Researcher Resources

The Hispanic Reading Room is an important access point at the Library of Congress for researchers working on the Caribbean, Latin America, Spain and Portugal; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including the Latina/o/e/x community in the United States. Staff in the Hispanic Reading Room recommend collection items in all formats from and about these regions in collaboration with colleagues throughout the General and Special Collections. This work has resulted in millions of physical and digital items cared for and served in nearly every reading room at the Library of Congress. While some items are accessible to the public digitally, many require research at the Library of Congress. Staff in the Hispanic Reading Room work with professors, students, writers, educators, librarians, researchers and creatives worldwide to facilitate access to collection items and research services through instructive reference, bibliographic outreach, curated recordings, podcasts and collaborative projects.

  • Research Guides This page contains guides that help users navigate the rich and diverse Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian collections at the Library of Congress. These include a series of Country Guides that provide quick references to collection by country, as well as topic- related guides to collections and services in the Hispanic Reading room.
  • StoryMaps StoryMaps at the Library of Congress are immersive web applications that tell the incredible stories of the Library’s collections through narrative, multimedia, and interactive maps. Preferred browsers are Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Safari. This page is a place to present StoryMaps created by or affiliated with the Hispanic Reading Room.
  • Finding Aids These Finding Aids represent specific collections located in the Hispanic Reading Room.
  • E-Resources This page presents information about the E-Resources & Databases related to Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian topics and collections. These are licensed and free databases some of which are only available on-site at the Library of Congress.