spain. Holding articles published in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, the site is navigable in these languages as well. It is maintained by two major Brazilian universi­ ties in conjunction with the Brazilian National Research Council. Full­text Brazilian journals can also be accessed through the Directory of Open Access Journals at http://www.doaj. org/home. Access: http://www.scielo.org /index.php?lang=en. • The University of Virginia Librar y Electronic Text Center. This site allows in­ triguing searches for Brazilian studies. By en­ tering Brazil in its e­books search page, one retrieves a curious, and possibly serendipitous, amalgam from dozens of books in English that mention Brazil. A similar search for Brazil in netLibrary (http://www.netlibrary.com) results in several dozen titles of a timely con­ temporary nature. Access: http://etext.lib.vir­ ginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www­ebooks?specfi le= /texts/english/ebooks/ebooks.o2w. • yourDictionar y.com. yourDiction- ary/Romance Languages. The most plen­ tiful full­text reference works available are dictionaries for Portuguese. Nearly a dozen general and almost three dozen specialized dictionaries (including engineering, law, med­ icine, petroleum, and even mountain climb­ ing) are available at yourDictionary/Romance Languages (http://www.yourdictionary.com /languages/romance.html#portuguese). May 2006 309 C&RL News http:http://www.yourdictionary.com http:yourDictionary.com http://etext.lib.vir http:http://www.netlibrary.com http:http://www.scielo.org http://www.doaj www.bn.br/Script/index.asp http:http://muse.jhu.edu http://www.jstor www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/som http://www.cervantesvirtual http://bnd.bn.pt/memorias http:http://www.cervantesvirtual.com http://lists.webjunction.org/libweb Grammars can be found on the yourDic­ tionary site (http://www.yourdictionary. com/grammars3.html#portuguese). A site at H a r va r d U n ive r s i t y D e p a r t m e n t o f R o m a n c e L a n g u a g e s a n d R e s o u r c e s / Language Resources includes both gram­ mars and dictionaries (http://www.fas. harvard.edu/~rll/resources/portuguese /language_resources.html). Access: your­ dictionary.com. Gateways • Har vard Director y of Scholar s in Brazilian Studies and Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA). There are two online directories that list Brazilianists, scholars who specialize in Brazilian Studies. One is the Harvard Directory of Scholars in Brazilian Studies and the other is BRASA at Vanderbilt University. Both, however, have gatekeep­ ers insofar as they require a password for access. Access: http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu /directories/brazil/index.php and http:// www.brasa.org/index. • Latin American Network Infor ma- tion Center (LANIC) and NewsLink. The major gateway to Web sites for Latin American Studies is LANIC at the University of Texas­ Austin. The section for Brazil consolidates access to hundreds of sites. It is organized by disciplines, some of which include: agri­ culture, architecture, arts, cinema, economics, history, indigenous peoples, law, literature, religion, and sports. Brazilian newspapers (and magazines) are available at LANIC and Newslink (newslink.org). Brazilian newspa­ pers are not indexed; however, some leading ones now have archives of past issues. These include the Folha de São Paulo (from 1994 to present), O Globo (Rio de Janeiro, from 1997 to present), and the Gazeta Mercantil (Brazil­ ian equivalent to Wall Street Journal). Access: http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/brazil/. • Ohio State Univer sity Libraries. A site at Ohio State University Libraries offers a gateway to online reference resources for Brazilian Stud­ ies: e­brasref (http://library. osu.edu/sites/latinamerica /OnlineRefLibraryBrazStuds.htm). It is divided into sections for government and public life, economics and statistics, transporta­ tion and communication, nature, language, literature, education, history, biography, culture, and fine and popular arts. A sample of some of the full­text resources it ac­ cesses include: • Banco Central do Brazil (Bank of Bra- zil). Economic reports and fi nancial data tables are available here. Access: http://www. bcb.gov.br/?english. • Brazilian Newspapers. Brazilian news­ papers published in English may be found here. Access: http://www.world­newspapers. com/brazil.html. • Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA). A professional perspective on developments in Brazil is provided by BRASA from its site at Vanderbilt University. Access: http://www. brasa.org/. • brazilink and brazilmax. Two informa­ tive and entertaining ways of accompany­ ing contemporary events in Brazil. Access: http://www.brazilink.org/ and http://www. brazilmax.com/. • Dicionário Cravo Albin. A dictionary of