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Journal of LibraryAdministrationPublication details including instructions forauthors and subscription informationhttpwwwtandfonlinecomloiwjla20

The Internet in Latin AmericaMolly Molloy aa New Mexico State University Library Box 30006MSC 3475 Las Cruces New Mexico 88003 USAPublished online 23 Sep 2008

To cite this article Molly Molloy (2005) The Internet in Latin America Journal ofLibrary Administration 433-4 129-147 DOI 101300J111v43n03_11

To link to this article httpdxdoiorg101300J111v43n03_11

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor amp Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the ldquoContentrdquo) contained in the publications on our platformHowever Taylor amp Francis our agents and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy completenessor suitability for any purpose of the Content Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor amp Francis The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses actions claims proceedings demands costs expenses damagesand other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent

This article may be used for research teaching and private study purposesAny substantial or systematic reproduction redistribution reselling loansub-licensing systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is

expressly forbidden Terms amp Conditions of access and use can be found athttpwwwtandfonlinecompageterms-and-conditions

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The Internet in Latin AmericaDevelopment and Reference Sources

Molly Molloy

SUMMARY This article chronicles the development of the Internet inLatin America and the evolution of reference and research informationof use to scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Latin American Stud-ies It describes selected reference resources including public do-mainopen access and subscription databases electronic journalaggregators and websites that provide full-text of historical materialsabstracts and citations to journal articles books dissertations and otheracademic resources government information statistics and news [Ar-ticle copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service1-800-HAWORTH E-mail address ltdocdeliveryhaworthpresscomgt Web-site lthttpwwwHaworthPresscomgt copy 2005 by The Haworth Press Inc Allrights reserved]

KEYWORDS Latin America internet development history refer-ence sources research

PART 1 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTERNETIN LATIN AMERICA

Information does not exist in isolation from the individual organiza-tion or other entity that creates it Researchers need to know about the

This electronic prepublication version may contain typographical errors and may be miss-ing artwork such as charts photographs etc Pagination in later versions may differ fromthis copy citation references to this material may be incorrect when this prepublicationedition is replaced at a later date with the finalized version

Molly Molloy is affiliated with the New Mexico State University Library Box30006 MSC 3475 Las Cruces New Mexico 88003 (E-mail mmolloynmsuedu)

[Haworth co-indexing entry note] ldquoThe Internet in Latin America Development and Reference SourcesrdquoMolloy Molly Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Library Administration (The Haworth Informa-tion Press an imprint of The Haworth Press Inc) Vol 43 No 34 2005 pp 129-147 and Evolving InternetReference Resources (ed William Miller and Rita M Pellen) The Haworth Information Press an imprint ofThe Haworth Press Inc 2006 pp 129-147 Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a feefrom The Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH 900 am - 500 pm (EST) E-mail ad-dress docdeliveryhaworthpresscom]

Available online at httpwwwhaworthpresscomwebJLA 2005 by The Haworth Press Inc All rights reserved

Digital Object Identifier 101300J111v43n03_11 129

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dynamics of information production and dissemination in their disci-plines and in the countries or regions that they study In the interdisci-plinary field of Latin American Studies librarians must be aware ofhow academic publishing functions in the region the characteristics ofthe book trade and how to obtain materials or provide access to informa-tion produced outside of the commercial realm by governments educa-tion and the non-governmental organization (NGO) sector Librariansmust understand how the mass media operates in different countries andhow to obtain newspapers so that an archive will exist for future histori-ans Latin Americanist librarians have been engaged in these activitiesfor many years and their efforts have created excellent research collec-tions that have fostered the growth of new knowledge

My career as an academic librarian began at the same time that theInternet became accessible to more than just the techies and geeks inhigher education From my perspective as a specialist in Latin Ameri-can area studies it seemed that researchers should take advantage ofthis new tool for information dissemination that promised to breakthrough some of the barriers of time distance and economics that madeaccess to information from Latin America difficult As the Internet be-came an important tool for scholarly communication and research andentered the information universe in Latin America in the 1990s aca-demic librarians recognized the need to use the net to increase access totraditional sources of information (online newspapers academic jour-nals newsletters etc) and to take advantage of the production and dis-semination of new sources of information

Long before traditional published sources appeared on the Internetscholars activists journalists and others were creating and disseminat-ing unique information from and about the region to the rest of theworld often information produced by groups and individuals excludedfrom the commercial or traditional academic information world such asactivist groups guerrilla organizations and other minority or marginalizedsectors of the population (Cleaver 1998 Molloy 1998) The primaryvalue of the Internet has always been as a medium of communicationand a vehicle for the formation of community The Internet is a ldquonet-work of networksrdquo of people keeping each other aware of events andsharing information to solve problems to publicize situations requiringaction and to facilitate the creation of new knowledge The Internet cancreate communities of affinity without geographic limitations

In a previous paper I explore in some detail the development of theInternet in Latin America within the framework of several interrelatedthemes the use of Internet communication for development and de-

130 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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014

mocracy the influence of entertainment and commerce and the eco-nomics of the gap in access to information technologies in LatinAmerica (Molloy 2000) While universities international organiza-tions governments and private businesses played an important role ininstitutionalizing Internet communications in Latin America it shouldbe noted that NGOs took on much of the earliest technical educationaland outreach work in the late 1980s and early 1990s to bring LatinAmerica online Social change activists often members of local groupsdealing with human rights environment peace labor or other issuesrecognized the potential of new technologies to enable them to connectwith people in other parts of the world who were working on similar is-sues or who had an interest in receiving information about their activi-ties (Lane 1990 Keck and Sikkink 1998)

In the pre-Internet era beginning as early as 1985-86 the Associa-tion for Progressive Communications (APC) provided access to elec-tronic mail for many groups involved in progressive social movementsin Latin American countriesndashthe earliest NGO networks in the regionwere in Nicaragua and Brazil (Frederick 1993 Association for Progres-sive Communications 2004 Pasch 1997) It can be argued that the con-junction of Internet communication and the growth of civil society inLatin America created a synthesis such that ldquoThroughout Latin Amer-ica and the Third World such groups (grassroots NGOs) have risento prominence in the last ten to fifteen yearsndashthanks in no small mea-sure to their ability to creatively use new information and communi-cation technologiesndashexerting their influence all the way from the struggleto redefine (and democratize) daily life to the realm of international re-lationsrdquo (Norsworthy 1997 p 268)

Optimism about the social benefits of Internet connectivity in LatinAmerica prevailed throughout the 1990s however the more recentboom fueled by online entertainment and commercial applications andthe growth of private Internet service providers that followed took awaymuch of the vanguard status that progressive organizations had ac-quired (Gomez 1998) The commercial boom enabled many more peo-ple in Latin America to obtain access to the Internet but as Gomezpoints out (2000) the Latin American Internet became a ldquohall of mir-rorsrdquo reflecting and in some ways exacerbating huge inequalities al-ready present in these societies

