Paulita Aguilar is the first curator of the Indigenous Nations Library Program at the University of New Mexico Libraries. Aguilar is a New Mexico native from Santo Domingo Pueblo. She has been a reference librarian for five years, working at Albuquerque TVI Libraries and UNM’s Zimmerman Library.
Aguilar says the Indigenous Nations program already offers a lecture series each semester and works with individual faculty members to familiarize Native American students with ways of conducting research in a large library system.
She says they also offer bibliographic instruction to students and community members throughout the state.
Aguilar says she is now talking with tribal librarians around the state, trying to figure out how to do lending through tribal libraries, and she will work on setting up a contact network so that the program can act as an information clearing house for tribes and students.
She says New Mexico is one of the few states that set aside money for tribal libraries.
Currently the INLP program is building a collection of books and videos to support teaching faculty at the university in the areas of Indian gaming, tourism and language revitalization.
Aguilar is also collaborating with the New Mexico State Library on planning a May 2006 conference on tribal government archives, libraries and museums.
Contact: Karen Wentworth, (505) 277-5627; e-mail: kwent2@unm.edu
Posted by kwentworth at December 9, 2005 09:29 AM