Brazilian popular music. Access: http://www. maria­brazil.org/fdind.htm. • Enciclopédia Itaú Cultural / Teatro and Enciclopédia [Itaú] de Artes Visuais. These are encyclopedias of Brazilian theater and the fine arts. The latter is richly illustrated with images of Brazilian paintings, pictures, and photography in high­quality digitized re­ production. Access: http://www.itaucultural. org.br/aplicexternas/enciclopedia_teatro/ and http://www.itaucultural.org.br/index. cfm?cd_pagina=1985. • History and Culture of Brazil. The Ohio State site also includes an online tutorial/syl­ labus for the study of Brazilian history and culture divided into six parts. These include an introductory section on methodology, followed by a second section detailing the geographical platform of Brazil, and four sections that chronicle Brazil’s history from the 16th to 21st centuries, focusing on its ethnic, socioeconomic, and political devel­ 310C&RL News May 2006 http://www.itaucultural.org.br/index http://www.itaucultural http://www http:brazilmax.com http://www http:http://www.brazilink.org http:brasa.org http://www http://www.world-newspapers http://www http://library http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/brazil http:newslink.org www.brasa.org/index http:http://drclas.fas.harvard.edu http:dictionary.com http://www.fas http://www.yourdictionary opment. Access: http://library.osu.edu/sites /latinamerica/indxclas_0_tblcontnts.htm. • LATweb. This site includes informa­ tion for Bolivian, Cuban, Dutch Antillean, Ecuadorean, Haitian, and Peruvian stud­ ies. Access: http://library.osu.edu/sites /latinamerica/LATHOME.HTML#SPESERV. • Maria’s Cookbook Maria Brazil. A recipe book of Brazilian cuisine, this site is also among the most popular for Brazil­ ian popular culture. Access: http://www. maria­brazil.org/fdind.htm. Audiovisual materials • Public Access (Non-fee) Inter net Resources for the Portuguese Language. A guide to online audiovisual materials for the study of Portuguese is included in sec­ tion four of this site. This site also indicates how to access Brazilian radio and television. Especially important are the educational A­V language aids referenced at the site (http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci _arttext&pid=S0104­59702004000100017): “For language education and teaching, the U.S. Department of Education maintains the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), which maintains the Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics (CLL). De­ tails of its resources are at http://www.cal.org /ericcll/about.html. Of special importance for Portuguese are the resources maintained by CLL on less commonly taught languages, described at http://www.cal.org/ericcll/faqs /rgos/lctl.html. Among the Web sites refer­ enced by CLL is iloveLanguages at http:// www.ilovelanguages.com/. It references over 100 Web sites related to learning or teaching Portuguese. Related to CLL resources are those of the Center f or Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota. Chief among its resources for Portuguese is a site at http:// www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/db/ that allows one to search for Portuguese courses, dur­ ing the regular academic year or in summer sessions, at U.S. colleges and universities; in study abroad programs, in primary and secondary schools, and through distance education opportunities. Moreover, it also offers a virtual picture album for Portuguese at http://www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/vpa/Portu­ guese/VPAgrid­1.html as a supplementary teaching resource.” • Open access to videos about Brazil is available from several sources and in varied manners. O Globo maintains one of the largest online media centers at http://gmc. globo.com/GMC/0,,2465,00.html. In Yahoo (http://www.yahoo.com/) one can enter a search phrase for a Brazilian topic and then set the results to “video.” Entering “Rio de Janeiro” results in more than 600 video hits. In both Yahoo and Google (http://www.google. com/), one can find images by entering a search term related to Brazil and selecting the “images” tab. “Rio de Janeiro” in Google or Yahoo retrieves a quarter million images. • Historical photos, manuscripts, and audio recordings are available from the research and documentation center of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, the Centro de Pesquisa e Docu- mentão (CPDOC) at http://www.cpdoc.fgv. br/comum/htm/ (click “navegando na história”). Extensive links to audiovisual resources for Brazilian history and biography are available on e-brasref at http://library.osu.edu/sites /latinamerica/OnlineRefLibraryBrazStuds. htm#pa0. E­brasref also lists numerous sites for studying about or listening to Brazilian popular and classical music at http://library.osu.edu /sites/latinamerica/OnlineRefLibraryBrazStuds. htm#pa0. Conclusion Electronic