The 1999 Human Development Report of the United Nations Devel-opment Program (UNDP 1999) focused on the contradictions of global-ization a world in which the benefits of growth and prosperity hadbecome more and more unevenly distributed Thirty years ago the in-

Molly Molloy 131

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014

come ratio of the richest to the poorest countries was 30-to-1 by 1999 ithad grown to 74-to-1 The report details the ldquodouble-edged swordrdquo po-tential of the Internet to break down barriers and facilitate social changeandor to reinforce the inequalities of access to the Internet in rich andpoor countries ldquoThose with income education andndashliterallyndashconnec-tions have cheap and instantaneous access to information The rest areleft with uncertain slow and costly access When people in these twoworlds live and compete side by side the advantage of being connectedwill overpower the marginal and impoverished cutting off their voicesand concerns from the global conversationrdquo (UNDP 1999 6)

There is no lack of literature on the general problem of the ldquodigital di-viderdquo in Latin America (Panos Institute 1998 Hamelink 1998 Haymond1998 Carty 2000 Everett 1998) Everett examined the position of aidagencies in funding information technology as a tool for promoting eco-nomic development and political reform but found that ldquoThe Internetis far from being the free and open exchange that the advertisers andother enthusiasts claim In terms of both content and accessibility it re-flects the same inequalities of race class gender and the global orderwhich exist in the lsquoreal worldrsquordquo (Everett 1998 392)

By 2003 most Latin American governments had articulated policiesaimed at promoting Internet access and connectivity and thus workingtoward the alleviation of inequalities (Summits of the Americas 2004)A recent study (Hawkins and Hawkins 2003) looked at the connectionsbetween government policies and Internet access in Latin AmericaTheir data show that the level of Internet use is strongly associated withthe overall wealth of the countries and the corresponding developmentof the telecommunications infrastructure (659) The only governmentpolicy shown to have a significant impact on the level of internet accesswas the implementation of changes in telecommunications tariff struc-tures (660)

The Internet like so many technologies before it is not being intro-duced onto a tabula rasa rather it is inserted into an existing set ofhighly unequal social and economic relations In the case of LatinAmerica it is not even a static situation of inequalityndashthe period of the1990s when the Internet was introduced in the region was one of grow-ing inequalities in distribution of wealth and resources However thereis the potential thanks to private investment government policies andthe continuing efforts of progressive communities to create the spacefor activism education research and other socially beneficial activi-ties Critical and well-informed users and producers of information

132 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

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6 O

ctob

er 2

014

may in the long run be much more important than hardware infra-structure and commercial investment

In 2004 Tim Berners-Lee credited as the inventor of the WorldWide Web received a $12 million Millennium Technology Prize inHelsinki Finland In his acceptance speech Berners-Lee said that if hehad patented his ideas and demanded royalty fees he would never havesucceeded in creating and implementing the communication protocolsand markup language that have become essential to what became theopen and inter-operable World Wide Web accessible through any com-puter platform anywhere in the world His statement emphasized theInternetrsquos ldquospirit of openness and sharingrdquo as an essential catalyst to cre-ativity and invention (Shannon 2004)

The recent trend toward the ldquoharvestingrdquo of metadata from archivesof open access scholarly information sources and making these archivesaccessible to web searchers through deep indexing is one way that theInternet may be moving toward fulfilling the dreams of its founders andthe ldquoaccess is powerrdquo optimists of the 1990s that useful and reliable in-formation would become freely available to allndashnot just to those inwealthy countries or to the privileged few in poorer world regions likeLatin America Librarians and other information scientists are findingevidence to show that open access sources do have a greater impact onthe research community than articles published in journals that are onlyaccessible by paying high subscription fees (Antelman 2004)

Eugene Garfield the citation database pioneer and founder of the In-stitute for Scientific Information (ISI) has speculated that open accessmay improve readership and citation impact (quoted in Antelman372-373) ISIrsquos Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are used extensively inacademia to determine the relative research impact of a select list ofjournals across disciplines ISI currently monitors the presence of openaccess journals in their citation databases to determine if open access in-creases research impact The most recently published study released inOctober 2004 and based on the 2003 Journal Citation Reports con-cludes that while ldquomore of the currently available open access journalsrank in the lower half of their subject categoryrdquo there are some open ac-cess titles in the top ranks (McVeigh 2004)

It is important to note that the JCR methodology focuses on a mea-surement of the research impact of journals not individual articles(Antelman 373) ISIrsquos October study points out the complexity inevolving open access distribution models including the fact that manypublishers permit self-archiving of individual articles by authors that

Molly Molloy 133

Dow

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ded

by [

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issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

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er 2

014

these archives are increasingly available through web searching andthus the availability of articles outside the ldquopackagerdquo of the publishedjournal may also affect research impact The ISI reports note the impor-tant role of regional journals in open access publishing specifically theScientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) which encompasses agrowing list of Latin American titles (Thomson ISI 2004)

PART 2 ANNOTATED GUIDE TO REFERENCE SOURCESFOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

The resources listed here provide access to scholarly literature newsand news archives periodicals statistics and government informationfocused specifically on Latin America I have included a few generalsources that may be especially relevant to Latin American StudiesSome sources mentioned are very specific and are provided as examplesof the kind of unique and useful information that is available via theInternet however this list is not intended to be comprehensive Direc-tory sites such as the Latin America Network Information Center(LANIC) provide the best access to the constantly changing array ofsites in the region These online resources will provide a variety of infor-mation including complete bibliographic citations and abstracts andorfull text In some cases the database will provide external links to thefull-text of articles or documents Access to full text depends on whetherthe end user is willing to pay for documents or whether the source materialis provided through a paid subscription maintained by the library or otherinstitution providing the database access For all resources listed I indicatewhether access is OPEN or via SUBSCRIPTION

Americas ProgramlthttpwwwamericaspolicyorggtOPEN

The Americas Program website provides policy briefs and analysisfrom the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) lthttpwwwirc-on-lineorggt on topics such as economic integration and sustainable devel-opment US policy and Latin American political social and economicaffairs etc The site includes data and reports on current US-Mexicoborder issues lthttpwwwamericaspolicyorgindexusmexindexphpgtand an archive of published policy papers and newsletters back to 1995

134 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

mocracy the influence of entertainment and commerce and the eco-nomics of the gap in access to information technologies in LatinAmerica (Molloy 2000) While universities international organiza-tions governments and private businesses played an important role ininstitutionalizing Internet communications in Latin America it shouldbe noted that NGOs took on much of the earliest technical educationaland outreach work in the late 1980s and early 1990s to bring LatinAmerica online Social change activists often members of local groupsdealing with human rights environment peace labor or other issuesrecognized the potential of new technologies to enable them to connectwith people in other parts of the world who were working on similar is-sues or who had an interest in receiving information about their activi-ties (Lane 1990 Keck and Sikkink 1998)

