Biblioteca : Latin American and Iberian Resources at Georgetown

Entries from December 2012

Feria Internacional del Libro (FIL) – Part I

December 13, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I have been back from the Feria Internacional del Libro for almost two weeks, but it is still quite fresh in my mind. It was my first time at the fair (and also, oddly enough, the first time I’d been to Mexico) and it is an amazing event. Besides the obvious enormous selection of books available, I was also impressed by the incredible amount of author events available, and also the simple fact that it was open to the public most days, or at least part of the day. Yes, there were times it was overrun with schoolkids, but what an important and fun event for them. I’m sure a few of them will write books that I will probably buy someday at a future FIL!

I chiefly focused on selecting new titles from academic publishers. In recent years, has become increasingly easy to buy titles in the United States from the major Spanish-language publishers, but in most cases, academic-press titles are still not as easy to obtain. It is also simply too much to focus on everything (it is really that big…at least five or six American football fields), so I went for titles that would be both useful and less than easy to get in the United States. I selected titles especially from Colombia, Chile, Spain, Mexico, and Brazil, in a wide variety of fields of study. The Central American countries had a good-sized stand, but it was fairly picked over by the time I arrived (my flight to there was delayed and I lost a day of work.) I hope in the future that the Caribbean countries have a greater presence, and also that there are more independent presses. Next year I plan on arriving at least a day earlier, and taking more time to explore Mexico!

I will write more about a small press I visited in Guadalajara in Part II of this post, but I also wanted to add that Guadalajara is a wonderful city, and if you haven’t visited, it is worth the trip, especially if you can make it to the Feria!

Categories: resources

Florentine Codex/Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España now online

December 12, 2012 · Leave a Comment

I just saw an announcement that the 1577 manuscript of Fray Bernardino de Sahagún’s Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, also known as the Florentine Codex, is available via the World Digital Library. It is extremely clear and easy to navigate (although I found the “list view” to be easier to use than the gallery view), and of course will be an invaluable research tool and text for scholars around the world. The link to the Codex is here, enjoy!

My post about the Feria Internacional del Libro is still in draft-land, but I will post it later today. Good luck with finals everyone!

Categories: resources

Amazon and Google launch e-books in Brazil

December 7, 2012 · Leave a Comment

This past Wednesday, Amazon and Google launched e-book sales in Brazil. I’m trying to track down their sites at the moment, although I’m wondering if they will only be for sale to Brazilian IP addresses. I will edit and add as I find them.

Update: The address was not too complicated: http://www.amazon.com.br/

Categories: news