Construction workers uncover time capsule

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Library staff at the University of New Mexico received a blast from the past when construction workers knocked out part of a wall and found pieces of library history.

Inside the Centennial Science and Engineering Library, work is underway on a new math learning lab. But recently, construction workers found something they weren't expecting in one of the walls.

A couple newspapers, CD-ROMs, learning guides and paper indexes were all preserved in the walls of Centennial Library in a time capsule.

"You know, time marches on," associate dean of facilities and access Services for university's libraries, Nancy Dennis, said. "In the 1990s, technology was being implemented on campus and the library employees here were the first on campus to actually offer email system."

Part of Centennial Library had to be remodeled for the Information Age and library staff was in the process of transitioning from paper to electronic. Dennis says staff sashed the time capsule in the wall in early 1996.

Nearly 17 years later, much of that staff has retired or moved on and no one remembered the time capsule in the wall.

"I wouldn't say it was historic or old enough to be considered antique or anything like that," Dennis said. "But it's of interest to those of us who have been in the profession for more than this many years, or even some of the new folks who weren't here in '95."

The fate of the time capsule's contents is still up in the air, but Dennis says there's a good chance they could add to it, and put it back for future library staff to find.

Dennis says another option is adding the recovered documents to the UNM archives.