In the pre-Internet era beginning as early as 1985-86 the Associa-tion for Progressive Communications (APC) provided access to elec-tronic mail for many groups involved in progressive social movementsin Latin American countriesndashthe earliest NGO networks in the regionwere in Nicaragua and Brazil (Frederick 1993 Association for Progres-sive Communications 2004 Pasch 1997) It can be argued that the con-junction of Internet communication and the growth of civil society inLatin America created a synthesis such that ldquoThroughout Latin Amer-ica and the Third World such groups (grassroots NGOs) have risento prominence in the last ten to fifteen yearsndashthanks in no small mea-sure to their ability to creatively use new information and communi-cation technologiesndashexerting their influence all the way from the struggleto redefine (and democratize) daily life to the realm of international re-lationsrdquo (Norsworthy 1997 p 268)

Optimism about the social benefits of Internet connectivity in LatinAmerica prevailed throughout the 1990s however the more recentboom fueled by online entertainment and commercial applications andthe growth of private Internet service providers that followed took awaymuch of the vanguard status that progressive organizations had ac-quired (Gomez 1998) The commercial boom enabled many more peo-ple in Latin America to obtain access to the Internet but as Gomezpoints out (2000) the Latin American Internet became a ldquohall of mir-rorsrdquo reflecting and in some ways exacerbating huge inequalities al-ready present in these societies

The 1999 Human Development Report of the United Nations Devel-opment Program (UNDP 1999) focused on the contradictions of global-ization a world in which the benefits of growth and prosperity hadbecome more and more unevenly distributed Thirty years ago the in-

Molly Molloy 131

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

come ratio of the richest to the poorest countries was 30-to-1 by 1999 ithad grown to 74-to-1 The report details the ldquodouble-edged swordrdquo po-tential of the Internet to break down barriers and facilitate social changeandor to reinforce the inequalities of access to the Internet in rich andpoor countries ldquoThose with income education andndashliterallyndashconnec-tions have cheap and instantaneous access to information The rest areleft with uncertain slow and costly access When people in these twoworlds live and compete side by side the advantage of being connectedwill overpower the marginal and impoverished cutting off their voicesand concerns from the global conversationrdquo (UNDP 1999 6)

There is no lack of literature on the general problem of the ldquodigital di-viderdquo in Latin America (Panos Institute 1998 Hamelink 1998 Haymond1998 Carty 2000 Everett 1998) Everett examined the position of aidagencies in funding information technology as a tool for promoting eco-nomic development and political reform but found that ldquoThe Internetis far from being the free and open exchange that the advertisers andother enthusiasts claim In terms of both content and accessibility it re-flects the same inequalities of race class gender and the global orderwhich exist in the lsquoreal worldrsquordquo (Everett 1998 392)

By 2003 most Latin American governments had articulated policiesaimed at promoting Internet access and connectivity and thus workingtoward the alleviation of inequalities (Summits of the Americas 2004)A recent study (Hawkins and Hawkins 2003) looked at the connectionsbetween government policies and Internet access in Latin AmericaTheir data show that the level of Internet use is strongly associated withthe overall wealth of the countries and the corresponding developmentof the telecommunications infrastructure (659) The only governmentpolicy shown to have a significant impact on the level of internet accesswas the implementation of changes in telecommunications tariff struc-tures (660)

The Internet like so many technologies before it is not being intro-duced onto a tabula rasa rather it is inserted into an existing set ofhighly unequal social and economic relations In the case of LatinAmerica it is not even a static situation of inequalityndashthe period of the1990s when the Internet was introduced in the region was one of grow-ing inequalities in distribution of wealth and resources However thereis the potential thanks to private investment government policies andthe continuing efforts of progressive communities to create the spacefor activism education research and other socially beneficial activi-ties Critical and well-informed users and producers of information

132 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

may in the long run be much more important than hardware infra-structure and commercial investment

In 2004 Tim Berners-Lee credited as the inventor of the WorldWide Web received a $12 million Millennium Technology Prize inHelsinki Finland In his acceptance speech Berners-Lee said that if hehad patented his ideas and demanded royalty fees he would never havesucceeded in creating and implementing the communication protocolsand markup language that have become essential to what became theopen and inter-operable World Wide Web accessible through any com-puter platform anywhere in the world His statement emphasized theInternetrsquos ldquospirit of openness and sharingrdquo as an essential catalyst to cre-ativity and invention (Shannon 2004)

The recent trend toward the ldquoharvestingrdquo of metadata from archivesof open access scholarly information sources and making these archivesaccessible to web searchers through deep indexing is one way that theInternet may be moving toward fulfilling the dreams of its founders andthe ldquoaccess is powerrdquo optimists of the 1990s that useful and reliable in-formation would become freely available to allndashnot just to those inwealthy countries or to the privileged few in poorer world regions likeLatin America Librarians and other information scientists are findingevidence to show that open access sources do have a greater impact onthe research community than articles published in journals that are onlyaccessible by paying high subscription fees (Antelman 2004)

Eugene Garfield the citation database pioneer and founder of the In-stitute for Scientific Information (ISI) has speculated that open accessmay improve readership and citation impact (quoted in Antelman372-373) ISIrsquos Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are used extensively inacademia to determine the relative research impact of a select list ofjournals across disciplines ISI currently monitors the presence of openaccess journals in their citation databases to determine if open access in-creases research impact The most recently published study released inOctober 2004 and based on the 2003 Journal Citation Reports con-cludes that while ldquomore of the currently available open access journalsrank in the lower half of their subject categoryrdquo there are some open ac-cess titles in the top ranks (McVeigh 2004)

It is important to note that the JCR methodology focuses on a mea-surement of the research impact of journals not individual articles(Antelman 373) ISIrsquos October study points out the complexity inevolving open access distribution models including the fact that manypublishers permit self-archiving of individual articles by authors that

Molly Molloy 133

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

these archives are increasingly available through web searching andthus the availability of articles outside the ldquopackagerdquo of the publishedjournal may also affect research impact The ISI reports note the impor-tant role of regional journals in open access publishing specifically theScientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) which encompasses agrowing list of Latin American titles (Thomson ISI 2004)

PART 2 ANNOTATED GUIDE TO REFERENCE SOURCESFOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

The resources listed here provide access to scholarly literature newsand news archives periodicals statistics and government informationfocused specifically on Latin America I have included a few generalsources that may be especially relevant to Latin American StudiesSome sources mentioned are very specific and are provided as examplesof the kind of unique and useful information that is available via theInternet however this list is not intended to be comprehensive Direc-tory sites such as the Latin America Network Information Center(LANIC) provide the best access to the constantly changing array ofsites in the region These online resources will provide a variety of infor-mation including complete bibliographic citations and abstracts andorfull text In some cases the database will provide external links to thefull-text of articles or documents Access to full text depends on whetherthe end user is willing to pay for documents or whether the source materialis provided through a paid subscription maintained by the library or otherinstitution providing the database access For all resources listed I indicatewhether access is OPEN or via SUBSCRIPTION

