In an effort to increase Spanish-language content, and thanks to a faculty suggestion, the Library has begun a trial for a new database called Platino Educa. Platino Educa is a film and audiovisual platform with over 240 titles from Latin American and Spain. Additionally, Platino Educa offers guides to support classrooms in both English and Spanish. This trial will run until April 3rd.

In order to assess whether the library should buy this platform, I would appreciate any feedback you have. Please send comments through email to: nunezcha(at)msu.edu

Platino Educa

This Fall brings many changes to the Libraries, starting with the retirement of long-time Director Cliff Haka and the appointment of new University Librarian, Joseph Salem, PhD, on Aug. 1. Dr. Salem comes to MSU from Penn State, where he served as associate dean for learning, undergraduate services and commonwealth campus libraries. We’re excited to have him onboard! 

Many of you are aware of big changes in the Main Library building as well, not least of which was the creation of the new Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL) on 2 West earlier this year. DSL Open Consultation and Open VR hours are listed here: https://lib.msu.edu/dslab/ If you’d like to learn more about the technology and services available, and opportunities for collaboration with the DSL team, consider attending the Libraries’ Annual Open House, on Sept. 20 from 6-8 PM, this year focusing on the lab.  Details are in the invitation at the end of this message.

A complete remodel of our floor sent Area Studies librarians to temporary offices over the summer months, but now we’re back on 2 East with a much needed materials processing space and a soon-to-be, new, Area Studies Reference collection. It will include information sources for all our world areas, with the existing Africana reference collection forming part of this new collection. Best of all, the Map Library has moved from 3 West to 2 East, giving the whole floor a decidedly international orientation. We’re not by any means done, however. For example, we won’t have the new patron seating and other amenities we’re anticipating for some months, but Area Studies and Map Library staff are planning our own, modest open house to celebrate what’s been done so far, tentatively on Oct. 11.

Yet another upcoming open house, “Latinx Artists Books and Zines” will highlight Special Collections holdings on Tues., Sept. 18, from 4-7 PM, in the SPC Seminar Room. Come see zines and artists’ books from Mexico, Cuba, Chile and from diverse Latinx-American artists. I’ve sought out and acquired materials like these over many years for Special Collections’ popular culture and alternative and small press collections.

Check out the ongoing exhibit of Brazilian “literatura de cordel,” in the Broad Art Museum, through Nov. 4, https://broadmuseum.msu.edu/node/547   All items on display are part of the Libraries’ Special Collections.

There is much new in the main library, including the opening of our new Special Collections space on the first floor, just inside the front entrance. Once you see it, I think you’ll agree that the new reading room and class room is not only attractive, but gives that unit the kind of visibility it deserves. Soon we will have new exhibit cases just for Special Collections materials there as well. We expect the use of our unique and special materials to increase, continuing a trend already underway in the last few years. Let me know if you’d like to arrange to introduce one of your classes to our special collections materials!   

New acquisitions include:

Socialism on Film: The Cold War and International Propaganda

Covers all aspects of socialist life from society, war, culture, the Cold War, memory and contemporaneous views on current affairs. Footage includes documentaries, newsreels and feature films. Includes significant groupings of material on Latin America and Cuba.

Cuban Culture and Cultural Relations, 1959-

Primary-source collection of ca. 45,000 fully-searchable documents from the Casa de las Américas documenting the culture and cultural relations of Revolutionary Cuba and countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nicaragua: political instability and U.S. intervention, 1910-1933

Records of the U.S. State Department’s Central Classified Files, this collection contains records relating to the internal affairs of Nicaragua. The records include instructions sent to and correspondence received by the State Department; the State Department’s internal documentation, as well as correspondence between the Department and other federal departments and agencies, Congress,etc.

The Main Library is in the midst of many physical changes that include the opening of two new instruction rooms on 2-West and the decommissioning of the old Beaumont instruction room on the first floor in anticipation of moving Circulation and Reference into that space, probably in January. Eventually, plans are for a new Special Collections reading room and class room to be built on the first floor and for Special Collections materials to move to 2-East. In the meantime, we are moving many volumes from Main to our Remote Storage Facility both to relieve severe overcrowding and to make space for new digital scholarship/humanities services and labs, additional study areas, and more.

A request form for the retrieval of materials held at Remote has been integrated in to the catalog. The Request It! button appears in the status field of records, as seen here. The scanning service for MSU-held, non-electronic journal articles and book chapters, MARS, is also available for materials located in Remote or Main, and has been expanded to serve all students as well as faculty.

