What's New In Special Collections

Six Secrets from Special Collections with Sarah Jones

UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives Visiting Technical Services Librarian Sarah Jones

In our Secrets from Special Collections series, UNLV Libraries Special Collections and Archives staff members divulge what they consider to be the hidden gems of the library, sharing answers, based on their own experiences, to six intriguing questions. Here, Visiting Special Collections & Archives Technical Services Librarian Sarah Jones gives us a glimpse into life working among the rare treasures of the library.

1. When you first began working in Special Collections and…Read More

The Robert Woodruff Collection Exhibit

Woodruff collection image

With the construction of Hoover Dam all but finished, and the gaming and tourisms industries still in their infancy, the future of Las Vegas in 1937 held no certainties. But to young Robert Woodruff, fresh out of college in Ohio, it was a place of great possibility and great beauty. To him, it was the perfect place to build a life. All it needed was a promoter, a champion, someone to sing Las Vegas’ praises. And Woodruff knew he was that person.

UNLV University Libraries Special Collections and Archives’ new exhibit, The Robert Woodruff Collection, is located in the Flo Mlynarczyk Gallery on the third floor of UNLV’s Lied Library and will run through the…Read More

Las Vegas Centennial Commission Awards $50K Grant for Latinx Voices Project

LatinX Voices logo

The Las Vegas Centennial Commission has awarded University Libraries a $50,000 grant to support the Latinx Voices of Southern Nevada project.

“We appreciate that the members of the Las Vegas Centennial Commission are investing in this project to add more perspectives from Latinx communities to our historical records on Las Vegas and Southern Nevada,” said Maggie Farrell, Dean of the UNLV University Libraries. “With approximately 29 percent of our region’s residents and 25 percent of the UNLV student population identifying as Latinx, this project will help Special Collections and Archives preserve a more inclusive historical record for Southern Nevada.”

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Digital Collections Receives $80K LSTA Grant to Support Large-Scale Digitization Training

The UNLV University Libraries Digital Collections department has received an $80,685 Library Services and Technology Act Grant to support a large-scale digitization project.

“We appreciate the support from the Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records in funding this project to further our work on large-scale digitization efforts,” said Maggie Farrell, Dean of the UNLV University Libraries. “These projects help us quickly provide access to historical documents and photographers for researchers around the globe.”

The project, “Building the Pipelines: Large-Scale Digitization Models for Nevada Cultural Heritage,” will build upon UNLV University Libraries’ existing efforts to ramp up digitization capacity across the state of Nevada.

“‘Building the Pipelines’ not only focuses on the digitization and online delivery of archival collections using a rapid-capture digitization practice, but also enables us to document and share our digitization models…Read More

Collection Highlight: Lifting the Lid on Early Photograph Albums by Melise Leech

Crowd watching sporting event at park opening in Los Angeles, CA, c. 1911

Melise Leech is an archival processing assistant  in UNLV Libraries Special Collections & Archives. 

Among the many interesting, unique, and important photograph collections in the UNLV Special Collections and Archives there are also smaller collections holding photographs that – while perhaps not as historically important– offer a glimpse of the lives and times of the people who owned them. These small collections hold photographs that open a window into what their owners considered important;…Read More

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