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Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut
Preussischer Kulturbesitz


Three gables




The information centre

The Library of the IAI

Our HoldingsFeaturing the largest specialized European library on Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal, the IAI holds more than 1.4 million books, magazines and newspapers, electronic documents, maps, audio media, photographs, videos, DVDs, manuscripts and a wide range of other materials. Subject areas include literature, modern languages and cultural studies, art, social sciences, economics, law and government publications, as well as geological, agricultural and environmental sciences.

The library systematically acquires materials in all languages and from all countries, focusing on texts in Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, and German.

The Library is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) for collection building and information services on the Ibero-American region. It receives financial support for the collections of Law and Government Publications, Newspapers, and Latino Studies, and for exchange programs with libraries in Latin America.

Our ServicesThe library‘s reading rooms offer 75 desks equipped with outlets for laptops and wireless internet, 30 research workstations, and various printing and reproduction facilities for books, journals and microfilms.

Our multilingual Reference Staff assists the users in finding library materials and searching our catalogs. We offer guided tours of the library and customized courses for groups on various databases. Please make an appointment.

All library materials are listed in our online catalog and made available for onsite loan or borrowing. They are also available through the national and international interlibrary loan system worldwide. As a member of the SUBITO document delivery service, the IAI makes reliable, quick deliveries, subject to a fee. In accordance with copyright law, we offer Digitalization on Demand.

The Digital LibraryFor all our registered users, we offer e-books, e-journals and digital full-texts. We are systematically digitizing our unique holdings, starting with the historic and graphic collections. The access to all electronic and digital media is via the online catalog. Primary data as well as recent research results are presented in subject gateways.



2021 || Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut Preussischer Kulturbesitz
http://www.iai.spk-berlin.de/