History of Development & Underdevelopment
DS 100/Geography 112 , Spring 2009
This guide serves as a basic research tool for locating current and historical information on the developing world in the University of California Berkeley Libraries.
Secondary Sources: Catalogs | History Databases | International Databases
Primary Sources: Background | Digital Archives | Development Aid | Newspapers | Government Information | Regional Organizations | Statistics
Area Specialists and Special Collections: International & Area Studies | Archives & Special Collections
Secondary Sources
The following sources can help you in finding to books, journal articles, government documents, newspapers, microfilm and other resources. Use these sources to familiarize yourself with your topic and consult the reference section or bibliography to help you identify primary source materials.
The UC Berkeley Catalogs
Find a book that matches your topic and go to the call number range to browse. Check the references and bibliography. Catalogs often display little information about the contents of books, so when in doubt check.
Google Scholar. This search engine functions as both a key word database for articles and books. It automatically connects you to some licensed content held by the UC libraries. Search this source before all others.
Pathinder and Gladis. UC Berkeley libraries catalog. The telnet version Gladis has some features like detailed holdings information that can be important for historical research, e.g. volume numbers for large sets or reels of microfilm.
Melvyl. Catalog for all UC Campus libraries. Includes libraries on campus not in Pathfinder, e.g. the Boalt Law Library and Institute of Governmental Studies.
History Databases
The UC Berkeley library databases are listed in the Electronic Resources Finder. Look under History as a subject and Archival and Primary Source Collections as resource types. Configure your browser according to the library proxy server service for access to databases from off campus.
Google Scholar. This search engine functions as both a key word database for articles and books. It automatically connects you to some licensed content held by the UC libraries. Search this source before all others.
Historical Abstracts. Indexes journals, as well as historical book reviews and dissertations, published worldwide about all aspects of world history (excluding US and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
Humanities and Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984. Citations (no full-text) to more than 1.3 million articles in over 1,200 periodicals in scholarly journals published throughout the 20th century in North America and Europe.
JSTOR. Excellent full text database of the world's premier research journals. Nearly 600 scholarly journals, including more than 70,000 issues, on a wide range of subjects. Does not provide current five years of coverage.
Nineteenth Century Masterfile. Indexes American and English periodicals and newspapers from 1802-1906 (no full-text).
Periodicals Archive Online (PCI Full Text). An online periodical archive that provides access to 450 digitized journals in the humanities and social sciences. A sister database, Periodicals Index Online, provides additional indexing for articles in over 4,500 periodicals.
Project MUSE. Offers full text of over 250 scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences. For the humanities this is a close second to JSTOR.
Readers' Guide Retrospective. Covers more than 500 leading American magazines and journals from 1890 to 1982.
Victorian Database Online. Indexes over 500 journals, books, and dissertations on Victorian Britain (defined as 1830-1914), in every field of nineteenth-century British studies. Online version of the Cumulative Bibliography of Victorian Studies.
International Databases
ABSEES Online Database. Indexes articles, books, dissertations, government publications, and online resources published in the US and Canada on East and Central Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet Union.
Africa-Wide NiPAD. A comprehensive database covering journals, magazines, newspapers, broadcasts, books and more on all aspects of Africa including politics, history, economics, etc.
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS). Contains records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.
CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online). International affairs database, with conference proceedings, working papers, and books, journal abstracts, and links to international affairs web sites.
Geography. Covers the international literature in international development issues. Coverage from 1990 to the present.
Google Scholar. This search engine functions as both a key word database for articles and books. It automatically connects you to some licensed content held by the UC libraries.
Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) Citations in the area of Latin American studies from journals, books, and conferences. Coverage from 1935. Sources are selected and annotated by scholars from the Library of Congress.
Index Islamicus. Indexes literature on Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Over 3,000 journals are monitored for inclusion in the database, together with conference proceedings, monographs, multi-authored works and book reviews.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. Multidisciplinary database indexing journals, books, chapters, and reviews in economics, political science, and sociology, from more than 100 countries.
PAIS Internationa & Archive. International database for materials in public affairs. Topics include agriculture, banking, demographics, the environment, finance, government, law, and political science. Coverage from 1915 to the present.
Quarterly Index to Africana Periodical Literature. Index published by the Library of Congress Nairobi Office, covers over 300 selected periodicals from 29 African countries. Also includes publications of non-governmental organizations.
