Ibero-American Institute

The Ibero-American Institute or IAI is an interdisciplinary institution located in Berlin, Germany for academic and cultural exchange between Germany and Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the Caribbean. It is the largest non-university research center for Latin American Studies outside of Latin America. It also features the largest specialized library in Europe on Latin America, Spain, Portugal and the Caribbean. In addition to a large rare book collection, the IAI collects and preserves magazines, electronic documents, maps, audio media, photographs, videos, DVDs, papers and diverse additional materials. The IAI is a member of the Research Association CEISAL and the documentation network association REDIAL. Founded in 1930, since 1962 the IAI has been an agency of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It is located at the Kulturforum near Potsdamer Platz in Berlin-Mitte.

The Institute was founded in 1930 and on a core of three large book collections. In the late 1920s, the Argentine scholar Ernesto Quesada had given his approximately 82,000-volume private library to the State of Prussia. In addition, it received the Mexico library of geographer Hermann Hagen, who had collected 25,000 volumes with the support of Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles. When Institute for Latin America Studies in Hamburg closed in 1930, its inventory of approximately 10,000 volumes was then transferred the IAI. Thus by the time of its founding, the IAI was already in possession of about 120,000 volumes, a specialized and comprehensive collection that included many rare and valuable books.

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