Caribbean Studies

TMU Library Catalogue searches for books, e-books, dvds, and other resources. It is a good place to look for known books, or when using the keyword search to find some relevant titles for an assignment. When you find a good title, open the catalogue record in order to identify the assigned Library of Congress subject headings that can be used to identify similar works.

SEARCH TIPS

Be specific.  If you want to find information related to a topic in a specific geographical entity like Jamaica, use the word Jamaica rather than the more general term Caribbean.

Phrases like "caribbean area" OR "west indies" are quite useful in keyword searching, especially when used with a topical keyword.

Try using truncated searches that use the *[asterisk] wildcard.  For example, "west indi*" will find phrases that begin with "west indi" including these phrases: "west indic" "west indians" "west indies."

If searching for ethnic groups, use the local usage such as "indo-caribbean" OR ("east-indians AND caribbean). The term South Asian is not widely used in the Caribbean for residents descended from the indentured servants.

TMU Library Search Everything This search engine searches for books and audio-visual materials that are also listed in the library's catalogue, as well as journal articles (chiefly those that are available electronically), theses and dissertations, newspaper coverage from some recent and a selection of archival newspapers, and digitized content such as out-of-copyright books and journals that are available from sources such as The Internet Archive and The Hathi Trust.

Refine your search by content type or other criteria including listing in the library catalogue.

Biographical information

Consider these resources:

• Current Biography (1941-2015)

The Toronto Public Library (TPL) has ongoing subscriptions to many biographical resources as well other dictionaries and encyclopedias that are not available at TMU. Many of the resources are located at the Toronto Reference Library situated just north of Bloor Street on Yonge Street.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries

remain useful sources of quick information.  In addition to free sources such as Wikipedia, consider some of our licensed electronic content from publishers such as Oxford University Press, as well as printed items. 

Try keyword searches in the main catalogue using subject or topical terms and either dictionaries, or, encyclopedias

Example keyword searches:

• caribbean area encyclopedias
• caribbean dictionaries
• caribbean biography dictionaries
• caribbean literature encyclopedias

Maps and Atlases

Keyword search: caribbean area maps

General World Atlases using Library of Congress subject heading search: atlases

The David Rumsey Map Collection contains historical maps of North and South America including the Caribbean Area

Caribbean Basin Maps Collection from the State University Libraries of Florida

The Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library is digitizing many of the 200,000 maps in the collection. Search digital content under the Collections tab.

Many digitization initiatives are making books and magazines that are no longer protected by copyright available to new generations of researchers. Some creators are publishing their works in open access databases or under a Creative Commons license that permits free access to their research.

Many of these open access books and magazines are indexed in the TMU Library Search Everything tool.

For specific databases, consider:

The Internet Archive This venture includes books, movies, music and more.

Hathi Trust Digital Library Much of the content is available to all researchers. Some content is restricted to partner institutions and not available to the TMU community.

Google Books In addition to searching for works in the public domain no longer protected by copyright, this site may allow you ro preview small amounts of text from books that are still protected by copyright. Look for the complete works in the TMU Library catalogue or try the Toronto Public Library or our  Interlibrary Loan Service