Women's Studies International (UCB Access Only). Indexes books, journals, magazines, newsletters, proceedings, dissertations, and web sites related to research and commentary on women's issues, feminism, and gender.
Primary Sources
A primary source is widely defined as an account of an eyewitness to an historical event, but in practice it can be broadended to include all kinds of other material. The library has an exhaustive research guide on this topic as well as a guide to finding and evaluating primary sources on the web. See also the library electronic resources finder for Archival and Primary Source Collections. The following are some sources of interest to this class.
Background
Least Developed Countries Report. HC59.7.L3219: Main - Latest in Doe Ref-Gov/Stat.
Human Development Report. HD72.H8: Main. Latest in Doe Ref - Gov/Stat. Site includes the UNDP flagship publication the Human Development Report, as well as national human development reports from over 250 countries and regions.
IMF Annual Report of the Executive Board for the Financial Year. HG3881.I6: Main - Latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat.
Trade and Development Report. Main - Latest in GREF. From the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
World Bank Annual Report. HG3881 I5527: Main - Latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat.
World Development Report. HC59.7.A1 W6: Govt Refe - Latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat. From the World Bank
World Economic and Social Survey. HC59.A25.W6: Main - Latest in GREF. From the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
World Economic Outlook. HC59 W64: Main - Latest in Doe Ref-Govt/Stat. From the IMF.
Digital Archives
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO). Contains over 150,000 items published in Great Britain and its colonies, including those in North America, during the 18th Century.
Empire Online. Includes 70,000 images of original manuscript and printed documents to support study and research in the field of colonial and empire studies. In addition to original documents, this database contains scholarly essays and analysis.
HarpWeek. Full-image reproductions of Harper's Weekly from its beginning in 1857 to 1912. Provides access to information about 19th and early 20th century advertising, illustrations, culture, history, literature, and notable figures.
Nation Digital Archive. Full text access to The Nation, a weekly news magazine covering U.S. politics and society since 1865.
Victorian Research Web. Indexes prose pieces in 43 major periodicals useful for identifying authors of unsigned or pseudonymous articles, from 1824-1900.
Development Aid
To find reviews and other reports documenting flows of foreign assistance from countries with significant foreign assistance plans, do a subject search in the online catalogs:
- economic assistance, british
- economic assistance, canadian africa
- economic assistance, japanese developing countries
- economic assistance, american asia
See also the UC Berkeley library research guide on the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and International Trade and Financial Institutions. See also the secion on regional organizations (development banks) below.
AccessUNDP (UCB Access Only). Index to the United Nations Development Programme Project Reports by UN headquarters between the years 1972-1998. Most are in the UNDP microfiche collection (GREF Microfiche 24773)
Development co-operation : Efforts and Policies of the Members of the Development Assistance Committee. HC60 O72: Main - Latest in GREF.
Development Co-operation Review Series. Good developmentaid series from the OECD, one of the more important agencies for development aid. See Source OECD for online versions. HC59.8.D48: Main - Latest in GREF.
Reality of Aid: An Independent Review of Development Cooperation. HC59.8 R43: Main - Latest in GREF.
Source OECD. Leading International Organization for Foreign Aid data. Includes International Development Statistics as well as statistical databases on External Debt Statistics and Geographical Distribution of Financial Aid Flows to Developing Countries. Choose the "international development" link on the statistics section.
United Nations Development Programme Annual Report. JX1977.A36514.R4: Main - Latest in GREF; Microfiche 23950 Periodicals.
U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants (Green Book). Loans and grants from the US government each fiscal year by purpose and country. HC60 U53344: Main - Latest in Doe Ref-Gov/Stat.
UNDP Human Development Reports Library. Links to hundreds of full-text development reports from over 250 countries and regions world-wide.
United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). UN agency conducting research on the social dimensions of world development. Includes hundreds of documents on a wide range of social development issues.
USAID Documents. Online resource for USAID international development, with thousands documents available for download. Database is browseable by country and by subject.
World Bank Project Documents . Full-text of World Bank project reports, including evaluation reports, working papers, and project appraisals
World Bank Research Program: Abstracts of Current Studies. HC60.I535b: Main - Latest two years in GREF.
Newspapers and Historical News Databases
Doe library has an immense collection of current print and historical newspapers on microfilm housed in the newspaper and microfilm collection the first floor of Doe library. Many of the historic newspapers are not indexed. although there are print finding aids available for selected microfilm collections.
