Collection Guidelines: Latin American & Caribbean Studies: Related Local & Regional Collections

Collecting guidelines for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (LACS) materials at UW Libraries (Seattle).

Other Library Collections

Latin American Collections and Statistics
These collections represent some of the strongest holdings of Latin American materials.
Special Collections In and About Latin America
Regional Groups in the United States

Cooperative Acquisitions

The Libraries actively participates in regional and national cooperative collection development efforts which enhance the range of resources available to UW students, faculty, and staff while conserving precious funds for local acquisitions. These include:

Center for Research Libraries (CRL). This organization acquires research material in print, microform, and electronic formats on behalf of its members, including foreign dissertations, newspaper archives, and other important but infrequently used resources. In addition, the UW Libraries participates in several initiatives of CRL's Global Resources Program that focus on international scholarly resources, such as news, government publications, and technical reports. Two other CRL programs offer UW scholars access to resources that are not owned by the UW Libraries or by CRL. Requests should meet a specific research or teaching need and total no more than $2,000 annually.

Demand Purchase Program. For purchase of foreign dissertations, newspaper issues, and published archives. Requests are forwarded from the Libraries' Interlibrary Loan office.

Scholar's Access Program. For limited-term access to a database, newspaper, or other electronic resource. Requests should be made through your subject librarian.

Orbis Cascade Alliance. Collaboration among members of this regional consortium expands the print resources available to UW scholars through Summit, the Alliance joint catalog. The Orbis Cascade e-book program allows UW patrons to view electronic books that are accessible to and jointly owned by all member libraries.

CALAFIA. In 2019, the University of Washington Libraries joined the Cooperative Latin American Collection Development Group. CALAFIA is a consortium of libraries in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Collaborative Collection Management

As members of the Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST) and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), the UW Libraries collaborates with other research libraries to ensure long-term access to microform and print serials whether or not a digital surrogate exists. Shared responsibility for maintaining retrospective print holdings enables the Libraries to better manage its own collections space.