Languages Research Guide
- Find Background Info
- Find Books
- Find Articles
- Find Other Sources
- Citing Sources
Find Background Info
Background sources, such as specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries, are an essential piece of the research process. They can help you:
- Gather information about your topic and understand the scope of the research
- Locate reliable sources and clarify keywords
- Pinpoint important authors, texts, ideas, and keywords about the research area. Knowing what the primary phrases and concepts are will help you a lot as you are searching through library databases and online sources.
Global Issues (Gale)
Global Issues integrates international news, global viewpoints, reference materials, country information, primary source documents, videos, and statistics. This is a useful database when you are doing background research or searching for a topic.
Ethnic NewsWatch (ProQuest)
Ethnic NewsWatch database includes full text for newspapers, magazines, and journals of the Ethnic, Minority, and Native Press.
Find Books
Print and e-books are valuable sources for academic research. They will help you to gain an overview of your topic and often contain in-depth information about the scholarship or history of research on a subject. Some books are written by single authors, while others include essays or chapters by multiple scholars within a discipline. Don’t let the length of books intimidate you because you don’t need to read them from cover to cover. Look at the table of contents and index to find the sections that are relevant to your work.
Find Books Using GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other materials available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases. To get started, search by keyword or type in the title of a book here:
WorldCat
WorldCat lets you search for books, articles, videos, and other material that are available in libraries worldwide. If you are doing in-depth research on a topic and are considering requesting resources through Interlibrary Loan, WorldCat can help you discover resources that might not be in the Giovale Library collection.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Interlibrary Loan is a service where patrons of one library can borrow books and other materials, and access journal articles that are owned by another library.
Explore Interlibrary Loan Materials
Utah Academic Library Consortium
Giovale Library participates in the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) and Westminster University students have reciprocal circulation privileges at UALC partner libraries. Each UALC library has different circulation policies, but all require a current, valid, legal photo identification and proof of current enrollment at Westminster. Some libraries may also require other verification methods, so it is recommended that you contact the library you are interested in for details.
Popular Titles and Featured Texts
Wake the Others: A Biography of My Mother Land
Pop Chinese: A Cheng & Tsui Bilingual Handbook of Contemporary Colloquial Expressions
Motifs: An Introduction to French
My Brilliant Friend
Find Articles
The Giovale Library provides access to a number of subject databases that you can use to find journal articles on topics within a specific discipline or field of study. The databases listed on this page are the most useful for finding research published in the field of languages.
GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other material available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases.
General Language Databases
JSTOR
JSTOR is an interdisciplinary archive of full text articles from journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. It includes retrospective coverage of publications which means that most of the articles will be 1 to 5 years old. To search for subject specific articles, after entering your search terms, scroll down to “Journal Filter” and select a subject.
Project Muse
Project Muse offers full text coverage of journals and e-books in the humanities, social sciences, and mathematics, with a focus on resources published by university presses. Items in this collection date back to 1985, but there are no embargoes, so the most recent editions of journals will be available.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
MLA International Bibliography offers citations for journal articles, books, and dissertations concerning literature, modern language studies, linguistics, and drama.
Search MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Spanish Specific Databases
Latin America & Iberian Database (ProQuest)
Latin America & Iberian Database provides full text access to scientific periodicals locally published by publishers and academic institutions in various Latin American countries, as well as Spain and Portugal. The main topics of interest represented in the database are economics, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and the humanities.
Search Latin America & Iberian Database (ProQuest)
Informe Académico (Gale)
Informe Académico provides access to a wide range of full-text Spanish and Portuguese scholarly journals and magazines both from and about Latin America.
Find Other Sources
There are a variety of Internet resources freely available for students and the general population to improve their cultural understanding of Spanish-speaking countries and language development.
Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC)
Latin American Network Information Center's (LANIC) mission is to facilitate access to Internet-based information to, from, or on Latin America. Our target audience includes people living in Latin America, as well as those around the world who have an interest in this region. While many of the resources are designed to facilitate research and academic endeavors, the site has also become an important gateway to Latin America for primary and secondary school teachers and students, private and public sector professionals, and just about anyone looking for information about this important region.
Biblioteca Digital Hispánica
Biblioteca Digital Hispánica is the digital library of the Biblioteca Nacional de España. It provides access free of charge to thousands of digitized documents, including books printed from the 15th to the 19th century, manuscripts, drawings, engravings, pamphlets, posters, photographs, maps, atlases, music scores, historic newspapers, magazines, and audio recordings.
Search Biblioteca Digital Hispanica
Centro Virtual Cervantes
Centro Virtual Cervantes was created to spread the Spanish language and its culture, which includes access to exhibitions, monographs, reference works, didactic materials for Spanish classes, discussion forums, debates, and more.
Search Centro Virtual Cervantes
United Nations
United Nations include access to news, reports, and other information from the United Nations.
Archives Portal Europe
Archives Portal Europe provides a single access to find, browse and discover information on archives about Europe held by thousands of cultural heritage institutions from more than 30 countries.
Citing Sources
Citation Resources
Properly citing your sources shows that you’ve done research to become knowledgeable about your topic and helps you avoid plagiarism. Explore citation resources to learn how to correctly cite sources based on style.
Need help with your research?
Get in touch with:
Lizz Larson
Liaison Librarian for Languages
801.832.2253
elarson@westminsteru.edu
Librarians are happy to answer questions via email, phone, or in-person.
Contact Lizz with a question or to schedule a research help appointment.
Faculty: Contact Lizz to suggest edits to this research guide.
Chat with a Librarian
Use the chat box below to ask the library staff a question. If chat is unavailable or we don’t respond quickly, please use the email form on our Get Research Help page and a library staff member will contact you as soon as we are available.