Website Reviews

Websites 2011

This fourth edition of the JLAG websites section profiles locations that may prove helpful to scholars seeking information, data, and graphic material for teaching and research. Descriptions of the profiled sites are drawn directly from the website home pages or provided by individual contributors. Subscribers to JLAG are encouraged to submit suggestions for inclusion in this section to the websites editor.

1. http://www.iirsa.org/

The Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) is a project that brings together the 12 South American countries to promote the development of transport, energy, and communications infrastructure from a regional perspective. The site provides details of action areas, current projects, planning, and supporting documents, along with links to planned events and news announcements. The site provides access to a portfolio of over 500 projects, grouped together by sectors, hubs, and corridors; the maps are particularly useful. For researchers interested in accessibility and mobility, energy, and related development projects in South America, this is an extremely helpful site. (Thanks to David Salisbury for this link.)

2. http://noticierocentroamericanista.blogspot.com/

Stephen Webre, a colonial Latin America historian at Louisiana Tech, runs this site that replaced a listserv he used to run on Central America. The website uses a very loose definition of Central America, often including Mexico, the Caribbean, and northern South America. But it does feature Central American conferences, publications, journals, etc. This is a very useful portal for anyone working in Central America as it also provides links to other useful sites, such as archives and libraries in the region. (Thanks to Taylor Mack and George Lovell for this link.)

3. https://sites.google.com/a/geogroupcr.com/revista-geografia-de-costa-rica/

A new digital geographical journal on Costa Rica, the Revista Geografía went online in 2010 with the goal of promoting the country's geography and associated research. For example, the May 2011 edition (Vol. 1(2), 137 pp.) has an excellent article on the 1910 Cartago earthquake and another that addresses Isla Portillos and the international border with Nicaragua. (Thanks to David Robinson for this link).

4. http://www.archivogeneraldecentroamerica.com/

The General Archive of Central America covers a wide range of functions ranging from general administrative records and their relationships with citizens to the Documentary Heritage of the Nation, with the goal of preserving and disseminating the country's history. It serves both the general public and specialized researchers. There are currently about 28,000 files in the online archive, distributed over 42 different collections of documents ranging from 1524 to the present day. Visitors must register on the site to access these documents and their search system.

5. http://www.irlandeses.org/

The Society for Irish Latin American Studies (SILAS) publishes the journal Irish Migration Studies in Latin America (http://www.irlandeses.org/imsla.htm), with three issues annually. The journal publishes original research about relations between Ireland and Latin America, the Caribbean and Iberia, from all academic disciplines within the humanities and social sciences. The Society's website provided access to information, digital archives, biographies, images, events and state-of-the-art research on historical and contemporary connections between Ireland and Latin America. Recently SILAS created a manuscripts and rare books collection and signed a twenty-five years repository contract with the Max von Buch Library of Universidad de San Andrés (Buenos Aires). This library provides optimal security and technical conditions for documents and rare books belonging to SILAS, its members, and friends.

6. http://interamericana.co.uk/

This site is a blog about the Carretera Interamericana that forms the Central American section of the Panamerican highway, the major road linking North and South America. The Carretera traverses about 6,000 kilometers of wildly divergent landscapes - deserts, mountains, canyons and rainforests - connecting the people and landscapes of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The blog publishes engaging and off-beat stories about this legendary highway, with interactive maps, useful links, and other useful information about the route.

7. http://www.igm.cl/

The Instituto Geográfico Militar de Chile is responsible for providing cartographic services and official...