October is American Archives month and the College of University Libraries and Learning Sciences (CULLS) is celebrating by showcasing the many archival collections available to the UNM Community. CULLS is also celebrating with the introduction of a new archival system adopted by the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections earlier this month.
The New Mexico Archives Online (NMAO) has replaced the Rocky Mountain Online Archive (RMOA), which previously hosted finding aids, a descriptive tool used by archival repositories and special collections libraries to describe the primary source collections in their holdings.
All of the New Mexico repositories that participated in RMOA have their finding aids in NMAO. This includes 18 different repositories from around the state. These institutions represent many different types of archives – academic, state, and museums. This new system makes it easy to search for historical materials across all institutions or to filter down to just one repository. Researchers can do a keyword search, or can search for a specific name or subject. The NMAO is based on current archival standards and was developed by a community of archival users. The software that it is built upon is used by repositories all over the world, including at Yale University, Columbia University, and Oxford University.
With NMAO, UNM along with NMSU is taking a lead on a statewide initiative to make the contents of archival repositories more accessible.
The University Libraries of UNM has extensive collections to support the educational and research mission of the University, as well as numerous distinctive collections. These include:
Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections
Government Information
Latin American Collections
Maps and Geographic Information Center
New Mexico Digital Collections
University Archives
UNM Digital Repository