< HAPI About Us 

About Us


What We Do

HAPI is your source for authoritative, worldwide information about Central and South America, Mexico, Brazil, the Caribbean basin, the United States-Mexico border region, and Hispanics/Latinos in the United States. From analyses of current political, economic, and social issues to unique coverage of Latin American arts and letters, HAPI Online contains complete bibliographic citations to articles, book reviews (through 2001), documents, original literary works, and other materials appearing in more than 600 key social science and humanities journals published throughout the world. For a listing of journal coverage, as well as the criteria for journal inclusion, see Journals Indexed.

HAPI Online combines current information about Latin America with in-depth coverage spanning more than thirty years, from 1970 to the present. Now containing approximately 300,000 citations, HAPI Online grows at the rate of about 7,000 records a year. HAPI is committed to keeping the database as current as possible, by regularly adding batches of records throughout the year.

Journal articles are indexed based on HAPI’s in-house, regularly updated Thesaurus. While subject searches must be conducted using English-language terms, the authorized subject headings have been translated into Spanish and Portuguese as well. To learn more about how the Thesaurus works, visit the Thesaurus Help page.

Whenever possible HAPI provides links to the full text of the article. We recognize that improving the quality and quantity of full text provision an important issue to our users. HAPI currently provides full text through a number of different strategies and is aggressively seeking additional ways to ensure that our users’ needs and expectations are met. Please contact the HAPI office to learn more about enabling OpenURL linking at your institution.

HAPI also offers the option of purchasing the full text of selected articles through the document delivery service. The purchaser can elect to receive the articles by mail or by fax, typically within two business days of receipt of the request.

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History of HAPI as an Institution

Founded by Barbara Valk in 1974, while at the Arizona State University, HAPI began as an annual printed index of citations to academic journal articles with Latin American content. HAPI moved to UCLA in 1976, where it became part of the Latin American Center and UCLA’s International Institute.

From a very early stage, HAPI realized the potential benefits of the Internet and went online in 1992 via Bitnet, and opened the website to the public in 1997, while continuing to produce our annual print edition.

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HAPI Staff

Orchid Mazurkiewicz

Director and Editor

Ruby Meraz Gutierrez

Associate Editor

Daniel Schoorl

Associate Editor

Peter Petro

Editorial Assistant

For contact information, visit our Contact Us page.

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Volunteer Indexers

HAPI relies on a talented cadre of volunteer indexers consisting of Latin Americanist librarians and professors who generously volunteer their time and expertise to the project to complete the majority of the indexing.

Current Panel of Indexers

  • Helene Aguiar, Daros-Latinamerica Rio de Janeiro
  • Soraya Alamdari, College of the Canyons
  • Bruce Bachand, Brigham Young University
  • Gustavo von Bischoffshausen, Centro Cultural de San Marcos
  • Bartley Burk, University of Notre Dame
  • Christina Callender, USG
  • Doug Campbell, Harvard University
  • Jane Carpenter, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Eda Correa, University of Central Florida
  • Agnieszka Czeblakow, Emory University
  • Lisa Gardinier, University of Iowa
  • Tina Gross, St. Cloud State University
  • Natalia Gutierrez, Universidad de San Andres
  • Melissa Guy, Arizona State University
  • Nancy Hallock, Harvard University
  • Alison Hicks, University of Colorado at Boulder
  • Wendy Highby, University of Northern Colorado
  • Joseph C. Holub, University of Pennsylvania
  • Darlene Hull, Libros de Barlovento
  • Martha Kelehan, Tufts University
  • Sarah Leroy, University of Pittsburgh
  • Sara Levinson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Philip Macleod, Emory University
  • Martha Mantilla, University of Pittsburgh
  • Jade Kara Mishler, Centro de Investigaciones Regionales de Mesoamérica
  • Catherine R. Nelson, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Eileen Oliver, San Antonio College
  • Brenda Salem, University of Pittsburgh
  • Craig Schroer, University of West Georgia
  • Marianne Siegmund, Brigham Young University
  • Sócrates Silva, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Aurora Vega, Tulane University
  • Gayle Ann Williams, Florida International University
  • John Wright, Brigham Young University
  • Mary Jo Zeter, Michigan State University

To learn about becoming a volunteer indexer, please email the HAPI office.

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