There are many books, both print and electronic, in the library's collection that deal with Mexican American and/or Chicana/o history. One of the best ways to search the Library Online Catalog is to use the "Advanced Keyword" search. The Advanced Keyword search allows you to search for words in a item's title, subject headings, abstract, table of contents, or any other information provided in the item's record. For example, you could search for books on Mexican American civil rights movement in Texas history by using the keywords "mexican american and civil rights and history and texas ".
In addition, here are a few subject terms that you can search to find books on Mexican American history. Click on these links to view the Blume Library's books on the following subjects:
The words "history", "19th century", "20th century", and "social conditions" also appear as sub-headings in many library subjects. Try adding these terms to your topic search when searching by advanced keyword.
Terms like "sources", "correspondence", "pictorial works", "interviews", "personal narratives", and "oral history" will help you find primary resources related to your topic.
You also may want to take a look at some subject encyclopedias to get an overview of your specific topic. You may want to use the following reference books to get additional background information on your topic:
The library owns over 60,000 full-text e-books via NetLibrary. You can search across the full-text of the entire e-book collection to find books on specific topics. There are numerous books on Chicana/o, Mexican American, and Latina/o culture and history in this book database.
The following databases include articles on historical topics.
Academic Search Complete
This is a fulltext database of peer-reviewed academic journals, offering critical information from many sources including history journals and magazines. It contains fulltext articles from over 8,025 publications.
World History Collection
Offers a global look at history with content from Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe and the Middle East. World History Collection contains cover-to-cover full text for nearly 150 titles, including many peer-reviewed journals.
WorldCat
"WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world."
Locating Journals
Use the library's "Locating Journals" search to determine which fulltext journals, magazines, and newspapers are available in the library's databases or in the library's print periodicals collection.
Interlibrary Loan
If the library does not own a book or a journal article that you need, you can ask the library to get the book or article from another library. You can request books and articles online throught the library website. The library staff will email you when your materials arrive.