‘Chicano Database’ a New Tool for Students, Scholars

An electronic “Chicano Database” has been developed to help students and scholars researching Mexican-American and other U.S. Latino issues.

The database gives users access to about 38,000 bibliographic entries on articles, books and other references. Subjects range from immigration to murals to Chicano youth.

University libraries are the chief purchasers of the system so far, said Lillian Castillo-Speed, coordinator of the UC Berkeley Chicano studies library.

About 30 Chicano studies librarians across the nation compiled indexes that were transferred onto discs at a central location at UC Berkeley.

“Mexican-Americans are the focus” of the database, said Castillo-Speed. “We have included articles on Puerto Ricans, Cubans and Central Americans (in the United States), but mostly in comparison to Mexican-Americans.”

From here on, Castillo-Speed said, compilers of the database will begin indexing more material on all U.S. Latino groups.

Before the electronic database, a lack of technology limited librarians in the types of services they provided, said Richard Chabran, Chicano studies librarian at UCLA and an adviser to the project. They often had to rely on their memories because little that related to Chicanos was indexed.

Chabran said researchers had to resort to flipping through pages of bulky bound volumes for the information, which now appears on a compact disc similar in appearance to ones sold in record stores.

The disc is inserted in an IBM or an IBM-compatible computer with a CD-ROM drive.

Some of the references available in the system include bibliographies on Chicano art, an anthology index on Chicano literature, and an index documenting AIDS research in the Latino community, previously available at UCLA. Recently, UCLA has also agreed to add its data on mental health, sociology and anthropology on U.S. Latinos.

The database is available at all nine University of California campuses. Among other purchasers of the database are Cal State University campuses in Fullerton, Bakersfield, Fresno and Dominguez Hills, as well as Stanford and other universities in the Southwest.

The El Paso Public Library, the Library of Congress and the U.S. Census Bureau have also subscribed.

The database is available at $495, said Castillo-Speed. The twice-a-year updates of the system are extra. For subscription information, call (510) 642-3859.