About the Special Collections

The special quality of the Special Collections and their importance for national and international research lies in the fact that they contain analog and digital materials that are interlinked across all disciplines. In combination with the IAI's library holdings, this results in unique opportunities for linking text, sound and image sources. The holdings of the photographic collection, for example, largely originate from estates held at the IAI. The IAI library contains rich supplementary material for all Special Collections.

The unique, diverse and interlinked materials in the IAI's Special Collections are repeatedly the starting point for national and international research, publication and exhibition projects. Many visiting researchers at the IAI are particularly interested in the Special Collections and benefit from the fact that they can conduct research with these materials in the IAI library and at the same time enter into an active exchange with the institute's researchers. The IAI's Special Collections not only enable users to gain new insights and cultural experiences, they also make a special contribution to preserving the cultural heritage of Latin America, the Caribbean and the Iberian Peninsula.

The materials in the IAI's Special Collections are stored professionally, catalogued and made accessible to the public within the scope of the Institute's personnel resources and with the continued support of third-party funding.

Some materials from the Special Collections are already accessible online via the Institute's Digital Collections. The IAI follows established national and international regulations, standards and procedures when preserving and making accessible analog and digital research data, such as those found in the Institute's Special Collections. These include, for example, the "Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice. Code of Conduct" of the DFG (2019), "The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship" and the "Position paper on the handling of ethnological research data" of the German Society for Social and Cultural Anthropology (DGSKA)" of October 2019.

Out of respect for cultural sensitivities, access to individual images may be restricted.