Institute for the Study of the Americas

Collections at UNC-Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's commitment to the study of Latin America is especially evident in its library collections, which are rich in resources of Latin American literature, history, and political science. Extremely valuable materials can be found in the rare books and manuscripts collections. Complementing the resources on Latin America are the library's strong collections in Spanish and Portuguese literature, history, and culture. The Latin American and Iberian Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill has over 500,000 volumes in all disciplines. Of this total, approximately 323,000 volumes belong to the Latin American Collection (Spanish America, Brazil, Caribbean). The collection also includes 20,317 maps, 4,400 serials, 336 films/videos, and 306 journals. Among the notable special collections at UNC-Chapel Hill is the Bernard J. Flatow Collection of Latin American Cronistas, which began with 76 original or very early editions of writings detailing the conquest and colonization of Spanish America, and continues to grow today. Other notable collections at UNC-Chapel Hill include Memín Pinguín, the controversial comic series from Mexico, as well as artists' books from Cuba and Argentina, among them handmade books from Argentina's cartonero population.

Cooperative Program with Duke University's Perkins Library

In addition, the University library maintains a cooperative program for the acquisition and sharing of Latin American material with Perkins Library at Duke University, a program that vastly expands the comprehensiveness and availability of local resources for the study of Latin America. Begun in the early 1940s, the Duke-UNC cooperative library agreement for Latin American studies is among the oldest and most successful of joint ventures in the nation. From its inception, the cooperative agreement has stipulated that both libraries acquire general study and teaching resources from all of Latin America, but share responsibility for more acquisitions at the research level. Responsibility is divided along geographical lines:

• UNC-CH's Latin American Collection specializes in resources from Argentina, Brazil (humanities), Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Spanish and French-speaking Caribbean, with an emphasis on Cuba.
• Duke's Latin American Collection specializes in resources from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Brazil (social science), Mexico, Central America, and the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

The joint collections of the libraries of Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill are the only major holdings of research-level Latin American resource materials in the Mid-South, containing nearly 600,000 volumes. These include especially strong, complementary collections in the social sciences and literature. Particular emphases in the former are on political and institutional history, labor history, political economy, sociology, women's studies, demography, anthropology and archaeology, and international and inter-American relations. In literature there is a broad representation of the belles-lettres of all the Latin American countries, including large Brazilian holdings. Other significant collections include national and international statistics, philosophy, folklore, cultural studies, maps, film, library science, conservation and sustainable development, as well as rare books and manuscripts.

Latin Americanist Research Resource Project

The libraries at the University of North Carolina and Duke University, in cooperation with 50 other research libraries, are participating in a project to improve access to the array of research resources in Latin America. Its goals are to restructure access to collections and resources on a comprehensive scale and to improve electronic access and document delivery system for Latin Americanist resources.