A trip to UNLV’s Lied Library for Leadership Las Vegas’ Annual History & Arts Day turned into a significant donation to support efforts to document and preserve the history of Las Vegas by Mark and Marianne Haley.
The Haleys, who have previously supported programs at the UNLV University Libraries, chose to support UNLV’s Special Collections & Archives and the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada project after learning about the Libraries’ innovative and proactive efforts to collect and preserve the region’s history.
“As a history buff, getting more exposure to the libraries gave us an opportunity to learn more about the projects happening in Special Collections and Archives,” said Mark Haley, President of Smart City Networks.
Director of Special Collections & Archives Michelle Light provided the Haleys with a behind-the-scenes tour of Special Collections & Archives, housed in Lied Library, and introduced the couple to the students and staff working on Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada, an oral history project to include more stories of Southern Nevada’s Latinx residents in the region’s historical record.
“We appreciate the generous investment that the Haleys have made to help us record and preserve the unique history of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada,” said Light. “The support of community members enables projects like Latinx Voices to grow in scale and add more diversity to the stories we collect.”
The Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada project will receive the bulk of the donation, which will be used to fund four students working on the project through Summer 2019. The additional funds will be used to hire a graduate student assistant to work on processing collections that have been donated to Special Collections & Archives.
“We greatly appreciate the generosity of Mark and Marianne in supporting the important work happening in the University Libraries,” said Maggie Farrell, Dean of University Libraries. “This donation will provide opportunities to make additional stories and resources documenting our region’s history available to researchers and future generations of Southern Nevada residents.”
The Haleys join the National Endowment for the Humanities, MGM Resorts International, the Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial, NV Energy, and a number of individual donors in supporting the Latinx Voices project.
“This in a really important project being conducted by young Latinos who are collecting this history and learning stories about their own culture,” said Mark Haley. “We really wanted to be involved with this project to give students an opportunity to learn more about the history of Las Vegas and to be involved in these projects in Special Collections & Archives and the University Libraries.”
- Learn more about the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada project.
- Learn more about Special Collections & Archives at University Libraries.
Donate to the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada project, Special Collections & Archives, or to the University Libraries.