Specialised Information Service Latin America, Caribbean and Latino Studies

With over 1,100,000 monographs and over 3,800 periodicals, the library of the Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut (Ibero-American Institute, IAI) is home to the largest collection on Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino Studies in Europe and second largest in the world. From the 1970s to 2016, the library successfully managed the Sondersammelgebiet 7.36 Ibero-Amerika (Special Collection Area 7.36 Ibero-America, SSG). By means of the SSG, the DFG (external link, opens in a new window)provided financial support for international library exchange programs and for acquisitions of material on law, of parliament papers, daily newspapers from Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as for the Latino Studies (in the narrow sense). With the transfer of the SSG to the new DFG (external link, opens in a new window)funding program "Fachinformationdienste für die Wissenschaft " (Specialised Information Services), the library has been responsible for the Fachinformationsdienst Lateinamerika, Karibik und Latino Studies (Specialised Information Service Latin America, Caribbean and Latino Studies, FID) since 2016. It currently offers its users a wide range of printed and electronic media, digital services and on-site services. 

The program’s goal is to provide scholars in Germany a quick and direct access to specialised literature and information relevant to their research, regardless of their location. The focus is on improving and strengthening regionally oriented research, as well as the necessary information infrastructures. The FID addresses scholars, especially in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies, whose research targets Latin America and the Caribbean and their transnational interconnections, as well as research within the Latino Studies. The FID supports them in their work and offers them platforms for networking, thus maximizing the international visibility of research on Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino Studies. 

The establishment and further development of the Fachinformationsdienst Lateinamerika, Karibik und Latino Studies (Specialised Information Service Latin America, Caribbean and Latino Studies, FID) takes place in close cooperation with professional associations, universities, and research institutions. In the first funding phase (2016-2019), the program focused on fulfilling and securing current and future information needs of the target communities, taking into account the broad spectrum of different disciplines, regional orientations and media types. New communication formats for the exchange between academic libraries and the corresponding disciplines were also tested. 

In the second funding phase (2020-2023), the FID concentrates on two complementary fields of action: information and networking. The focus of the former is to supply print and e-media in accordance with the demand of the subject communities. The media will be made available on a supra-regional level, independent of location. Due to this commitment, the FID already acquires analog and digital media for current and future research projects in close consultation with the disciplines. Following an e-preferred policy, the FID prioritizes digital resources when acquiring media. In addition, analog media is made available in digital form. 

In the second field of action, the FID promotes networking processes with the subject communities, between scholars themselves as well as between the various regional and subject-specific FID where Latin America, the Caribbean and their trans-regional interconnections are of relevance. In order to stimulate community building, the FID is implementing modern tools for scholarly communication. Finally, it supports the internationalization of research on Latin America in Germany, not only focusing on Latin America itself but also on those regions of the world that interact with Latin America in a variety of ways. 

In the first funding phase, the FID Lateinamerika, Karibik und Latino Studies has established itself as a service provider for research oriented literature acquisition. In the second funding phase, the FID also becomes a data producer, an aggregator of information, and a community builder. It further ensures the acquisition and timely provision of print, electronic, and audiovisual media for scholarly use on a national scale and increases the electronic accessibility to media. All new acquisitions are immediately available in the online catalog (OPAC) (external link, opens in a new window) and in the discovery system IberoSearch (external link, opens in a new window). In close dialog with researchers, the FID also develops digital platforms and tools to promote national and international networks and identifies sustainable ways to strengthen information infrastructures for research related to Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino Studies. 

The FID’s services and current developments are available on LACARinfo (external link, opens in a new window).

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