Latin American Bibliography Project

California State University Dominguez Hills Archives and Special Collections & The Department of History

 

The Latin American Bibliography Project was funded by a grant from the CSUDH Presidential Creative Initiative in 2012 and a RSCA Faulty grant in 2015. The objectives of the Latin American Rare Book Bibliography Project were to assist students in the development of bibliographic skills, expose students to rare book collections at the University, expose students to the skills needed to preserve history and to introduce students to rare book digitization and cataloging. The grant was completed in June 2012. The second grant was completed in Fall 2015.

 

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The books in this project mostly date from the 19th and early 20th century were donated to the Department of Archives and Special Collections by Ludwig Lauerhass Jr. and Arnold Berlin or are part of already existing collections. Students who produced the bibliographies include Raul Rubio, Jason Moore, Lori May, Manuel Rodela, Clark Woods, Jonathan Woods and Lucais Hines. The work of the students was supervised by Dr. Doris Namala, history instructor; Greg Williams, Director of Archives and Special Collections; Dr. Kate Fawver, chair History Department; and Thomas Philo, archivist. Co-receipient of the RSCA grant was Veronica D’Aquino. The students were introduced to elements of creating annotated bibliographies by Dr. Doris Namala. Dr. Namala also assisted students in editing and creating the bibliographies. Dr. Kate Fawver worked to recruit students for the project and worked out procedures for project. Thomas Philo instructed students on the cataloging and digitization of project images and created a listing of books to be included in the project. Greg Williams supervised student use and handling of rare books, determined books to be used, supervised the creation of the project exhibition, and worked with Dr. Kate Fawver and Dr. Namala to draw up plans for the project.


This project was established to gauge how students and faculty would respond to bibliography projects in various disciplines. While the books in the Latin American Bibliography Project fit nicely into various history courses in the university, the books could just as well be used in political science, literature, education, sociology, and anthropology courses.

 

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The original project proposal for the Latin American Bibliography Project sought to connect students with unique CSUDH resources. With the goal of getting students to use alternative resources, this project engaged students in the discovery of both the content of selected books, but also the point of view of these books. The project also allowed for students to handle rare or older books/pamphlets. Bibliographies are used as a teaching tool and often as a first step toward further in-depth research and also allow students to survey previous research and expand their own research. The unique aspect of this project is that students used non-internet sources which are available in their totality only at Dominguez Hills.


It is hoped that this project report will encourage other departments to use the guide and encourage students to create bibliographies using Archival or Rare Book Collections. Departments that could initially use books in the rare book collection include English, Art, Earth Sciences, Education, Anthropology and others. Topics to incorporate into bibliographies for students in other departments include world travel, early 20th century literature, post-World War II art catalogs, rare African-American titles and a wide variety of other topics.

The Rare Book collection has several intriguing sets of collections that are ripe for student produced bibliographies and study. See the guide to the archives and rare books collections by clicking here.

The Guide also includes several hundred archival or manuscript collections that instructors could encourage their students to use. The basic objective of the Latin American Project and future projects is to allow students access to the primary resource material of Archives and Special Collections as well as increase their skills in creating bibliographies.


---Greg Williams, Director, Archives and Special Collection, University Library