See the library page on finding newspapers for information on how to find world newspapers. A useful source for finding lists of newspapers by country is the Newspaper Title Database from the International Coalition on newspapers.
The following is a selection of indexing and full-text newspaper databases. More can be found in the News Catagory of the Electronic resource finder.
Access World News. Full text of U.S. and international news sources from over titles worldwide, most in english. A clickable may enables the user to view and select individual countries and news sources. Dates of coverage are provided. Sources are sometimes limited to the BBC and international wire services.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Electronic Index. Index to U.S. government translations of broadcasts, news transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from nations around the world. The database references collections of FBID daily reports on fiche. Ask a government information librarian for more help with these.
Newspaper Titles Database. Database of more than 20,000 newspaper titles from over 150 countries dating back over 350 years. This is a useful source for identifying the titles of newspapers from a region during a given time period. Once you have a title use Pathfinder or Melvyl to find library holdings.
Historical Newspapers (ProQuest). Indexes articles from Chicago Tribune (1849-1985), Los Angeles Times (1881-1985), New York Times (1851-2003), Wall Street Journal (1889-1989), and Washington Post (1877-1990).
Historical Newspapers Online. Indexes newspapers covering all aspects of British life and world affairs in the 19th and 20th centuries. Contains four major historical resources: The Times (London, 1790-1905); The Official Index to the Times (1906-1980); The Historical Index to the New York Times (1863- 1922); and Palmer's Full Text Online (1785-1870).
World News Connection. Translations of radio and television broadcasts, periodicals and news articles from nearly every country in the world. The material is translated to serve the needs of US government agencies, so is especially strong in the fields of politics, economics, military affairs. Reports from 1975-1996 can be found in the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS).
Government Information
The government documents collections at the UC Berkeley libraries comprise a strong collection of documents from all over the world. See the Government Information Pages for more information. Pages of special interest include the United Nations, Non-Governmental Organzations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and International Organizations & Activism.
AccessUN. Provides indexing of current and historical United Nations documents dating back to 1946, including historic documents on decolonization. Most historical United Nations documents can be found in paper volumes in the main stacks or NRLF. Contact Jim Church for assistance.
AccessUNDP (UCB Access Only). Index to the United Nations Development Programme Project Reports by UN headquarters between the years 1972-1998. Most are in the UNDP microfiche collection (GREF Microfiche 24773)
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers. Provides full-text access to thousands of 19th Century Parliamentary Papers, providing a historical record of Britain and its former Colonies and the wider world. For additional sources of Parliamentary information see the library Parliamentary Papers research guide.
LexisNexis Congressional. Provides indexing and abstracts of congressional publications back to 1789. Recent documents in full text, older documents cited in some cases by microfiche numbers or serial set bound volumes.
UNBISnet. Citations for UN publications and documents from the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöd Library in New York and the UN Library in Geneva. Also includes speeches, voting records, and resolutions. The majority is full-text.
U.S. Congressional Serial Set. A full-text database of key publications of the United States Congress. Also includes publications of the executive departments relating to important public issues. The Serial Set is a critical resource for the study of all aspects of American history, from 1817 to 1906 at this writing.
Regional Organizations
Regional organizations are often rich sources of information relevant to development issues. For more information on this topic see the UC Berkeley library pages on International Trade & Financial Institutions (IFIS).
African Development Bank. Regional multilateral development bank, engaged in the economic development and social progress of member countries. Publications include economic research papers, development reviews, and project reports.
African Development Review. African Development Bank. HC800.A1.A355: Main - Unbound issues in current periodicals.
Asian Development Bank. Multilateral development institution focused on economic development in the Asian region. We are a depository for all Asian Development Bank publications and have them in the main library. See the publications categories site.
Asian Development Review. Asian Development Bank. HC411. A7545: Main - unbound in current periodicals
Caribbean Development Bank. Regional financial and economic development institution for the Caribbean. Includes Caribbean and selected industrial nations.
Central Banks Web. Comprehensive listing of Central Banks, from the Bank for International Settlements
European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. Established in 1991 to help build market economies and democracies for countries in central Europe. Includes full-text working papers and publications on finance and development
European Central Bank. Central Bank for the currency of the European Union (the euro).
InterAmerican Development Bank. Regional development bank focusing on economic development and technical cooperation projects for Latin America. See especially the IADB Project documents.
IDB America. From the InterAmerican Development Bank. HG3881.A1.I2: Main - unbound in current periodicals.
Statistics
See also the library research guide on International Statistics.
