The Sephardic Studies Library Research Guide was created in 2006 by Dr. Rachel Simon, Librarian, Princeton University.
Below you will find general information about conducting a search online for Sephardic materials. Bibliographic lists can
be accessed by selecting one of the links to the right. You can also download and search the full 91-page guide by clicking
on the PDF icon at the right. The PDF includes additional resources categorized by country and subject.
Strictly speaking, Sephardic studies relate to the study of Sephardim(  )
the Jews in Spain (  , or
the Iberian peninsula in general) as well as of those Jews exiled
from Spain and their descendants—their history, language, literature
and arts as well as religious, social and economic life. Due, however,
to the tremendous influence of the Sephardic exiles on communities
within which they settled, and especially in North Africa and in
the Ottoman Empire, it is extremely difficult to treat the non-Sephardic
Jews of these regions separately from the Sephardim. The same goes
for some other regions, like Italy, Holland and to a certain extent
Latin America. Moreover: even in areas where the number of Sephardic
settlers was not high, their cultural and socioeconomic influence
was decisive. As a result, indigenous Jews often adopted Sephardic
cultural characteristics to the degree that they started to regard
themselves—and
were often also regarded by outsiders—as
Sephardim. And indeed, today, though imprecise, the term “Sephardim” often
refers to Middle Eastern and North African Jews in general, even
for those Jews who are not of Iberian origin. It is often used
even when dealing with regions in which Sephardim hardly settled,
like Yemen, Iraq and Iran. Increasingly, though, Middle Eastern
and North African Jews who are not Sephardim prefer the term Mizrahim ( ,
Orientals).
Thus, Sephardic studies are often not limited
only to “true Sephardim”. Nonetheless, the following
survey will deal with Sephardic studies in the original sense, namely,
covering issues related to the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula and
their descendants. Another limitation is that most of the publications
are in English.
One can do online searches for library materials through international databases and one's own library. Although when using keyword search one can use any word, it will be helpful to use some terms of controlled vocabulary used as subject headings by the Library of Congress, even though a keyword search is not limited to the subject field but can pick up terms from any field. When using more than one keyword the terms should be connected with "and" (e.g., Sephardic and authors). Among the useful terms for Sephardic studies are: Sephardim; Sephardic; Ladino; Marranos; Dönmeh; Sabbathaians; Jews, Oriental; Jews, North African; Jews & a country where most of the Jews are Sephardim.
One of the main search venues is the WorldCat FirstSearch (Unified catalog of OCLC member libraries). In the WorldCat FirstSearch, one can search by keyword, author, title, ISBN and limit by year. Searching the keyword (e.g., "Sephardim") will give the total hits and also group hits for books, sound, visual, serials, scores, internet, archival, articles, and computer. In addition to details on each title, it indicates how many libraries own this book, if your library has it, versions of the same title and author, and how to locate the item. One can limit the results by audience (general, juvenile, adult), content, and format. It is indicated how many items are in English.
Note on Reference Sources
Most reference sources are regionally or linguistically based, and while there are some which cover the whole of North Africa, there are those of a more limited scope, like dealing only with Greece. In addition, some compilers published updates under different titles; these are treated here as multi-volume sets, because the method which they use is basically the same—they differ only in the publication periods they cover and in their titles.
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