From Print Volumes to Digital Scholarship: The Handbook of Latin American Studies Web Archive

Since the 1930s, the Handbook of Latin American Studies has documented scholarship on Latin America and the Caribbean. In this interview, Tracy North describes how that long-standing mission now extends to web archiving, ensuring long-term access to web-based research materials. The conversation discusses the collaborative process of selecting websites to archive and the behind-the-scenes work involved in developing the collection. 

Please introduce yourself. What is your job at the Library of Congress, and what was your role in creating this collection? 

I am Tracy North, the Social Sciences Editor for the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS). I am also a reference librarian in the Hispanic Reading Room (come visit us in the Jefferson building, Monday-Friday, 8:30am-5 pm) and a “recommending officer,” which means I identify and review print and digital materials for the library to acquire from or about Latin America and the Caribbean. 

HLAS is a reference tool for anyone doing research on Latin America and the Caribbean. It began as a print volume in the 1930s, so it obviously predates the internet! The book alternates between humanities and social sciences and each section includes an introductory essay followed by an annotated bibliography. We launched our first web presence, HLAS Online, in 1995, and then upgraded to more robust search functionality with HLAS Web in 2000. The disciplinary coverage has evolved throughout the years to stay current with trends in scholarship. The formats of publications we include in the database have increased over the years. We started with traditional books, conference proceedings, maps and atlases, journal articles, and book chapters, and have expanded to include CD-ROMs, podcasts, blogs, documentary films, and websites ranging from original literary contributions to policy papers from NGOs and government sites. Because of the inherently ephemeral and rapidly changing nature of websites, my colleague, HLAS Humanities Editor Katherine McCann, and I proposed this collection of websites mentioned in HLAS so that they will continue to be available in the archive in case the live sites are no longer accessible. 

Can you briefly describe the collection? How did you select material to archive? 

The HLAS Web Archive brings together websites that are relevant to researchers of Latin America. Most of the sites are recommended by HLAS contributing editors, professors, and subject specialists active in the field of Latin American studies who select and annotate publications (broadly defined, as noted above) in their respective areas of expertise (country/region and discipline). For the HLAS print volume, contributing editors write introductory essays that provide an overview of their sections and describe trends in research and publication. In these essays, they often mention important websites that may provide access to primary sources through libraries and universities, cultural institutions and museums, and even publishers. They also include websites as entries in their annotated bibliographies alongside more traditional (analog) publication types. 

Some selections in the web archive come from HLAS volume editors, who include websites in Editor’s Notes that begin each print volume. HLAS editors also have the discretion to add sites to the web archive that are of research value for scholars and students. 

The archive includes a wide range of sites including those of government agencies and ministries; papers from research and policy institutes and NGOs; digitized collections of objects from libraries, archives, and museums; and author websites. This project ensures that sites – which have the potential to fade, fail, or be removed due to shifting political interests – are preserved for future generations. We plan to continue adding to the collection as contributors identify and include additional sites in their HLAS contributions. 

What are some of the highlights? 

This is a tough question! As a librarian and editor, I appreciate each and every publication that we add to the Handbook. The sites I’m most interested in highlighting are the ones that may disappear in the coming months or years. We have a number of sites with original poetry and short stories by Latin American (mainly Central American) authors, and I’m glad that we’ve saved these literary creations in case they never find their way to a printed book. I’d also like to point out that we have the SALALM website in the HLAS Web Archive. SALALM (Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials) is a unique association in which librarians, scholars, and book vendors come together to create a community of people who are dedicated to creating collections that represent the best in publishing from and about Latin America and the Caribbean. The site incorporates a repository of publications by members who are experts in supporting research on the region. 

What challenges have you faced in creating this collection? 

We have faced a couple of different challenges in creating this collection. Many of the sites are hosted in Latin America, so when we contacted site owners about archiving their website, we wanted to do it in Spanish or Portuguese. Working with our fabulous colleagues in the Web Archiving Section, we came up with the solution of a trilingual email that we believe helps our Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking partners understand the initiative and accept our permission requests. 

Another challenge has been identifying contact information for site owners – specifically email addresses – and the possibility that our permission emails are landing in spam folders, where site owners may not see them. We may need to reach out to site owners via “contact us” forms on their sites or even via a phone call! 

The biggest challenge we have faced is that the Handbook has been in existence since 1936, and we first listed websites in our database in the 1990s. Some of those sites are long gone and/or site owners have passed away, so we are unable to secure permission for archiving those sites. We are taking a more active approach going forward so we don’t lose access to valuable content in the future. 

Why do you think web archiving is important for documenting this subject? How do you imagine researchers, now or in the future, might use this web archive? 

Sometimes HLAS contributors will review a book that is not in the Library of Congress collections. For the past few decades, we have worked with our colleagues in the Library’s Acquisitions unit to try to acquire a print copy of every book that is reviewed in the Handbook so that at least one library (the Library of Congress) will have a copy of the publication for researchers to access in the future. Once we started including digital content in the HLAS collection, we soon realized that we’d like to take the same approach for that material. Our HLAS contributing editors have identified the sites as being valuable for researchers around the world, so we are committed to providing access to the digital content the same way we do with print publications. Citations are so important in publishing because they connect readers to the original research materials that the authors consulted. This project, and web archiving in general, is especially important because it ensures that the Library of Congress can provide access to digital content that might otherwise not be available in the future. 

Coincidentally, access to HLAS Web itself is changing. The current site has been archived and is now part of the HLAS Web Archive. A new platform for searching HLAS is expected to launch in the near future. To stay informed about HLAS developments, you can visit the HLAS Resource Guide.