Balance of Payments Statistics. International balance of payments data from 1967. Available on the Berkeley Library CD ROM Network -- ask at a library reference desk for assistance
Commodity Price Statistics Online. Monthly prices and price indices from 1960 for commodities worldwide: food, beverages, oils, agricultural raw materials, minerals, and ores and metals, in current dollars. Restricted to UCB IP addresses. Password required. Ask at Reference Desk for assistance.
Direction of Trade Statistics. Annual, quarterly, and monthly figures on the value of merchandise exports and imports by trade partners for 250 countries, as well as area and world aggregates showing trade flows from 1980 to present. NOTE: for data from 1948 to 1980 please consult the of Trade Statistics Historical CD ROM, availablefrom any Berkrley library public workstation.
FAOSTAT. Limited to select workstations in Doe & Giannini Foundation Libraries). Data on agriculture, forest products and fisheries from the FAO.
Foreign Direct Investment Database. From the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development. Includes the World Investment Directory, which offers FDI data by country. (Registration required).
Global Development Finance. Detailed statistical data on government debt for 138 countries reporting to the World Bank.
Global Urban Observatory. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. Statistical data on urban indicators, human settlements, and city profiles worldwide.
Human Development Report Statistics. Statistics from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Links to the text of national human development reports from over 250 countries and regions.
Industrial Statistics Database. International industrial statistics from the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).
International Financial Statistics (IFS). Time series data from the International Monetary Fund: exchange and interest rates, balance of payments, national accounts, prices, and more.
Monthly Bulletin of Statistics. Current monthly economic statistics for most of the countries and areas of the world. Includes construction, energy, finance, trade, labour, population, prices and more.
Penn World Tables. Free data on population, national income accounts and prices, from 1950.
Source OECD. Leading International Organization for Foreign Aid data. Includes International Development Statistics as well as statistical databases on External Debt Statistics and Geographical Distribution of Financial Aid Flows to Developing Countries. Choose the "international development" link on the statistics section.
UNICEF Monitoring and Statistics. Individual country data from the State of the World's Children and customized statistical tables.
UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics. Data on the analysis of world trade, investment and development for over 190 countries. Registration required.
U.S. Overseas Loans and Grants (Green Book). Loans and grants from the US government each fiscal year by purpose and country.
WIPO Patent and Trademark Statistics. Basic patent and trademark data by country by residents and nonresidents.
World Development Indicators. Time series data from 1960 for 207 countries in the areas of population, labour, education, economics, the environment and much more.
World Income Inequality Database. Information for over 140 countries on income inequalities at both cross-country and time series levels over the period 1950-98, with a focus on the period since 1980.
Area Specialists and Special Collections
The following contact information is for students who need additional help working with primary and seconday sources in foreign languages, as well as information about special collections that may be of interest.
International & Area Studies Specialists
African Collections (Jason Schultz: contact)
Chinese Collections/East Asian Library (Jianye He: contact)
Germanic and Romance Languages Collections (Jim Spohrer: contact)
Japanese Collections/East Asian Library (Ishimatsu, Hisayuki: contact)
Judaica Collections (Paul Hamburg: contact)
Korean Collections (Jae-yong Chang: contact)
Latin American Studies Collections (Carlos Delgado: contact)
Middle East & Islamic Collections (Shayee Khanaka: contact)
Slavic & East European Collections (Allan Urbanic: contact)
South Asia Collections (Adnan Malik: contact)
SouthEast Asian Collections (Virginia Shih: contact)
Special Collections & Archives
The Bancroft Library. One of the most outstanding special collections in the country. Includes the Bancroft Collection of Western Americana and Latin Americana, the University Archives, the Mark Twain Papers, and the Regional Oral History Office. See the Online Archive of California for a selection of finding aids.
British Government Archival Records at Stanford. Guide to the holdings of the British Public Record Office (PRO) at Stanford and selected research libraries in the United States. The section on the foreign office is of particular interest.
Stanford Hoover Institution Library & Archives. One of the most comprehensive libraries and archival collections for 20th century world history. Contains close to one million volumes as well as 60 million pamphlets, society publications, government documents, newspapers,
proclamations, and political posters. Includes a pamphlet database and a collection of finding aids. Search the Stanford Library catalog Socrates for information on books and serials in the Library, and descriptive overviews of collections in the Archives.
Contact Information: Please contact Jim Church if you have any questions. The government documents librarians also have an email reference service and an IM reference service available each semester.