Digging in – Archives Acquisitions from Start to Finish – Southwest Voter Registration Education Project/Willie C. Velasquez Records

Did you ever wonder how archival collections go from someone’s garage, attic, or storage unit to being available in one of UTSA Libraries Special Collections’ reading rooms? In the months to come, we will reveal how the process of acquiring, appraising, processing, and describing a collection unfolds. Photographs of site visits and archives work spaces will offer a visual chronicle behind-the-scenes at UTSA Special Collections as we take custody of our largest collection ever–the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project/Willie C. Velasquez records.

First site visit to storage facility housing SVREP/WCVI records

On our first visit to the storage facility, the task in front of us seemed a little daunting! How do you go from a mountainous pile of boxes to record cartons neatly places on shelves? There is only one way to handle this challenge–one box at a time. Before we began the process of digging in, we needed to take a…