Studies A fter more than half a century of informal cooperation, in the late 1980s the University of North Carolina and Duke University joined to create the Duke-UNC Program in Latin American Studies. The Program's objective is to enhance the Latin American curriculum on both campuses, provide research and training opportunities for students and faculty from all disciplines, and increase public awareness of the importance of Latin American cultures and traditions.
Cooperation extends to the library collections at both universities as well.
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. These include especially strong, complementary collections in 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 archeology, 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, and rare books and manuscripts.