Library Resources
Jules Didot
El Templo del León, 1808.
This recent acquisition, housed in the Regenstein Library's Special Collections Research Center, reproduces José Luciano Castañeda's detailed lithographs documenting the remains of ancient Mexican civilizations.
The University of Chicago is perhaps best known for its emphasis on creative and innovative research, and the Library is at the core of building on this tradition. The University Library system has earned a reputation as one of the best research facilities in the country, with print resources totaling more than seven million printed works, increasing at the rate of 150,000 volumes per year. Over thirty million manuscripts and archival pieces, 420,000 maps and aerial photographs, and large sets of microform materials complement the printed collections. Rapid growth in the Library's electronic resources, which include 40,000 licensed full-text serial titles, 170,000 licensed monographs, and 500 licensed reference databases, ensures that resources in all formats that can be accessed from computers in the Library, on campus, and remotely. Effective research depends on ready access to all available sources. In May 2005, the University Board of Trustees approved a plan to expand the University Library by more than 3.5 million volumes and create one of the nation's largest university collections of materials under one roof with an addition to Regenstein.
The University Libraries hold extensive collections focused on Latin America, with notable strengths on the colonial era, a nearly exhaustive collection on Mexico, and strong documentary collections on US foreign relations with Central America. The distinctive rare book, manuscript, and archival holdings of the Special Collections Research Center holds several unique collections of manuscripts, notes, and correspondence from past University of Chicago social scientists whose research has shaped the field of Latin American Studies. The Center for Latin American Studies collaborates with the University of Chicago Libraries and other campus organizations to build unique Latin Americanist research resources. CLAS supplements the Library's regular acquitions with support from a National Resource Center grant from the US Department of Education. The Center also manages specific grant-funded library collections projects that fall outside the Library's traditional scope. For example, building on a recently completed project of the Digital Media Archive (see side bar), CLAS is working to raise outside funding to digitize a significant collection of unpublished field notes of Mesoamericanist scholars at the University of Chicago originally produced from 1920-1990, currently accessible on microfilm only. This collection houses some 200,000 microfilmed pages of transcriptions, translations, and field notes of University of Chicago ethnographers and linguists working with indigenous populations throughout Guatemala and southern Mexico. CLAS is also working with faculty on a pilot project to digitize and present online a collection of photographic slides taken in southern Mexico and Guatemala in the 1950s-60s that are rich in ethnographic data. The microfilm and photographic collections relate directly to the audio recordings recently digitized by the Language Archive and, as bundled resources, constitute a unique multi-media research archive of rare historical depth. The Center also manages the Chicago Archive of Indigenous Literatures of Latin America. These research resources supplement the Library's strong Latin Americanist collections, making the University of Chicago one of the premier institutions for the study of Latin America.
