Digital Resources

Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America (AILLA)

AILLA is a digital archive of recordings and texts in and about the indigenous languages of Latin America. The heart of the collection is recordings, both audio and video, in a wide range of genres: narratives, chants, oratory, conversations, songs, and more. Many recordings are transcribed and translated into Spanish, English or Portuguese. The archive also contains a wealth of language documentation materials: grammars, dictionaries, ethnographies, and field notes. The collection includes teaching materials for bilingual education and language revitalization programs.

Collections Portal (Benson Latin American Collection)

The UT Libraries Collections Portal contains over 5,800 items and counting from the Benson, with contents in a variety of media, in addition to metadata on each. The Collections Portal can be searched using a variety of criteria, including: date an item was created/issued, time period covered, type, language, topic, place name, public domain status, and media type. The portal continues to grow, and exists as a rich resource for researchers no matter their location. 

Curriculum Resources

Whether you are a high school teacher looking for lesson plans or a digital humanist in the making, this resource has something for you. This website features high-quality, critical teaching and learning materials focused on Latin American, U.S. Latinx, and African Diaspora studies and collections at the Benson Latin American Collection. Resources include K–12 lesson plans, undergraduate assignments, digital primary sources, and digital scholarship tool guides. All content is available at no cost for teaching and research purposes.

Digital Archive of the Guatemalan National Police Historical Archive (AHPN)

The AHPN Digital Archive is a collaborative project of UT Austin's LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, and the UT Libraries with the Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional de Guatemala. The AHPN digitized documents facilitate scholarly and legal research into a vast cache of historical documentation. 

The discovery of the National Police Historical Archive in 2005 opened an extensive and timely resource for the study of Guatemalan history and human rights in the region, including documentation from Guatemala's armed conflict between 1960 and 1996. This site currently includes over 10 million scanned images of documents from the National Police Historical Archive. This digital archive mirrors and extends the physical archive that remains preserved in Guatemala as an important historical patrimony of the Guatemalan people.

Exhibits Portal (Benson Collection)

This varied and growing collection of digital exhibitions contains material from collections organized around historical periods and figures, social movements, marginalized groups, and more. LLILAS Benson Digital Initiatives provides opportunities for guided classroom exhibition project, and funds internships and fellowships in which students create a digital exhibition based on a research proposal. In their subject matter and range of historical periods and geographical locations, these exhibitions showcase the breadth and depth of Benson collections of U.S. Latine materials, Latin American history in multiple eras, LGBTQI+ documents, the Black Diaspora in the Americas, Central American literature, social activism, and much more. 

Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI)

The UT Libraries' Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI) is committed to the long-term preservation of fragile and vulnerable records of human rights struggles worldwide, the promotion and secure usage of human rights archival materials, and the advancement of human rights research and advocacy around the world.

Launched in 2008, the HRDI gathers, preserves, and makes accessible a variety of collection types, including paper, audiovisual, and web materials. The HRDI operates according to a post-custodial model of archives, promoting sustained collaboration between UT Libraries and partner institutions around the world.

Latin American Digital Initiatives Repository (LADI)

The Latin American Digital Initiatives (LADI) repository is a collaborative project that preserves and provides digital access to unique archival documents from a network of Latin American partners with an emphasis on collections documenting human rights issues and underrepresented communities. LADI's partners range include state archives, community-based collections, nonprofit organizations, and museums, with locations that include Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Brazil. Learn about our archival partners. LADI was funded in part by grants from the Mellon Foundation.

LLILAS Benson Digital Scholarship Website

The Digital Scholarship (DS) Lab staff provides consultations on individual research projects ranging from the exploratory/conceptual to the final stage and the use of digital tools/methods, and special collections to facilitate, reinvigorate, and transform research and teaching. We also train on specific digital tools used in research and analysis, methods for applied-use of digital special collection assets, and the introduction of digital tools and content into curricula.

Visit this site to explore resources, funding opportunities, workshop and event offerings, and DS projects in different formats.

Primeros Libros de las Américas

The Primeros Libros de las Américas project is building a digital collection of the first printed books in Mexico before 1601. These monographs represent the first printing in the New World and provide primary sources for scholarly studies focused on cultural history, linguistics, religious studies, history of the book, etc.

Of the 220 distinct works believed to have been produced, approximately 135 surviving titles are held in institutions around the world. The project seeks to acquire at least one example of each discrete title while also digitizing as many duplicate copies of these works as are available. These duplicates facilitate scholarly inquiry since marginalia, typographical variants, ownership marks, and other copy-specific attributes are often critical for interpretation and other purposes. At present it is believed that at least 369 surviving primeros libros are in existence.