resources for Brazilian studies originating both in and outside Brazil are almost “amazonic.” This richness is due not only to the size and importance of the coun­ try, but also because it has been a leader in Latin America in the development of telecom­ munications, television, media, electronics, and the computer industry. Fundamental national interests of market share and regional integration and the country’s allure for inter­ national investment capital have stimulated (continued on page 313) May 2006 311 C&RL News http:http://library.osu.edu http://library.osu.edu/sites http://www.cpdoc.fgv http://www.google http:http://www.yahoo.com http://gmc http://www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/vpa/Portu www.carla.umn.edu/lctl/db http:www.ilovelanguages.com http://www.cal.org/ericcll/faqs http:http://www.cal.org http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci http://www http://library.osu.edu/sites http://library.osu.edu/sites first in their family to attend a university, or members of ethnic or cultural minorities. As pleasant as it is to consider a university degree an opportunity for prolonged and leisurely reflection, most students are in no position to spend their time this way. And it’s worth remembering that only a very small number of highly privileged individuals has ever been in that position. It’s certainly possible that technology, and computers in particular, play a role in frag­ menting our attention and hamstringing our ability to read deeply. But before we point another finger at Google, let’s think about the increasing pressures on our students, and about the new demands they’re making on higher education systems. As librarians, perhaps we can lead the way in using tech­ nology wisely, to help mitigate the stress we all feel in our studies, jobs, and lives. Using technology responsibly and well Librarians may not be able to do much about the gradual erosion of the American middle class, or the inflation of university credentials, but we should be able to use our research and information skills to fi lter the most useful new tools from the deluge of dross. After all, technology is simply “[a] particular practical or industrial art.”6 It may be helpful to remember that the printed book is a technology—and a very good one. Computers may be a more complex technology, with their own set of idiosyn­ crasies, but they offer an enormous range of potential benefi ts. Computers allow us to communicate cheaply and instantly, to open our classes to an ever­growing population of students, to translate lectures into multiple languages, to save our students’ money. Used properly, they should at the very least free up student, staff, and faculty time for more important things, like reading literature and debating politics. But, in my opinion, the biggest challenge we face is in learning how to use technology responsibly and well. To do so, we must first clearly articulate the good that we want to preserve and strengthen. Digital technologies have evolved so quickly that most teachers, librarians, and even students feel perpetually off balance, wondering what’s going to emerge next and often less than thrilled by what we’ve seen so far. It’s important to remember how short the timeline has been, and to take the long view for the future. The world is changing around our students, not just technologically but politically and economically. It’s our re­ sponsibility not to throw up our hands and mourn the loss of a golden era of education, but to use the tools and skills we have to brighten the path that lies ahead. Notes 1. Justine Alsop, “Losing our minds,” C&RL News 66, no. 11 (2005): 790–91. 2. Notably, Sven Birkerts’s The Gutenberg Elegies (Faber and Faber, 1994) and Neil Postman’s Technopoly (Knopf, 1992]) 3. National Endowment for the Arts, Read- ing at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America (2004), ix; xi. 4. National Center for Education Statistics, “Paying for College: Changes Between 1990 and 2000 for Full­Time Dependent Under­ graduates” (2004), 2. http://nces.ed.gov /pubs2004/2004075.pdf. 5. National Center for Education Statistics, “National Postsecondary Student Aid Study” (2004), http://nces.ed.gov/das/library/tables_ listings/show_nedrc.asp?rt=p&tableID=1405. 6. OED Online, s.v. “Technology” (ac­ cessed January 3, 2006). (“Brazilian studies” continued from page 311) these developments. Online resources for Brazilian studies, therefore, are as abundant as they are expanding. This column offers a hint of the richness of information and techniques for access that are available. A Brazilian expression for “getting things done” is having jeito (JAY­too, that is, “know­how,” practical “savoir­faire”). Herewith, therefore, has been a hand up for your jeito in doing Brazilian studies. May 2006 313 C&RL News http://nces.ed.gov/das/library/tables http:http://nces.ed.gov