Indiana University has strong library holdings in Latin American materials. These include over 250,000 books and serials in the Main Library as well as important manuscript collections and over 50,000 rare printed items at the Lilly Library.
The Indiana University Libraries on the Bloomington campus contain more than 6.3 million volumes. Of those, there are over 350,000 volumes of monographs, serials, microforms, maps and videos on Latin America and the Caribbean.
To go to the Main Library's resources on Latin American, Iberian, and Caribbean Studies, see below:
The Lilly Library is the main repository of special collections at Indiana University, Bloomington. It houses some 400,000 books and some 6.5 million manuscripts. The Lilly Library has extensive holdings of manuscripts, printed books, and pamphlets describing travelers' impressions of exotic lands, reporting on expeditions, and documenting the contacts between Europeans and the inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere and the Far East.
Resources are particularly good for the study of the Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch Colonial Empires. The Bernardo Mendel Collection, with 40,000 printed pieces and 26,000 manuscripts covers the Spanish Empire in Latin America and the Philippines from discovery through independence, with special emphasis on the Andean countries and on Mexico. Some of this material extends into the mid-19th century. The library of historian Charles Boxer also provides extensive materials on the Dutch and Portuguese Colonies. The outstanding holdings of early atlases that form part of the Mendel Collection provide visual evidence of the development of geographical knowledge and document the growth of European influence throughout the globe. A number of exhibition catalogues published by the Lilly library give an idea of the range of Latin American related materials in the general Lilly collection:
The Indiana University Oral History Research Center was founded in 1968. Since then it has collected over 1600 recorded interviews, focused primarily on Indiana and the Mid-West. The topics have ranged from the history of Indiana communities to the evolution of American philanthropy. Topics currently being researched include contemporary migrations into Indiana centered on oral history recordings in Hispanic and Indian communities. In addition to offering field research training in oral history to graduate students the Center offers oral history workshops and assistance to other research institutions and community organizations.
In 2001 the Center changed its name to the Center for the Study of History and Memory. The change in name reflects a broadening of its mission. The new Center, while continuing the work of the Oral History Research center, aims to broaden its range to include a wide array of work involving oral sources in an international context. Cooperative contacts with oral historians in Eastern Europe and Russia already exist and scholar exchanges are planned. Contacts with Latin American scholars working in the field of memory and oral testimony are also ongoing. In addition, the Center plans to include in its research agenda themes related to practices of commemoration, memory work as a social and cultural practice and the role of the visual( film and photography) in founding practices of rememberance and collective memory. The co-directors of the center are Professor John Bodnar and Professor Danny James. The assistant director is Dr Barbara Truesdell.
The PhD. Program in Latin American history at Indiana University provided me with the great opportunity to study with leading scholars in the field who encouraged creativity and new ideas while offering the right balance between guidance and freedom. The Department of History as a whole as well as the Latin American and Caribbean Studies program were vibrant intellectual communities that helped me developed as both a scholar and an educator. The Herman B. Wells Library and the Lilly Library with their impressive collections supporting Latin American studies and history further enriched my experience as a graduate student at Indiana University.
Natalia Milanesio, PhD
