University Library News Release
Date: August 18, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jeanette Smith, NMSU Library, (575) 646-7492, jcsmith@lib.nmsu.edu
NMSU Library Gears Up to Process Domenici Archives
Thirty tons of documents and memorabilia chronicling the legacy of U.S. Senator Pete V. Domenici have arrived at the New Mexico State University Library. 2,218 boxes, or 1,923 linear feet, are currently being stored at Branson Library in a controlled access area. If the single sheets of paper were stacked on top of one another it would stretch more than a quarter-mile high.
Archives and Special Collections Department Head Stephen Hussman said that he expects a steady stream of additional boxes to arrive at the Library until the end of the year. The Library will receive more printed materials and electronic documents as well as awards and photos from the senator's offices in New Mexico and Washington, D.C.
Private tours of the Domenici Archives are being offered to attendees of this week's Domenici Conference on the NMSU campus.
Three library staff members are assigned the task of organizing the collection. Political Papers Archivist Cary Osborne and Library Specialist II Cecelia Carrasco have been hired, and a search is being conducted for a third staffer.
"These are primary research documents. We have a goal to make as much of the information available to the public as possible," said Library Dean Elizabeth Titus.
Eventually, NMSU plans to construct a building named for Domenici on campus where the Library can house the Domenici Archives and make many of the documents available to researchers and scholars. The building and a tranquility garden named for the senator's wife, Nancy, will be located between the Business Complex and University Avenue.
The Library already houses a number of political papers, including those of former New Mexico governor and current NMSU Business Dean Garrey Carruthers and former U.S. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall.
For more information, contact Hussman at (575) 646-3839.
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