HIST 131: History of Colonial Latin America to 1824 (Fall 2024)

1. write out your topic
2. identify key terms
3. consider alternatives
4. use boolean to create searches
5. revise based on results (Ex what terms do scholars use in the field? what are the subject headings?)

Examples

1. Topic: smuggling and trade in Latin America
2. smuggling, trade, Latin America
3. smugglers, illlegal trade, contraband, piracy
4. (smuggl* OR "illegal trade" OR contraband) AND (caribbean OR "latin america") AND history
   1. books:
      1. too broad.
         1. Still, skim results to find books of interest.
            1. Smuggling is a subject term
      2. Focus on a specific colony or regions
         1. EX Spanish Colonies
         2. History and Smuggling in the Caribbean or Latin America
         3. history AND smuggling AND caribbean

If you're really not finding material, try the exact same search in Worldcat and order any material you need for your research via ILL.

EXAMPLE: SU(history AND smuggling) AND (caribbean OR "latin america")