Information Centre
The GIGA is home to the largest non-university information centre for area studies and comparative area studies in Germany. The four regional libraries collect literature on economic, political, and social developments in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The collection comprises about 200,000 books and approximately 10,000 online journals – plus more than 100,000 online documents.
The Information Centre (IZ) is publicly accessible and operates as a reference library with the option of weekend lending. The publications are largely available for inter-library loan. Identified as an “outstanding research library,” the IZ was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Opening Hours
Tuesday–Thursday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m.–4 p.m. The GIGA Information Centre is closed again at least until the end of January 2021. This also affects the limited operation (ordering by e-mail and lending).
Contact
Phone: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-580
Email: iz@giga-hamburg.de
Service
Borrowing
A weekend loan service from Friday till Tuesday is available; however, an ID card or equivalent document must be presented to use this service.
Inter-library loaning
A regular inter-library loan service
Books: Four-week loan period
Journal articles: Preparation of photocopies (up to 20 pages free of charge, larger quantities € 0.30 + 19 per cent VAT per page, payment in advance)
Facilities
In each regional library there are:
user workplaces
computers with free Internet access
copier/scanner with USB port
free WiFi (Neuer Jungfernstieg only).
Search
In our online public access catalogue (OPAC) you can find our:
books
papers
book articles
journal articles
magazines
in both printed and electronic form.
You can also search the World Affairs Online (WAO) database, which offers approximately 859,000 titles on international relations and area studies – of which 99,000 have links to online full texts. The WAO is one of the largest social science literature databases in Europe. The catalogue is available in German, English, and French.
More databases
Electronic Journals Library (EZB)
German Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB) for printed journals
Database Information System (DBIS): Here you can find information on bibliographic databases, reference books and encyclopaedias that are managed at the IZ.