New Mexico Librarian Enlivens the Research Experience Among Native Students: Growing up, Paulita Aguilar developed a love for books and a reliance on librarians that she now grooms among American Indian and other college students who lacked the resources she had available.Aguilar is curator of the University of New Mexico’s Indigenous Nations Library Program (INLP), mandated to increase information literacy and research skills among tribal students, who make up 6 percent of the flagship campus in Albuquerque.
Before college, many of them only knew modest, single-room libraries that sometimes did not employ a staff librarian. Consequently, UNM’s four libraries, which are cavernous enough to house more than 1 million volumes, can seem overwhelming, especially to freshmen.
