The Documentation Center was established in 1982 by the then Araracuara Corporation and is specialized in topics related to the Amazon region (socio-economic, environmental, historical aspects, etc.), which establishes it as the information unit with the greatest amount of information about the Amazon.
It holds more than 12,000 records of documents systematized in KOHA library management software, which includes the general collection, institutional memory, magazine articles and the collection of press clippings. In addition to this, it has 70 magazine titles. Through the Documentation Center you can consult the database of the Colombian Amazonian Herbarium´s supportting information unit and make use of the bibliographic resources that are available there.
It is open to the public without any restrictions from Monday to Friday during the Institute's office hours. Those who visit it can consult the database and consult the documents in the area destined for this purpose. Interlibrary loan agreements also exist with university libraries and documentation centers of other entities of interest to the Institute.
The Documentation Center participates in the Network of Documentation Centers of the SINA since 2002, assisting in the events programmed by it, and has welcomed the proposed standardization initiatives.
Documentation Center Services:
a. On-Site Consultation: It is the service through which internal and external users can access the documents of the Center through consultation in the reading room.
b. External Loan: This is the loan that is provided to the internal users of the Institute by which they are allowed to carry a limited number of documents for consultation outside the Institute.
c. Loan to Photocopy: This loan is granted to external users in accordance with the regulations of the Documentation Center.
d. Interlibrary Loan: It is carried out in accordance with the interinstitutional agreements established for this purpose. The procedure is to provide documents to external users belonging to entities with whom the agreement has been established, it is done in writing and the responsibility lies with the entity receiving the document. This loan will have a maximum duration of five working days, renewable according to the requirements of the documents.
e. Reference Service: This service is offered through the guidance of users to obtain the information they require using all means, external and internal in order to facilitate access to information.
f. Bibliographies by Request: It is a service that is performed for internal users, which consists of collecting bibliographical references inside and outside the Institute in order to collect as much information as possible about a topic.
g. Selective Disemination of Information: It is a service that is provided to internal users by means of which information.
h. Internet Consultation: This is a resource that is offered to internal users and works in a similar way to Bibliographies by request.
i. Database Query: It is a basic service that is offered to all users, for which a brief induction is made to the operation of the search system.
j. Long-Term Loan: It is the loaning of documents that have been acquired for a particular project. This loan is made for the duration of the project, at the end of which the documents will enter into the collection of the Documentation Center and will be available to all users.
