Eighty years ago, in 1939, the University of Florida opened the Inter-American Reading Room. The forerunner to the present-day Latin American and Caribbean Collection began through exchanges with other institutions around the hemisphere. We still find in LACC today stamps that indicate that items were received through this important system of exchange (“canje” in Spanish). From these humble origins, LACC has grown into a collection of more than 500,000 books, periodicals, microforms, and digital items.