PRESENTATION:
NETTIE LEE BENSON LATIN AMERICAN
COLLECTION CD-ROM

In summer 2001, during a meeting of senior officials from the University of Texas at Austin and the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores in Mexico City, the question was raised about how one of the largest and most distinguished bibliographic collections on Mexico - the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin - might be made more accessible to the people in Mexico. After all, the origins of the collection were founded in two major private Mexican collections purchased by University officials in 1921 and 1937. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century with the advantages of ever-wider access to electronic information systems, wasn't it possible to consider ways in which access to the collection could be enjoyed by a wider readership?

This CD-ROM is the first step in that direction. While the catalog of the Collection has been available on-line for many years, the actual collection itself was not. In the medium to long-term it is anticipated that large sections of the Benson Collection will be digitized and made available on-line. In the meantime, however, SRE and UT-Austin are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate in order to disseminate more widely than ever before a full appreciation of the breadth and depth of the Collection. This includes an example of one of its most widely consulted materials --the Lucas Alamán Archive. Also, in the hope of encouraging greater use of the Collection, the SRE and the University are proud to announce new funding opportunities to encourage short-term visits for Mexican researchers to use the Collection.

Following this introduction the readers will find brief descriptions of the Latin American and Mexican Resources at the University, Funding for Travel, and other topics usually accompanied by hot links  to resources on campus. But the greater part of this CD Rom is dedicated to a detailed description of the Benson Latin American Collection, and to a presentation of one of its major archives on Mexico. The University is proud to have the opportunity to collaborate with the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores, and greatly appreciates the Mexican Government's part-sponsorship of the costs of producing this CD Rom, thereby making this and other University resources more widely available to the people of Mexico.