Americas ProgramlthttpwwwamericaspolicyorggtOPEN

The Americas Program website provides policy briefs and analysisfrom the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) lthttpwwwirc-on-lineorggt on topics such as economic integration and sustainable devel-opment US policy and Latin American political social and economicaffairs etc The site includes data and reports on current US-Mexicoborder issues lthttpwwwamericaspolicyorgindexusmexindexphpgtand an archive of published policy papers and newsletters back to 1995

134 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

come ratio of the richest to the poorest countries was 30-to-1 by 1999 ithad grown to 74-to-1 The report details the ldquodouble-edged swordrdquo po-tential of the Internet to break down barriers and facilitate social changeandor to reinforce the inequalities of access to the Internet in rich andpoor countries ldquoThose with income education andndashliterallyndashconnec-tions have cheap and instantaneous access to information The rest areleft with uncertain slow and costly access When people in these twoworlds live and compete side by side the advantage of being connectedwill overpower the marginal and impoverished cutting off their voicesand concerns from the global conversationrdquo (UNDP 1999 6)

There is no lack of literature on the general problem of the ldquodigital di-viderdquo in Latin America (Panos Institute 1998 Hamelink 1998 Haymond1998 Carty 2000 Everett 1998) Everett examined the position of aidagencies in funding information technology as a tool for promoting eco-nomic development and political reform but found that ldquoThe Internetis far from being the free and open exchange that the advertisers andother enthusiasts claim In terms of both content and accessibility it re-flects the same inequalities of race class gender and the global orderwhich exist in the lsquoreal worldrsquordquo (Everett 1998 392)

By 2003 most Latin American governments had articulated policiesaimed at promoting Internet access and connectivity and thus workingtoward the alleviation of inequalities (Summits of the Americas 2004)A recent study (Hawkins and Hawkins 2003) looked at the connectionsbetween government policies and Internet access in Latin AmericaTheir data show that the level of Internet use is strongly associated withthe overall wealth of the countries and the corresponding developmentof the telecommunications infrastructure (659) The only governmentpolicy shown to have a significant impact on the level of internet accesswas the implementation of changes in telecommunications tariff struc-tures (660)

The Internet like so many technologies before it is not being intro-duced onto a tabula rasa rather it is inserted into an existing set ofhighly unequal social and economic relations In the case of LatinAmerica it is not even a static situation of inequalityndashthe period of the1990s when the Internet was introduced in the region was one of grow-ing inequalities in distribution of wealth and resources However thereis the potential thanks to private investment government policies andthe continuing efforts of progressive communities to create the spacefor activism education research and other socially beneficial activi-ties Critical and well-informed users and producers of information

132 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

may in the long run be much more important than hardware infra-structure and commercial investment

In 2004 Tim Berners-Lee credited as the inventor of the WorldWide Web received a $12 million Millennium Technology Prize inHelsinki Finland In his acceptance speech Berners-Lee said that if hehad patented his ideas and demanded royalty fees he would never havesucceeded in creating and implementing the communication protocolsand markup language that have become essential to what became theopen and inter-operable World Wide Web accessible through any com-puter platform anywhere in the world His statement emphasized theInternetrsquos ldquospirit of openness and sharingrdquo as an essential catalyst to cre-ativity and invention (Shannon 2004)

The recent trend toward the ldquoharvestingrdquo of metadata from archivesof open access scholarly information sources and making these archivesaccessible to web searchers through deep indexing is one way that theInternet may be moving toward fulfilling the dreams of its founders andthe ldquoaccess is powerrdquo optimists of the 1990s that useful and reliable in-formation would become freely available to allndashnot just to those inwealthy countries or to the privileged few in poorer world regions likeLatin America Librarians and other information scientists are findingevidence to show that open access sources do have a greater impact onthe research community than articles published in journals that are onlyaccessible by paying high subscription fees (Antelman 2004)

Eugene Garfield the citation database pioneer and founder of the In-stitute for Scientific Information (ISI) has speculated that open accessmay improve readership and citation impact (quoted in Antelman372-373) ISIrsquos Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are used extensively inacademia to determine the relative research impact of a select list ofjournals across disciplines ISI currently monitors the presence of openaccess journals in their citation databases to determine if open access in-creases research impact The most recently published study released inOctober 2004 and based on the 2003 Journal Citation Reports con-cludes that while ldquomore of the currently available open access journalsrank in the lower half of their subject categoryrdquo there are some open ac-cess titles in the top ranks (McVeigh 2004)

It is important to note that the JCR methodology focuses on a mea-surement of the research impact of journals not individual articles(Antelman 373) ISIrsquos October study points out the complexity inevolving open access distribution models including the fact that manypublishers permit self-archiving of individual articles by authors that

Molly Molloy 133

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

these archives are increasingly available through web searching andthus the availability of articles outside the ldquopackagerdquo of the publishedjournal may also affect research impact The ISI reports note the impor-tant role of regional journals in open access publishing specifically theScientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) which encompasses agrowing list of Latin American titles (Thomson ISI 2004)

PART 2 ANNOTATED GUIDE TO REFERENCE SOURCESFOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

The resources listed here provide access to scholarly literature newsand news archives periodicals statistics and government informationfocused specifically on Latin America I have included a few generalsources that may be especially relevant to Latin American StudiesSome sources mentioned are very specific and are provided as examplesof the kind of unique and useful information that is available via theInternet however this list is not intended to be comprehensive Direc-tory sites such as the Latin America Network Information Center(LANIC) provide the best access to the constantly changing array ofsites in the region These online resources will provide a variety of infor-mation including complete bibliographic citations and abstracts andorfull text In some cases the database will provide external links to thefull-text of articles or documents Access to full text depends on whetherthe end user is willing to pay for documents or whether the source materialis provided through a paid subscription maintained by the library or otherinstitution providing the database access For all resources listed I indicatewhether access is OPEN or via SUBSCRIPTION

Americas ProgramlthttpwwwamericaspolicyorggtOPEN

The Americas Program website provides policy briefs and analysisfrom the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) lthttpwwwirc-on-lineorggt on topics such as economic integration and sustainable devel-opment US policy and Latin American political social and economicaffairs etc The site includes data and reports on current US-Mexicoborder issues lthttpwwwamericaspolicyorgindexusmexindexphpgtand an archive of published policy papers and newsletters back to 1995

134 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Nip

issi

ng U

nive

rsity

] at

13

22 0

6 O

ctob

er 2

014

may in the long run be much more important than hardware infra-structure and commercial investment

In 2004 Tim Berners-Lee credited as the inventor of the WorldWide Web received a $12 million Millennium Technology Prize inHelsinki Finland In his acceptance speech Berners-Lee said that if hehad patented his ideas and demanded royalty fees he would never havesucceeded in creating and implementing the communication protocolsand markup language that have become essential to what became theopen and inter-operable World Wide Web accessible through any com-puter platform anywhere in the world His statement emphasized theInternetrsquos ldquospirit of openness and sharingrdquo as an essential catalyst to cre-ativity and invention (Shannon 2004)

The recent trend toward the ldquoharvestingrdquo of metadata from archivesof open access scholarly information sources and making these archivesaccessible to web searchers through deep indexing is one way that theInternet may be moving toward fulfilling the dreams of its founders andthe ldquoaccess is powerrdquo optimists of the 1990s that useful and reliable in-formation would become freely available to allndashnot just to those inwealthy countries or to the privileged few in poorer world regions likeLatin America Librarians and other information scientists are findingevidence to show that open access sources do have a greater impact onthe research community than articles published in journals that are onlyaccessible by paying high subscription fees (Antelman 2004)

Eugene Garfield the citation database pioneer and founder of the In-stitute for Scientific Information (ISI) has speculated that open accessmay improve readership and citation impact (quoted in Antelman372-373) ISIrsquos Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are used extensively inacademia to determine the relative research impact of a select list ofjournals across disciplines ISI currently monitors the presence of openaccess journals in their citation databases to determine if open access in-creases research impact The most recently published study released inOctober 2004 and based on the 2003 Journal Citation Reports con-cludes that while ldquomore of the currently available open access journalsrank in the lower half of their subject categoryrdquo there are some open ac-cess titles in the top ranks (McVeigh 2004)

It is important to note that the JCR methodology focuses on a mea-surement of the research impact of journals not individual articles(Antelman 373) ISIrsquos October study points out the complexity inevolving open access distribution models including the fact that manypublishers permit self-archiving of individual articles by authors that

Molly Molloy 133

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these archives are increasingly available through web searching andthus the availability of articles outside the ldquopackagerdquo of the publishedjournal may also affect research impact The ISI reports note the impor-tant role of regional journals in open access publishing specifically theScientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) which encompasses agrowing list of Latin American titles (Thomson ISI 2004)

PART 2 ANNOTATED GUIDE TO REFERENCE SOURCESFOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

The resources listed here provide access to scholarly literature newsand news archives periodicals statistics and government informationfocused specifically on Latin America I have included a few generalsources that may be especially relevant to Latin American StudiesSome sources mentioned are very specific and are provided as examplesof the kind of unique and useful information that is available via theInternet however this list is not intended to be comprehensive Direc-tory sites such as the Latin America Network Information Center(LANIC) provide the best access to the constantly changing array ofsites in the region These online resources will provide a variety of infor-mation including complete bibliographic citations and abstracts andorfull text In some cases the database will provide external links to thefull-text of articles or documents Access to full text depends on whetherthe end user is willing to pay for documents or whether the source materialis provided through a paid subscription maintained by the library or otherinstitution providing the database access For all resources listed I indicatewhether access is OPEN or via SUBSCRIPTION

Americas ProgramlthttpwwwamericaspolicyorggtOPEN

The Americas Program website provides policy briefs and analysisfrom the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) lthttpwwwirc-on-lineorggt on topics such as economic integration and sustainable devel-opment US policy and Latin American political social and economicaffairs etc The site includes data and reports on current US-Mexicoborder issues lthttpwwwamericaspolicyorgindexusmexindexphpgtand an archive of published policy papers and newsletters back to 1995

134 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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these archives are increasingly available through web searching andthus the availability of articles outside the ldquopackagerdquo of the publishedjournal may also affect research impact The ISI reports note the impor-tant role of regional journals in open access publishing specifically theScientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) which encompasses agrowing list of Latin American titles (Thomson ISI 2004)

PART 2 ANNOTATED GUIDE TO REFERENCE SOURCESFOR LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES

The resources listed here provide access to scholarly literature newsand news archives periodicals statistics and government informationfocused specifically on Latin America I have included a few generalsources that may be especially relevant to Latin American StudiesSome sources mentioned are very specific and are provided as examplesof the kind of unique and useful information that is available via theInternet however this list is not intended to be comprehensive Direc-tory sites such as the Latin America Network Information Center(LANIC) provide the best access to the constantly changing array ofsites in the region These online resources will provide a variety of infor-mation including complete bibliographic citations and abstracts andorfull text In some cases the database will provide external links to thefull-text of articles or documents Access to full text depends on whetherthe end user is willing to pay for documents or whether the source materialis provided through a paid subscription maintained by the library or otherinstitution providing the database access For all resources listed I indicatewhether access is OPEN or via SUBSCRIPTION

Americas ProgramlthttpwwwamericaspolicyorggtOPEN

The Americas Program website provides policy briefs and analysisfrom the Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) lthttpwwwirc-on-lineorggt on topics such as economic integration and sustainable devel-opment US policy and Latin American political social and economicaffairs etc The site includes data and reports on current US-Mexicoborder issues lthttpwwwamericaspolicyorgindexusmexindexphpgtand an archive of published policy papers and newsletters back to 1995

134 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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lthttpwwwamericaspolicyorgclearinghousehtmlgt The IRC is a not-profit research and advocacy organization located in New Mexico

Biblioteca Virtual de Ciencias Sociales de Ameacuterica Latina y elCaribe Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO)lthttpwwwclacsoorgwwwclacsoespanolhtmlbibliotecafbibliotecahtmlgtOPEN

This site from CLACSO provides free access to more than 4000full-text books periodical articles reports and conference papers bysocial sciences researchers in Latin America and the Caribbean

CIAONET Columbia International Affairs OnlinelthttpwwwciaonetorggtSUBSCRIPTION

Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO) is a comprehensivesource for theory and research in international affairs CIAO providesfull text of working papers reports and articles from many internationalrelations research centers and think tanks and full text of books publishedby Columbia University Press Latin American countries and issues arewell-represented in CIAO content For access and subscription infor-mation see lthttpwwwciaonetorgframesubscribefrmhtmlgt

CLASEPERIODICAlthttpwwwoclcorgsupportdocumentationfirstsearchdatabasesdbdetailsdetailsClasePeriodicahtmgtSUBSCRIPTION

OCLC Firstsearch provides access to these two periodical databasesproduced by the Universidad Nacional Autoacutenoma de Meacutexico (UNAM)CLASE indexes documents published in Latin American journals spe-cializing in the social sciences and humanities PERIODICA covers thesciences and technology Together the databases provide more than300000 bibliographic citations to articles essays book reviews con-ference proceedings and technical reports published in more than 2600journals from 24 different Latin American countries This database doesnot provide links to full text articles Access to database producers isavailable from the Direccioacuten General de Bibliotecas at UNAM lthttpdgbunammxgt

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Federal Reserve Bank of DallaslthttpwwwdallasfedorgindexhtmlgtOPEN

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas is an excellent source for eco-nomic information on the US-Mexico border region and Latin Amer-ica It provides full text access to economic data reports and analysisThe Center for Latin American Economics CLAE lthttpwwwdallasfedorglatinindexhtmlgt is a research institute attached to the Federal Re-serve Bank of Dallas CLAE focuses its research efforts on issues ofparticular concern in Latin America and provides full text access toworking papers research reports statistics and other documents viathis website

