This volume is an attempt to remedy the lack of adequate guides to library resources in the United States for Brazilian studies. Originally prepared for the Eighth Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials (1963), the Guide describes holdings in seventy-four libraries as of about July 1964. Major divisions are general materials (such as manuscripts, government publications, bibliographies, and the woefully few newspapers), humanities, science and technology, and social sciences including history and law.
The subsections on history and law are disappointing in a number of respects. The user will search in vain for indications of the availability of such basic sources as the Anais and Documentos Históricos series formerly published by the Biblioteca Nacional, the Publicações of the Arquivo Nacional, or (with very few exceptions) the publications of the various state historical societies and state archives. The subsection on law is equally incomplete, for although various collections of legislation and decisions are reported for the national period, not a single one of the codes, calendars, or collections of laws for the colonial period is mentioned. (Nearly all, by the way, may be found in the Law Library of the University of California, Berkeley.) Though it would seem elementary to have done so, it is obvious that the compiler did not consult a specialist on Brazilian history while preparing these subsections.
The Guide does include several useful appendices. One lists holdings of the ninety-eight Brazilian periodicals in the humanities and social sciences which appear in the well-known Zimmerman Guide to Current Latin American Periodicals, but does not go beyond that compilation and therefore omits many publications which are of particular use to students of Brazilian history and literature. Two other appendices indicate the Library of Congress classification system for Brazilian history and literature, while the final appendix gives class numbers by subject. There is an “index of libraries” mentioned in the text, but curiously not of materials discussed.
In the absence of any better guide this one will be of some help to librarians and specialists in the field of Brazilian studies.
