CRL has long supported original research on Latin America and the Caribbean. CRL serves as the home of two programs that develop important collections and electronic resources for those studies: the Latin American Materials Project (LAMP) and the Latin Americanist Research Resources Project (LARRP). CRL is also the repository of extensive collections of Latin American newspapers and government documents, and took an early lead in providing web access to those materials. The projects featured in this issue of Focus show some recent work in the field.

With new funding in 2016 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CRL is now engaged in “laying the groundwork for a self-sustaining international effort to provide electronic access to primary source materials for area and international studies (AIS) research.” The two-year development phase of that initiative focuses on source materials for the study of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is an opportunity to rethink CRL’s place in the global information supply chain, and we hope to apply the resulting framework of cooperation and practice to benefit the study of other world regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia.