Special Collections Library

423 Central Ave. NE (corner of Edith and Central
Albuquerque, NM 87102 [locator map]
(505) 848-1376
Email questions to SpecialCollections@cabq.gov

Library Hours:
Tuesday through Saturday- 10 AM -6 PM
Closed on Sundays, Mondays and holidays.

---

The Special Collections Library of the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System houses research collections on genealogy and New Mexico history and culture. The 1925 Pueblo/Spanish Revival-style building is a registered Albuquerque landmark in the historic Huning-Highlands neighborhood. As a research library, materials are available for in-house use only. Photocopiers are available. Parking is available on Edith and other residential streets, and in the parking garage by Old Albuquerque High School on Arno NE.

What you will find @ Special Collections:

• Exhibits
• Special Events
• Genealogy Collection Highlights
• Genealogical Societies
• New Mexico collection Highlights
• Center for the Book | NEW! Traveling Trunks

Exhibits:

Albuquerque: A History in Postcards: View postcards online

 

EXHIBIT

Minding Your Bindings – the Care and Repair of Your Personal Library. The exhibit addresses why and how bookbindings fail, how they can be repaired, and how to avert problems through careful handling and storage. In addition an illustrated vocabulary of book binding terms is displayed. The exhibit shows the condition and repair of fourteen different books in various stages of disrepair selected from our inventory. Photos of the books before repair are shown in detail. The factors underlying repair options, tools, techniques, and materials used for each book, are then discussed and the appropriate repairs are shown.

Alan Shallete, conservationist and fundraiser for the Maxwell Museum has devoted his time and efforts in prepating this exhibit for your enjoyment and enlightenment. For more information call (505) 848-1376.

 

jump to: top | Exhibits | Events | Genealogy Collection | Societies | NM Collection |Center for the Book

Special Events

Saturday 12/5- 1:00-2:30 PM, The Center for the Book

Blessing Way Stories: A Chautauqua presentation by Sunny Dooley.

Sunny Dooley is a Native Dine storyteller from Chil’Tah (Where the Oaks Grow) in the Four Corners Area. These stories have been passed down through her matrilineal clan, the Saltwater People. They are the social version of the sacred chants of the Dine and are only told from October through early March. Ms. Dooley is the first to interpret these stories for a broader audience and has told these stories throughout North America, Europe, & Africa.

Did you ever wonder where Tony Hillerman got the inspiration for his first Navajo Mystery – “The Blessing Way”? Then come join us in welcoming Sunny on December 5 and hear the worldview of the Dine and their relationships to their surroundings and perhaps you, too, may be inspired! This is a FREE event sponsored by NM Endowment for the Humanities and the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library System.

 

1. Genealogy Collection Highlights

Home to New Mexico's largest genealogical collection, Special Collections has nearly 22,000 genealogy books, over 16,000 microforms, approximately 2,500 compact discs and almost 300 current periodical titles. The collection is particularly strong in New Mexico genealogy, but the library also holds substantial records and resources from other states. The Library has immigration and ships' passenger lists, the Periodical Resource Index (PERSI), and a large assortment of family genealogies. Donations of individual family histories are welcomed.

Lineage books from the Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of Founders and Patriots, Daughters of American Colonists, the Mayflower Society, and other major resources from the American Colonial and Revolutionary War periods are available.

Federal census records for the entire United States from 1790 through 1930 are available. There are partial censuses for New Mexico from the Spanish and Mexican periods and special censuses for Native Americans of the Southwest, including the Dawes Rolls from Oklahoma.  

Several computers are available for public use. Two library computer terminals provide Internet access using the Library System's SmartCard. Four dedicated genealogy computers feature CD-ROM databases of census records and other valuable resources.  Local volunteers have compiled databases such as indexed vital records in Albuquerque newspapers, 1888-1896; indexed obituaries from the Albuquerque Journal for most years from 1908 to the present, scanned texts of Albuquerque Journal obituaries from 1930 to the present; the New Mexico Death Index from 1899-1945, and a partial statewide cemetery index.

Three important genealogy databases are available only at Special Collections Library with your Library SmartCard: Ancestry Library Edition, Heritage Quest Online and Origins Network Database.

The Library has a comprehensive collection on New Mexico genealogy, including the Spanish Archives of New Mexico, the Mexican Archives of New Mexico, Land Grant Records, and the Territorial Archives on microfilm. Civil War pension records for New Mexico and county records for the Territorial period are also available.  All publications of the New Mexico Genealogical Society are owned, as are the works of Fray Angelico Chavez. The Dreesen files provide information on the original settlers of the Rio Abajo prior to 1900. There are newspapers from the Territorial period, and Albuquerque city directories dating back to the 1880s. A collection of 16th century Spanish passenger lists, Pasajeros a las Indias, is available on microfilm.

The library has a complete collection of the Archives of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. These records extend as far back as 1678 and as recent as 1956 for some areas. Localresearchers have extracted many of these records and published them in book format.

jump to: top |Exhibits | Events | Genealogy Collection | Societies | NM Collection |Center for the Book

New Mexico Collection Highlights

The New Mexico Collection features nine thousand books on New Mexico history and culture, with an emphasis on the Albuquerque area. Supplementary resources include over 200 regional periodicals (current and defunct), a complete set of topographical maps for the state, other historic maps, City of Albuquerque documents, pamphlets, postcards, and biographical information. Special files include archival materials on Ernie Pyle and Professor Dorothy Cline, and a centennial history of the Albuquerque Public Library. Periodic exhibits feature local history materials from our collection and from other sources.

Center for the Book

Special Collections also houses the Center for the Book, a working classroom on the history of books, writing and printing. It features working replicas of early printing presses, late-Nineteenth and early-Twentieth Century presses and examples of ancient and modern books, including clay tablets, papyrus, miniature books and illuminated manuscripts. For information about tours, call 848-1376.