New films have been added to the Digitalia Films collection—we have access to the Argentine, Brazilian and Cuban collections, the "Latin American Selection," and Spanish and French cinema collections

Perhaps of interest to some CLACS student and faculty researchers, we now have access to Foreign Policy Portal. "Covers subjects such as national security, trade, technology, markets, energy and politics, and includes digitized issues of the print magazine back to 1970."

If you are in the library in the next couple of weeks, you can see an exhibit of Argentine and Chilean comic books in the flat exhibit case along the first floor corridor as you approach the café. It is just a peak at the amazing collection we have in Special Collections.

The following are new or recently acquired resources that may be of interest to CLACS faculty and students:

Databases:

History of Mass Tourism Some materials from MSU Libraries own “Travel Guide and Ephemera Collection, 1870-1970” are included. 

NOTE: I recently purchased some items for MSU’s special collection subsequent to the digitization project, for example, Mexican tourism promotional brochures and maps published in the 1930s by PEMEX and Caribbean tourism materials published in the 40s and 50s by the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Co. and by the Instituto Cubano del Turismo—please contact me for further information about these materials.

Church Missionary Society Periodicals Module 2, which includes South American Missionary Society publications.

Cambridge Histories Online, 2016 content has been added, including The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America

Latin America in Video streaming video collection, searchable also within AVON (Academic Video Online), with transcripts and clipping functionality.

In PRINT:

Dictionary of Caribbean and Afro-Latin American Biography / Franklin W. Knight and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors in chief. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2016]. 6 vols. Main Reference Collection: http://catalog.lib.msu.edu/record=b11890952~S39a

Coming soon: The first release of WOMEN AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN MODERN EMPIRES SINCE 1820. Includes some Latin American and Caribbean content. To read about this online collection: http://search.alexanderstreet.com/wasg

There is  now have access to several new streaming video collections :

Kanopy's European Collection – over 1000 films, including Italian, Iberian and French cinema collections
Kanopy's Latin American Studies Collection – over 300 films, which includes U.S. Latino studies titles. We also have access to the Asian & Middle East, Austral-Pacific and African Studies collections within the Global Studies and Languages category of films.
WE DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO ALL THE COLLECTIONS ON THE MAIN KANOPY WEB SITE AT THIS POINT.

This link is scoped to show only the films which we have licensed.  All the titles listed here are categorized as falling in to one of the international collections mentioned above, as well as being cross-listed as "War and Action Films," Popular Environmental," "Celebrate LGBT," etc.

*My note regarding the stability of licensed streaming video applies to this collection as well as to the Digitalia collection announced recently (see below).

We also have acquired two beautiful new facsimiles that will be housed in Special Collections:

Mapas de México en el Archivo de Indias Sevilla
Paisajes urbanos y arquitectura en el Chile colonial: Archivo General de Indias

Please contact me if I can be of any assistance or if you have any questions about the new acquisitions.

And in case you missed it, the following resources, including Digitalia Film Library, were announced in the CLACS News & Announcements email of 10/27:

Church Missionary Society Periodicals which includes South American Missionary Society publications

Colonial State Papers, Collection I which includes British colonies in the West Indies, 16th-18th centuries

Digitalia Film Library We have access to the Spanish language collections as well as the Brazilian collection. Specifically, we have access to the Argentine Cinema, Brazilian Cinema, Cuban Cinema, Latin American Selection and Spanish Cinema collections. Records with links to individual films have been added to the library catalog. Please see my note below regarding the stability of licensed streaming video.*

Among recent acquisitions made for Special Collections is a fine facsimile portfolio of beautiful manuscript maps of 16th century Portuguese cartographer Fernão Vaz Dourado: Universal Atlas of Fernão Vaz Dourado, with a companion volume in English.

NOTE:

*Our access to Digitalia Film Library is licensed, not purchased, because in most cases the rights holders are not offering a purchase option. While the provider does everything possible to ensure continuing access through contracts for a determined period of years, my understanding is that rights holders can still withdraw titles. According to Digitalia:

"Normally our contracts are 3 to 4 years, so that gives stability to the agreement. In some particular cases, some producers reserve a right of selling "all rights" of the film. In that case, we would be notified to remove that film. so far it has not happened, but I guess that with time and increase of the catalogue, we could eventually experience that. What we can guarantee is a certain notice before that happens."

I don't anticipate this happening, but it could. Please keep it in mind when planning use of licensed streaming video in courses. If viewing a film would be a course requirement, consider whether we have it on DVD in the library, in the worst case scenario of losing streaming access. If we do not, or if the course is online and presumes no ability for students to use resources in person in the library, it might be best to not make viewing of a particular streaming film a requirement for the class. Or if you are teaching a very large, lecture hall size class, remember that having a hard copy of the DVD in the library would still not ensure adequate opportunity for student viewing outside of class in the event of a loss of access to the streaming version.