The majority of the archival processing undertaken here in Archives and Special Collections (ASC) is done by students who work part-time in the New Mexico State University Library. Students come to work in the department through work-study awards or for internship credit. Without their labor and skills, the backlog of unprocessed archival collections would grow rapidly, causing a delay in the accessibility of primary source materials, thereby inhibiting students and researchers from producing scholarship using ASC holdings. The staff of ASC value our students and acknowledge the vital role they play in accomplishing departmental goals. ASC is lucky to have ten talented student-colleagues working alongside the staff during the fall 2022 semester.
Several students are currently assisting with the processing of the Wendell Chino papers (Ms0509). Chino served as tribal chair and president of the Mescalero Apache Tribe (MAT) in southern New Mexico for more than 43 years. His papers offer a significant insider’s view of Apache and American Indian politics during the mid-to-late 20th century. To make the 93 boxes of documents, photographs, recordings, and artifacts publicly available takes a team of people employing archival skills and techniques. A complex series of steps and processes is undertaken by students, under the supervision of trained archivists, to best organize and preserve this priceless and unique body of records. Once the collection is arranged and described, or in other words, organized with a written guide to the materials, the papers can be fully accessed by all interested parties.
Ruidoso News, January 14, 1985, p.1A
Within the Chino papers are hundreds of newspapers, newsletters, magazines, and journals from the 1960s-1990s with articles that directly quote Chino, describe MAT activities, or discuss indigenous issues. This published information would be hard for a researcher to track down independently, and thus offer a wealth of detail found within the Chino papers. Much of the newspaper coverage comes from regional publications like the Ruidoso News, Alamogordo Daily News, Albuquerque Journal, and El Paso Herald-Post. As some of these newspapers no longer exist and their digital or microfilm availability is limited or behind paywalls, it was determined to keep these news clippings even though they would require further attention.
Here is where our students stepped in and began their work. Because most of these news clippings are found on brittle, deteriorating, and easily torn newsprint, students were tasked with photocopying the articles onto acid-free archival paper. This preservation step was done not only to reduce the overall bulk of the collection, but also to provide initial researcher access, setting up the material to be digitized in the future, pending copyright clearance. Over six bankers boxes full of clippings were sorted by publication and then reviewed for appropriate content. Some articles had been cut/torn out of the newspaper by Chino or his administrative staff, fully intact, however, many articles included the surrounding articles, the full page, or even the entire paper. Thus, students had to quickly review this material to determine what article(s) should be copied. Keywords and topics they searched for included:
Student Shayla Whitaker reviews issues of the Alamogordo Daily News for articles on Wendell Chino.
When the students were not able to determine why the newsprint had been saved, ASC staff also reviewed the material. Having marked which items should be saved, students next used an HP Color LaserJet Enterprise Flow MFP M776 to copy the article onto archival paper. This often required using the copier’s many features to get the color, reduction, and size correct. If the copy did not manage to capture the newspaper’s title, date, and page number, then students had to write that information within brackets in the upper right-hand corner of the copy with a number 2 pencil. With the news clippings successfully copied, the original could be recycled and the new copy filed chronologically in an archival folder that housed all the publication’s articles from a particular year.
Student Joshua Cdebaca copies newspaper articles onto archival paper.
The description above provides insight in the labor, care, and attention to detail necessary to preserve historical records and make them accessible to researchers. This is but one workflow that makes up processing the Wendell Chino papers. In the coming months this blog will acknowledge other student labor and detail their workflow and progress with this amazing manuscript collection.
Archival folder containing photocopied articles from the Ruidoso News 1965.
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