Points of View Reference Center: check out this free trial!

Nash Library is pleased to announce a free trial for the Points of View Reference Center, a full-text database designed to provide users with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue. The database provides 200 topics, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (affirmative argument) and counterpoint (opposing argument).

Topics covered include: affirmative action, cloning, DNA profiling, HIV/AIDS status disclosure, immigration, Iraq, Israel & the Palestinians, Katrina and FEMA response, nuclear proliferation, separation of church and state, standardized testing, stem cell research, tax cuts, voting machines, and many more.

Points of View Reference Center contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including 600 main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books.

The database also offers guides to debate, developing arguments and writing position papers. Points of View Reference Center provides the basis from which students can realize and develop persuasive arguments and essays, better understand controversial issues and develop analytical thinking skills.

To access the database, click the link above or go to: http://192.146.206.181:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=pov

Latino literature databases: free trial through April 30, 2007

Latino Literature includes nearly 100,000 pages of fiction and poetry and nearly 400 plays. It represents the Chicano culture and all the different ethnicities of Latin American writers with a Hispanic background working in the United States. The materials are presented in their original language, English or Spanish; in cases where authors produced more different language versions of their work, both are included. Although the collection includes materials from the Nineteenth Century, the vast majority of the materials are from the Chicano Renaissance to the present. About 30% of the database is previously unpublished or rare materials from various sources including institutions such as the Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos at Hunter College, scholars’ personal archives and the authors themselves. The three major groups are represented, Chicanos, Puerto Rican and Cubans, as well as Argentineans, Dominicans, and other Central and South Americans. Through their literature they represent their different immigration experiences, their efforts to adapt to a new culture and new language without losing their own, while they pursue social, political and economic advancement.

Latin American Women Writers <http://192.146.206.181:2048/login?url=http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/lawwlive/> includes more than 100,000 pages of prose, poetry, and essays, and 300 plays. The database brings together the most important writers from 19 countries, as well as the works of the principal feminists, in one single collection. Starting in the colonial period and moving through to the present, the literary works, memoirs, feminist essays, and other materials will give researchers the feminine perspective of the development of an entire continent. The writings will also reveal the personal struggles and histories of the authors themselves.