Library Services

The library of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut is open to all interested users. Young people aged 16 and over can use the IAI library with the consent of a parent or guardian. Please contact the information team (opens your email program).

There are two types of user cards. The reading room card (for users not resident in Germany) allows the use of media in the reading room and access to all electronic resources. With the library card you can also borrow books to take home. This type of library card can be applied for by people resident in Germany.

Register using the online form. You will then receive a user number and password by e-mail.

Please bring your identity card, passport or electronically readable driving license with you when you collect your user card during our service hours. If your place of residence is in Germany, please bring your registration confirmation with you as well.

The library card for borrowing outside the library and the reading room card are free of charge and valid for 1 year.

You can renew your library or reading room card online here.

The default password is your date of birth in the form DDMMYY (e.g. 241290). We recommend that you change your password to a secure password. Only then will you be able to access our electronic resources.

You can manage your password here (external link, opens in a new window) or via your library account (external link, opens in a new window) in the online catalog (OPAC).

You can also recover a forgotten password there.

If you need confirmation for your university or scholarship provider that you have worked in the IAI library for a certain period of time, please send us an e-mail (opens your email program) at the beginning of your stay with the following information:

• Name
• Academic position and university
• Research topic
• Duration of your stay
• Language of the letter (German / English / Spanish / Portuguese)

You can pick up the confirmation letter at the service desk on the last day of your stay.
Scholarship holders and guest researchers of the IAI will receive the confirmation from their supervisor.

You can request materials in the online catalog. The materials will be made available at the service desk.

If you place your order before 5 p.m. (Saturday: 12 p.m.), your materials will be available on the same day, otherwise not until the next working day from 9 a.m. Books from the external stacks in Friedrichshagen, old books and special materials are generally not available until the next working day.

During service hours, you can borrow media from the service desk to take home.

If you cannot find a publication in our catalog, you have the option to make acquisition suggestions for books, journals and electronic media.

Books published from 1945 onwards can be borrowed for four weeks. You can also extend the loan period twice online via your library account (external link, opens in a new window).

A loan period of two weeks applies to videos and DVDs.

Older books, microforms, large formats and journals can only be borrowed to use in the reading room.

If you do not return books on time or do not extend the loan period in your library account, you will automatically receive a written reminder. At the same time, cumulative reminder fees will be charged for each individual book. The next reminder level is sent every 10 calendar days.

1st reminder € 2
2nd reminder € 5
3rd reminder € 10
4th reminder € 20

All outstanding fees are displayed in your library account (external link, opens in a new window). Your account will be automatically blocked after an amount of € 37 and from the fourth reminder. To avoid this, we recommend that you pay the outstanding fees on time.
If you have entered an e-mail address in your library account, you will receive the first to the third reminder by e-mail. You will receive the fourth reminder by post. It is therefore important that we always have your contact data up-to-date.

Further information on reminder fees can be found in our terms of use and scale of fees (PDF, 444.12 KB) (opens in a new window), (this file is not accessible).

If you lose a book from our library, you must report this verbally at the service desk or by e-mail (opens your email program). You can either obtain an identical replacement copy yourself or the library will provide a replacement at your expense. In both cases, you will be charged an administration fee of € 15.

The Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut makes its materials available worldwide via national and international interlibrary loan.

You can search the library holdings of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in the online catalog. Once you have found materials there, you can order them via the interlibrary loan service of your university or city library. Please ask your library about further conditions and costs.

Libraries should contact our interlibrary loan (opens your email program) department.

If you cannot find a request button for the publication you require, it may be due to the following:

1. The publication is an article in a journal. Write down the year, volume and issue number. To go directly to the journal title, click on the link after "Contained in". If there is no link, you will have to search for the journal in the catalog. In both cases, you must enter the above data when ordering.
2. The publication is an article in an edited volume. Click on the link after "Contained in". If there is no link, the edited volume must be searched for and ordered.
3. The publication is a monograph that has been published in several volumes. Click on "Related publications" and order the desired individual volume.

If you have problems opening an e-book or e-journal, we recommend the following:

• To access our e-resources, you must change your initial password (DDMMYY). If you have not already done so, you can easily change your password here.
• Check your library account to see if your reading room or library card is still valid.
• Try opening the e-book or e-journal in another browser.
• If you still do not have access, fill out the form behind the “Access denied?” in the catalog.

The ordered media will be available for you at the service desk for 14 days.

In the reading room you will find bibliographies, encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks on the regions classified by subject. A detailed overview can be found in our classification system (PDF, 726.88 KB) (opens in a new window), (this file is not accessible).

Unrestricted use of our electronic resources is possible in the IAI WiFi network (WLAN-IAI). General information about the WiFi and the possibility to change your password can be found here (external link, opens in a new window).

Please refer to the following instructions (external link, opens in a new window) for the initial setup and in case of problems.

Other options for using WiFi at the IAI are

• the public WiFi network "_Free_Wifi_Berlin"
• eduroam (if you already have access via your university, for example)

• Scan: You can use our scanners and microfilm readers in the reading room free of charge. Please remember to bring your own USB stick.
• Copy: Photocopying is no longer possible.
• Print: A printer is available in the reading room.
• Photos: You may also take photos of documents with a camera or smartphone (without flash).

In any case, please note and respect the copyright law (PDF, 453.32 KB) (opens in a new window), (this file is not accessible).

• Online catalog (OPAC)

  All library holdings of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (IAI) such as electronic resources, books, journals, microforms and articles can be found here. A large part of the materials in the Special Collections, such as sound recordings, films, maps and legacies, can also be found in the online catalog.

• IberoSearch

  A research portal that searches not only the IAI's library holdings but also databases and repositories on Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the Caribbean and provides access to full texts.

• Digital Collections

  Historical journals, manuscripts, photos, libretti: Here you will find all the digitized holdings of the IAI.

• Databases

  The IAI offers you remote access to around 150 databases with bibliographic data, biographies and electronic full texts. Some are freely available, for others you have to authenticate yourself with your user data.

Our information and reference team will be happy to help you search for materials in our research tools and find your way around the library!

Articles from journals can be requested via interlibrary loan or the document delivery service subito (external link, opens in a new window).

The Fachinformationsdienst Lateinamerika, Karibik und Latino Studies (external link, opens in a new window) (FID, Specialized Information Service Latin America, Caribbean and Latino Studies) offers you a free digitization service (digitization on demand (external link, opens in a new window)) of materials from the library and the Special Collections of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut. Per order, up to 30 pages of copyright-free materials (publications before 1930) and up to 10% of the respective work (max. 30 pages) of materials subject to copyright (publications after 1930) can be scanned and made available for private or academic use.

Please use this form (external link, opens in a new window) for the digitization of library materials.

Electronic copies of materials from the IAI's Special Collections can be ordered by e-mail (opens your email program). For legal reasons, it may be necessary to conclude specific usage agreements in individual cases.