Handbook of Latin American StudiesndashHLASlthttplcweb2locgovhlasgtOPEN

The Handbook of Latin American Studies is produced by the His-panic Division of the Library of Congress and is provided free of chargeto web users worldwide HLAS provides abstracts and complete biblio-graphic information for published materials and online resources fromand about Latin America on a wide range of topics in the humanities andsocial sciences selected and annotated by specialists in the field HLAShas been published since 1936 and the print volumes constitute a com-prehensive and growing bibliography of the scholarly literature in LatinAmerican Studies The online database contains more than 80000 cita-tions and grows at the rate of about 10000 citations annually HLAS in-cludes citations to books journal articles theses and dissertationsonline resources and materials in other formats such as CD-ROMs Formore information on the history and content of this resource seelthttplcweb2locgovhlassalalmhtmlgt

Hemeroteca Digital de Chihuahualthttpwwwinprocommxenglishindex2htmlgtSUBSCRIPTION

The Hemeroteca Digital de Chihuahua provided by InformacioacutenProcesada (INPRO) contains full text articles from Mexican newspa-pers and magazines from and about the state of Chihuahua and theUS-Mexico border region Most of the information in the database is

136 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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in Spanish although it does contain articles from some regional USpublications that cover the border region In addition to local papersfrom Ciudad Juacutearez and Chihuahua the database contains articles thatpertain to Chihuahua and the northern border region from many otherMexican publications Time coverage 1976 to the present This data-base is very specific but it is an excellent example of a regional infor-mation provider developing unique archival content of use to seriousresearchers For more information about access to this database emailinformesinprocommx

Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI)lthttphapigseisuclaedugtSUBSCRIPTION

HAPI provides access to the contents of more than 500 social sci-ences and humanities journals from and about Latin America with cov-erage from 1970-present HAPI is a source for authoritative worldwideinformation about Central and South America Mexico the Caribbeanbasin the US-Mexico border region and Hispanics in the UnitedStates Subject coverage ranges from current political economic so-cial and business issues to Latin American arts and letters HAPI On-line contains complete bibliographic citations to articles book reviewsdocuments original literary works and other materials HAPI providescoverage of many regional journals that are not included in other onlinedatabases Produced by the UCLA Latin American Center HAPI in-cludes more than 210000 citations and grows at the rate of about 8000records a year Beginning in 2003 HAPI provides links to articles thatare available full text through several commercial sources and throughjournal web pages For more information see lthttphapigseisuclaeduhapihtmlfreeaboutshtmlgt

Independent Media CenterndashIndymedialthttpwwwindymediaorggtOPEN

The Independent Media Center is an excellent example of social ac-tivists taking advantage of the Internet to disseminate alternative newsfrom many different world areas Indymedia describes itself as ldquoa col-lective of independent media organizations and hundreds of journalistsoffering grassroots non-corporate coveragerdquo Latin American news isposted to Indymedia from Argentina Bolivia Brazil Chile Colombia

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Ecuador Mexico Peru and Uruguay It is an excellent source for cur-rent news coverage from an alternative perspective

InfoLatina ISI Emerging MarketslthttpwwwsecuritiescomcorpinfolatinahtmlgtSUBSCRIPTION

InfoLatina provides current and archival access to the full text of alarge array of Mexican publications including newspapers magazinesgovernment documents legislation and jurisprudence For some publi-cations the archive goes back to the early 1980s The commercial ser-vice Internet Securities acquired the InfoLatina database in 2000 andmerged the content with other global and Latin American news andbusiness sources provided through the website Trial subscriptions areavailable For more information on subscriptions and access see lthttpwwwsecuritiescomcorpinfolatinahtmlms=0ampsection=contactgt

INFO-LATINOAMERICA Latin American Information SystemlthttpwwwnisccomgtSUBSCRIPTION

Produced by the National Information Services Corporation (NISC)INFO-LATINOAMERICA covers regional business economics poli-tics and social issues This database began as Info-South from the Uni-versity of Miamirsquos North-South Center and coverage goes back to 1988content is updated weekly INFO-LATINOAMERICA includes ab-stracts of Latin American newspaper and some journal articles mostcontent from 1996-forward is full text or includes links to full text onthe web Coverage tends toward English-language news and businesssources from more than 1500 international newspapers journals newsmagazines newsletters media broadcasts conference proceedings andother print publications English translations of foreign media broad-casts are provided by the World News Connection (see below) Seelthttpwwwnisccomfactsheetsqilahtmgt for more information

INFORMEndashRevistas en EspantildeollthttpwwwgalegroupcomservletItemDetailServletregion=9ampimprint=000amptitleCode=INFO1amptype=4ampid=172023gtSUBSCRIPTION

INFORME is provided by the ThomsonGale Group The databaseprovides full text access to more than 140 Spanish and bilingual aca-

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demic and popular periodicals Archival coverage is not consistent butfull text for some titles is included back to the mid-1990s Subject cov-erage includes news politics arts and letters social sciences as well aspopular entertainment sports and fashion magazines INFORME is oneof the first products from a mainstream commercial information providerto include significant Spanish-language and Latin American content tonon-specialized academic and public libraries The INFORME title list isavailable lthttpwwwgalegroupcomtlistsb5022htmlgt and a fact sheetlthttpwwwgalecompdffactsinformpdfgt

J-STORlthttpwwwjstororggtSUBSCRIPTION

J-STOR is a membership organization providing a full text archive ofthe complete runs of several hundred major academic journals in thesciences social sciences and humanities Some journal archives covermore than 100 years of research Latin American Studies titles in thecurrent J-STOR collections include Hispanic American Historical Re-view Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs Journal ofLatin American Studies Latin American Perspectives and Latin Amer-ican Research Review Inclusion of archival Latin American content inJ-STOR should continue to grow and will make it possible for manysmaller college and university libraries to provide access to specializedjournals that are not part of their print holdings

Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC)lthttplanicutexasedugtOPEN

LANIC is headquartered at the University of Texas at Austin and isthe premier Internet directory for Latin American information LANICprovides links to thousands of information resources from and aboutLatin America Many LANIC projects continue to provide full text ac-cess to archival materials of use to researchers The following are exam-ples of LANIC resources and projects

Electronic Text Collectionslthttplanicutexaseduprojectetextgt

Full texts of Presidential messages from Mexico and Argentina dat-ing back to the mid 19th Century translations into English of more than

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37 years of Castrorsquos public speeches interviews and press conferencesarchives of several Latin American journals and conference proceed-ings etc

Latin American Open Archives Portal (LAOAP)lthttplanicutexaseduprojectlaoapgt

LAOAP (under development) uses the Open Archives Initiative Pro-tocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to develop a database toprovide access to social sciences ldquogrey literaturerdquo (working documentspre-prints research reports statistical documents) produced by LatinAmerican research institutes NGOs and some government agencies Itis anticipated that the repositories indexed by the LAOAP will be inte-grated into other open access archives to facilitate access via open websearch engines

