Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies

Location:
Doheny Memorial Library
3550 Trousdale Parkway, Room 209
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189
Telephone: (213) 740 5900
Email: specol@usc.edu
 

Overview

The Boeckmann Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies was established in 1985 in the Doheny Memorial Library, with generous support from Herbert F. Boeckmann II and his wife, Jane Boeckmann and encouragement from faculty with related instructional and research interests. The Boeckmann Center serves as a link between the University Libraries' collections and research and information services and the scholarly activities of faculty and students in the areas of Iberian, Latin American and Chicano and Latino studies. The Center's materials include the 80,000-volume donation from the Boeckmanns and several distinguished book collections, such as the L. A. Murillo Cervantes Collection, the Radell Cuban Collection, the Lorente Cuban and Cuban Exile Studies Collection, South American books and pamphlets donated by the San Martin Society of the San Fernando Valley, archival materials of the Central American Research Institute (CARIN) Collection, and the Cuban California Archive, supported by members of the Patronato Jose Marti of Los Angeles. The collection achieves its distinction by virtue of the geographical coverage which includes the Luso-Hispanic world, the historical and chronological coverage from pre-Columbian times to the present, and the interdisciplinary and multilingual nature of its holdings covering the social sciences, humanities and arts in Spanish and Portuguese, with selections in English, French, German and other European and native Latin American languages.

Specialized Reference Collection

The Boeckmann Reference Collection is housed in the Intellectual Commons on the second floor of the Doheny Memorial Library. Notable works in this collection are the general and special resources in the humanities and the social sciences, the book trade resources, national and subject bibliographies, encyclopedias from Spain, Portugual and Latin American countries, biographical works, handbooks, country travel guides, dictionaries of Spanish and Portuguese, directories and selected CDROMs and other electronic formats. Numerous electronic resources related to Spanish and Portuguese, Latin American Studies and US Hispanics are found on special subject lists on the USC Libraries E-Resources site.

Special Book and Archival Materials

This Boeckmann Center collection consists of special materials which, because of their fragile and vulnerable nature, their high price and their intrinsic and long-term research value, need preservation or special care in handling. Among these are printed and hand made artists books, rare and scarce serials, historic pamphlets, Mexican hacienda manuscripts, manuscripts pertaining to South American literary writers, cinema posters from Mexico, Argentina, Cuba and Puerto Rico, Jose Guadalupe Posada broadsides and other ephemera, Latin American and Chicano videos, DVDs, films and other materials, many of which are primary sources and original materials. The materials in the Boeckmann Center collection date from the 17th through the 19th centuries, with select 20th century items.