Sue Shaffer Learning Commons and Library: Guides: Spanish: Country Research

Chileans toast with a call for salud (health) multiple times during a meal.

If you are researching a more specific topic related to your country and aren't finding the information that you need in the reference databases, you will probably want to check out a book/ebook and/or articles. You can do that by searching the UCC Library Search Box below or any of the other individual databases on this page.

I recommend first checking to see if there are books or ebooks on your topic and then looking for articles if you haven't found any books. The reason for this is that books will often provide you with in-depth coverage/discussion of a topic. Remember that you don't have to read the entire book -- you can read just a chapter or two that relates to your topic.

Use the UCC Library Discovery Box to find news, magazine, and scholarly articles, as well as books, eBooks, streaming video, and more!

Culture
Overviews/General Information

These databases contain information about a wide variety of cultural topics from around the world.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Complete offers an enormous collection of full-text journals, providing users access to critical information from many sources unique to this database. In addition, it includes peer-reviewed full text for STEM research, as well as for the social sciences and humanities. Scholarly content covers a broad range of important areas of academic study, including anthropology, engineering, law, sciences and more.
Gale In Context: Global Issues This link opens in a new window
Vetted content is provided from over 366 geographically diverse newspapers, magazines, and journals, including 171 newspapers that are published in countries other than the United States. With a truly global view, users can find information on business and economics, conflict and diplomacy, society and culture, environment and climate change, and more
Global Road Warrior This link opens in a new window
Learn about countries, their culture, and their customs. Find recipes, business etiquette, languages spoken, country demographics and statistics, ethnic groups, stereotypes, society and culture, and lots more.
Project Muse This link opens in a new window
An online database of peer-reviewed academic journals and electronic books. It provides access to scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, including full-text to journals and books from university presses and scholarly societies. The content is focused mainly on history, the arts, and is subdivided into searchable categories or collections. Fields covered include cultural studies, economics, education, gender studies, history, political science, literature and literary criticism, visual and performing arts, and many others.

These databases & websites contain the full text of reference books (e.g., encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, travel guides) that will give you the big picture of different topics related to the country that you are researching. Depending on your topic, these might be your first and final research stop.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference enhances the research experience through authoritative reference content and a one-stop exploratory search platform that drives usage of all of your trusted library resources. With hundreds of searchable, full-text titles from the world’s foremost publishers, Credo Reference covers every major subject.
Global Road Warrior This link opens in a new window
Learn about countries, their culture, and their customs. Find recipes, business etiquette, languages spoken, country demographics and statistics, ethnic groups, stereotypes, society and culture, and lots more.

Library of Congress: Country Studies
This collection contains electronic versions of eighty books originally sponsored by the U.S. Army and written by researchers affiliated with the Library’s Federal Research Division. Intended for a general audience, the studies provide descriptions and analyses of lesser-known countries or regions where U.S. military forces might be deployed.
The World Factbok
The World Factbook provides basic intelligence on the history, people, government, economy, energy, geography, environment, communications, transportation, military, terrorism, and transnational issues for 266 world entities.
World Health Organization: Country Health Profiles
The SCORE for Health Data Technical Package was developed by WHO and partners to assist Member States in strengthening country data systems and capacity to monitor progress towards the health-related SDGs, Triple Billion targets, and other national and subnational health priorities.

Use the UCC Library Discovery Box to find news, magazine, and scholarly articles, as well as books, eBooks, streaming video, and more!

UCC Library Discovery Search