Association of Research Libraries Latin American ResearchResources Project (ARL-LARRP)lthttplanicutexaseduprojectarlgt

In addition to the LAOAP and the Presidential Messages databasesLANIC and ARL have collaborated to create a database of the Tables ofContents (LAPTOC) of more than 800 humanities and social sciencesjournals published in Latin America The journals covered in LAPTOCare specifically chosen because they are not likely to be included inother databases (such as HAPI) Indexing is provided by Latin Ameri-can specialists at participating ARL libraries members facilitate interli-brary loan of articles to other participating libraries

A selection of other LANIC pages

LANIC Newsroom lthttplanicutexaseduinfonewsroomgt

Media and Communication lthttplanicutexasedusubjectmediagt

Journalism lthttplanicutexasedularegionjournalismgt

Magazines lthttplanicutexasedularegionepubgt

Newspapers lthttplanicutexasedularegionnewsgt

Academic journals lthttplanicutexasedularegionjournalsgt

Photography lthttplanicutexasedularegionphotographygt

140 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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Government lthttplanicutexasedusubjectgovernmentgt

Human Rights lthttplanicutexasedularegionhrightsgt

US-Mexico Border lthttplanicutexasedulamexicousmexgt

Maps lthttplanicutexasedularegionmapgt

Statistics lthttplanicutexasedularegionstatisticsgt

Libraries amp Reference lthttplanicutexasedusubjectlibrariesgt

Latin America Data Base (LADB)lthttpladbunmedugtSUBSCRIPTION

The LADB has been published by the Latin American and Iberian In-stitute at the University of New Mexico since 1986 and at that time itwas one of the first online databases for Latin American research dis-seminating weekly bulletins of news and economic and political analy-sis via email and providing access to an online archive via a telnetconnection LADB currently produces three weekly electronic newsbulletins about Mexico (SourceMex) Central America and the Carib-bean including Cuba (NotiCen) and South America (NotiSur) Theseare available on the web andor by e-mail with a subscription LADBrsquossearchable archive of over 24000 articles since 1986 is updated weeklyThis is a unique content-rich archive and current awareness source foreconomic and political information on Latin America See lthttpladbunmeduinfopricesgt for prices and trial account informationEmail ltinfoladbunmedugt

LatinFocuslthttpwwwlatin-focuscomgtOPEN

LatinFocus ldquothe leading source for Latin American economiesrdquocontains data from government sources economic forecasts marketanalysis covering economic performance political risk assessments andfinancial market developments LatinFocus includes full text docu-ments providing economic indicators (GDP unemployment CPI stockmarket exports imports etc) from 1995 onward for Argentina BrazilChile Colombia Mexico Venezuela and Latin America as a wholeThe database also includes recent news articles and commentaries fact

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sheets charts economic briefings and related links for individual coun-tries LatinFocus sells publications and some specialized services viasubscriptions but the free resources on the website are an excellent re-search tool

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universelthttpwwwlexis-nexiscomuniversegtSUBSCRIPTION

This general database for news and legal research is available throughmany US academic libraries It includes full text access to thousandsof news sources including several dozen Spanish-language titles Thebest segments for Latin American news are ldquoNorthSouth AmericanNewsrdquo and ldquoSpanish Language Newsrdquo Searches can be restricted tothese sets of publications Lexis-Nexis provides access to several spe-cialized publications such as the Latin American Weekly Report LatinAmerican Newsletters Latin American Regional Reports Latin Ameri-can Economy and Business Latinnews Daily as well as information onthe region from thousands of daily newspapers and other periodicalsources

National Security Archivelthttpwww2gwuedu~nsarchivgtOPEN

The National Security Archive is an independent non-governmentalresearch institute and library located at George Washington Universityin Washington DC The National Security Archive collects and pub-lishes declassified documents acquired through the Freedom of Infor-mation Act (FOIA) Complete collections are available for purchase inpublished and microfiche formats and online via subscription but thewebsite provides selections of full text primary research collections on-line in a section entitled Electronic Briefing Books lthttpwww2gwuedu~nsarchivNSAEBBindexhtmlgt Latin American topics avail-able online include Argentinarsquos Dirty War CIA in Latin AmericaContras Cocaine and Covert Operations the Tlatelolco Massacre Hu-man Rights and the Dirty War in Mexico Kennedy and Castro ChileIntervention Oliver North File War in Colombia US Policy in Guate-mala and many other topics

142 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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OAIsterlthttpwwwoaisterorggtOPEN

OAIster is an open access archive project of the University of Michi-gan Digital Library and provides a searchable database of more than 47million (as of December 2004) articles documents graphics photo-graphs sound recordings videos and other digital objects madefreely available on the Internet by more than 390 institutions and orga-nizations including many university special collections and archivesOAIster encompasses as broad a collection of resources as possible inmany formats and with no restrictions on subject parameters It is alsopossible to restrict searches to specific collections included in the data-base OAIster is accessible to the entire Internet community WhileOAIster does not focus specifically on Latin America sample keywordsearches reveal significant Latin American content Examples LatinAmerica restricted to image format = 108 items Mexico images =8969 Mexico and all document types = 15332 Nicaragua and all doc-ument types = 305 items

Political Database of the AmericaslthttpwwwgeorgetownedupdbagtOPEN

The Political Database of the Americas is produced at GeorgetownUniversity and provides political documents and data for all countries inthe hemisphere including texts of constitutions and laws electoral sys-tems and historical election data political party platforms and historiesjudicial information and more

Red de Revistas Cientificas de America Latina y El Caribe (RedALyC)lthttpwwwredalyccomgtOPEN

The Red de Revistas Cientiacuteficas de America Latina y El CaribeEspantildea y Portugal provides full text access to more than 130 journals insocial sciences and humanities published in many Latin Americancountries Spain and Portugal RedALyC is conceived as an open accessportal for academic information produced in the region Using the slo-gan ldquoLa ciencia que no se ve no existeScience that is not seen does notexistrdquo RedALyC has taken a giant step forward in providing access to

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academic research produced in Latin America It is anticipated that thevisibility of the full text of these journals will increase the citation ratesand global research impact of Latin American scholarship

Sistema de Informacioacuten sobre Comercio ExteriorForeign TradeInformation system (SICE)lthttpwwwsiceoasorggtOPEN

SICE is the Foreign Trade Information System of the Organization ofAmerican States The web page contains full text of official documentsand other information relating to trade agreements and treaties intellec-tual property rights organizations investment treaties a glossary andrelated links to other web sites arranged by topic and by country con-cerning trade in the Western hemisphere Most of the documents avail-able via SICE are provided in English and Spanish and portions of thesite are available in English Spanish French and Portuguese

