Skip to Main Content

Spanish: Books

Finding Books

UMU Catalog Search

There are a variety of Library of Congress subject headings that are used to describe Latinos in the United States.  The most common one include is Hispanic Americans. This is the official term used to describe United States citizens of Latin American descent. Works on citizens of Latin American countries in the United States are entered under Latin Americans--United States. There are also narrower terms that might be used: Mexican Americans (used instead of Chicanos or Hispanos), Cuban Americans, Dominican Americans, Nicaraguan Americans and Peruvian Americans.

When searching for books, consider the prefixes "Afro" or "Black" such as; Black Puerto Rican, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Latino, Afro-Latin American, Afro-Hispanic, Black Hispanic, Black Latino, etc.

It is impossible for a library to own every book, journal, video, article, etc. that a campus community would want to read or watch, but interlibrary loan fills that void. We participate with OhioLINK for a lot of our interlibrary loan items which provides us with intrastate borrowing and lending.

Finding Books

How do you find Spanish language books in the library? Start with the item's location and call number.

The location tells you where the item is located in the library. Our most common locations are:

  • Main Books: New 3rd Floor, Old 3rd Floor, Old 2nd Floor, and Ground Floor (depends on the call number)
  • Curriculum Resource Center: Old 3rd Floor
  • Oversize: Ground Floor
  • Reference: Old 2nd Floor
  • Reference Oversize: Ground Floor

Call numbers tell you where the item is located as well as its subject. The University Library uses the Dewey Decimal System to arrange all library items.

  • 400: Language
  • 418: Multilingualism
  • 460: Spanish Language
  • 759.6: Spanish Art 
  • 860: Spanish Literature
  • 917.28: Central America
  • 946: Spain Geography, Travel & History
  • 967.18: Equatorial Guinea
  • 972: Caribbean Area, Mexico, Central America & West Indies

Library of Congress Classification

  • DP 1-402: History of Spain
  • PC 4001-4977: Spanish Language
  • PQ 6001-8929: Spanish literature

When you are in the shelves, look at the neighboring items because you might find other books that fit your needs as well.