Since 1949 the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has provided funding for special subject collections and special libraries that acquire literature and information resources and make them available to scholars. These special collections and libraries have either disciplinary focuses or specialize in specific countries, regions or cultural areas. There are currently 121 collection fields managed by around seventy-five libraries.

Included among them is the library at the Ibero-American Institute, which is in charge of Ibero-America (Special Collection Field 7.36). As part of this program, the library receives financial support for the subject areas of law, government publications, daily newspapers and Latino studies. It also receives funding for various exchange projects with libraries in the Ibero-American region.

Furthermore, the DFG supported the development of cibera, a specialized virtual library on Ibero-America, Spain and Portugal.