SciELOlthttpwwwscieloorggtOPEN

The Scientific Electronic Library Online SciELO is a vanguardopen access digital library of full text articles from science and socialscience journals from Latin America and Spain The original SciELOproject was developed by a consortium of Brazilian research institutesand has developed as a model for cooperative electronic publishing ofscientific journals on the Internet SciELO was designed to meet the sci-entific communication needs of developing countries particularly LatinAmerica and the Caribbean Current projects exist in Brazil ChileCuba Spain Mexico Colombia Peru Costa Rica and VenezuelaSciELO content is especially strong in the fields of public health agri-culture biomedicine and allied health sciences SciELO titles featureprominently in the ISI research impact studies of open access journalsand are accessible via Google Scholar lthttpscholargooglecomgt

SCIRUSlthttpwwwsciruscomgtOPEN

SCIRUS is a comprehensive science-specific Internet search enginethat provides access to scientific scholarly technical and medical data

144 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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on the web Like Google Scholar SCIRUS provides links to open ac-cess scientific information as well as links to articles that may be avail-able via purchase or subscription I have included it in this list becausekeyword searches yielded many relevant articles and sites with LatinAmerican content including links to open access archives such asSciELO

World News ConnectionlthttpwncfedworldgovgtlthttpwncdialogcomgtSUBSCRIPTION

World News Connection (WNC) provides access to a wide array ofnews articles conference proceedings television and radio broadcastsperiodical articles and other publications Translations of foreign lan-guage broadcast and print sources are provided by the National Techni-cal Information Service (NTIS) and produced by analysts at the ForeignBroadcast Information Service (FBIS) a sub-agency of the CIA WNCprovides English translations of news broadcasts worldwide with ex-tensive coverage from more than 25 Latin American and Caribbeancountries News stories and translations are generally available onlinewithin 24-72 hours of broadcast Online archival coverage goes back to1995 Although the database content is created and maintained byNTIS online subscription access to the WNC is provided throughDIALOG lthttpwncdialogcomgt For more information on sub-scribing contact ltcustomerdialogcomgt

PART 3 CONCLUSIONS

I began writing about the development of the Internet in Latin Amer-ica in 1994 and have posted various chronologies and resource lists on-line (Molloy 1999) Until very recently the Internet as a referencesource for Latin American Studies was a way to access gigabytes of in-formation on the latest events (daily newspapers current issues of pop-ular magazines travel and tourism information political and humanrights alerts basic government information) but provided only limitedaccess to deep news archives or scholarly resources As can be seenfrom the selective list of reference resources above this broad but shal-low information pool is changing and growing with the most interesting

Molly Molloy 145

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and substantive advances coming from scientific journal publishers re-search centers and NGOs in the region

The current challenge for librarians and scholars is to find meaning-ful ways to participate in the evolution of the Internet from a communi-cation tool into a functioning virtual library While the Internet does notprovide the kind of controlled subject access and the bibliographic or in-ventory control that exists in a research library new digital projects us-ing the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting(OAI-PMH) are creating online access to large repositories of qualityresearch information Regional electronic publishing initiatives such asthe Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and the Red deRevistas Cientiacuteficas de Ameacuterica Latina y El Caribe (RedALyC) nowprovide free open access to the full contents of hundreds of academicjournals published in Latin America the Caribbean and Spain Ad-vanced Internet search engines such as Google make it possible to findquality information on the open web New relationships betweenGoogle and global academic publishers including those from LatinAmerica (launched as Google Scholar in late November 2004) are cre-ating the beginnings of a real virtual library for academic research inLatin American Studies

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Antelman Kristin 2004 Do open-access articles have a greater research impact Col-lege amp Research Libraries 65 5 372-382

Association for Progressive Communications 2004 The Association for ProgressiveCommunications Internet and ICTs for Social Justice and Development lthttpwwwapcorgenglishindexshtmlgt

Carty Winthrop 2000 Public educationrsquos information gap NACLA Report on theAmericas 33 4 (JanuaryFebruary) 36-38

Cleaver Harry M Jr 1998 The Zapatista effect The Internet and the rise of an alter-native political fabric Journal of International Affairs 51 (Spring) 621-640

Everett Margaret 1998 Latin America On-Line The Internet development and de-mocratization Human Organization 57 4 (Winter) 385-393

Frederick Howard 1993 Computer networks and the emergence of global civil soci-ety In Global Networks Computers and International Communication ed LindaM Harasim 283-295 Cambridge MA MIT Press

Gomez Ricardo 1998 The nostalgia of virtual community A study of computer-me-diated communications use in Colombian non-governmental organizations Infor-mation Technology and People 11 3 217-234

Gomez Ricardo 2000 The hall of mirrors The Internet in Latin America CurrentHistory 99 634 (February) 72-77

146 EVOLVING INTERNET REFERENCE RESOURCES

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Hamelink Cees 1998 The Peoplersquos Communication Charter Development in Prac-tice 8 1 (February) 68-74

Hawkins Eliza Tanner and Kirk A Hawkins 2003 Bridging Latin Americarsquos digitaldivide Government policies and Internet access Journalism and Mass Communi-cation Quarterly 80 (3) 646-665

Haymond Ruel 1998 Internet accessibility in Latin America Educational Technol-ogy Research and Development 46 (3) 116-117

Keck Margaret and Kathryn Sikkink 1998 Activists beyond borders Advocacy net-works in international politics Ithaca Cornell University Press

Lane Graham 1990 Communications for progress A guide to international e-mailNijmegen Netherlands AntennaInterdoc London Catholic Institute for Interna-tional Relations (CIIR) Brussels Belgium Environment amp Development ResourceCentre (EDRC)

McVeigh Marie 2004 Open access journals in the ISI citation databases Analysis ofimpact factors and citation patterns Thomson Scientific October 2004 lthttpwwwthomsonisicommediapresentrepessayspdfopenaccesscitations2pdfgt

Molloy Molly 1998 Internetworking as a tool for advocacy and research The case ofChiapas News 1994-1996 In SALALM in the Age of Multimedia TechnologicalChallenge and Social Change Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Li-brary Materials (SALALM) ed Peter A Stern 12-23 Austin SALALM Secretar-iat A version of this paper is available online lthttplibnmsuedustaffmmolloychiapasnewshtmgt

Molloy Molly 1999 LA GUIA Internet resources for Latin America lthttplibnmsuedusubjectbordlaguiagt

Molloy Molly 2000 Background on the development of the Internet in Latin Amer-ica lthttplibnmsuedusubjectbordlaguianetdevhtmlgt

Norsworthy Kent 1997 Computer communications civil society and UT-LANIC InSocieties under Constraint Economic and Social Pressures in Latin America Sem-inar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials XL ed Robert AMcNeil 266-287 Austin SALALM Secretariat

Pasch Grete and Carmen Valdeacutes R 1997 The dawn of the Internet era in GuatemalaInternational Federation of Information Processing lthttpwwwnortropiccomlaifiphtmgt

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