My group works in the Special Collections library about six months out of the year. We head to the cool air conditioned library when it gets too hot or when it is too cold. This averages out to about seven months at the library and five months on cemetery grounds. I wish it was the other way around. However I cannot ask my wonderful volunteers to walk cemeteries when it is 80+ degrees, nor when it gets below 45 degrees. All of them are so gracious and never complain about heat or cold, but it isn't fair to them.
So off to the ever-so-gracious library we go when the going gets tough. The staff provides us with a room to work in that has tables, chair, heat and air conditining! Since 2004 we have worked as a group in this room and transcribed roughly 96 notebooks full of old death records. I tried to figure out how many pages we've written but lost count long ago. But it is roughly 470 cemeteries worth of records! That is a lot!
The records at this special library are the history of New Mexico, as well as other states but mainly New Mexico. There are records from about 1735 to about 1980. It is these old death records from mortuaries, Archdiocesan records, church and tribal records that we painstakingly write down. Month after month, year after year, we have transcribed these records which are eventually given back to the library as well as uploaded to the internet.
While Rich and I were on a month-long cruise to South America, I was notified that this special place would be closing down, perhaps for up to a year. It seems it must be renovated - you know, asbestos, lead and other disagreeable things removed from walls. But instead of shutting the library for a month or so, the head honchos have decided to CLOSE! There is a small chance they would move some of the New Mexicana book collection to the main library. My group does not want to go to Main. There is no parking and the homeless sleep in that library!
I wrote a letter along with a petition to sign to send to Mayor Berry. The rumors are that there isn't much that can be done - it is a given that it will close?!
