Librarians and researchers now have a few new tools that make it easier to find books in Spanish. The Baltimore-based National Information Services Corporation, or NISC, has created two internet sites: Leer, a free service with limited advertising, and Lev, basically a Spanish Books in Print that also includes out-of-print titles (first year subscription is $795, renewal $895, consortial rates available).

Leer, an easy-to-use searchable database, allows you to search in English, Spanish, or Portuguese, and retrieve by title, author, or keywords. English speakers will especially appreciate the ability to use English terms as keywords, a feature not available in Lev. But Leer also has its limitations: It doesn't include out-of-print titles. Nevertheless, Leer is a basic tool useful for the quick browsing of books in Spanish.

Lev, designed for developing Spanish-language collections and Spanish instruction, has a simple and intuitive search interface. It provides publisher and wholesale distributor pricing (in U.S. dollars or euros) and complete contact information for more than 700,000 records. Lev is intended for library use and offers flexible output options for card catalog and Marc-formatted records, whereas Leer's formatting depends on your browser's functionality. The formatting gives librarians the ability to compare Lev's subject listings with individual library holdings, which helps determine gaps in particular collections. Also, you can isolate titles by publisher, country, or author. Even though Lev provides an English interface, note that its subject headings appear only in Spanish. The term "Christian" brings zero results, but "cristiano" yields 822 citations. Surprisingly, Leer, the free database, provides subject headings in both languages. Despite this limitation, medium to large libraries will welcome Lev, which can be integrated with other online catalogs.