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Two digitization events to collect Las Vegas residents’ photographs and memories from the 1960s to the 1990s, a period in which the city experienced a nearly 300 percent increase in population.  The project would be managed by Vegas PBS in collaboration with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives unit and the Las Vegas Valley Water District’s Springs Preserve, a 180-acre cultural institution featuring museums, galleries, and a botanical garden.  One event, hosted during a popular “community free day” at Springs Preserve, would solicit original photographs, slides, and negatives from the public, as well as offer presentations by a UNLV Libraries curator and a local historian.  With donor permission, the personal photographs would be made available through the UNLV Libraries’ digital portal and would complement their existing holdings from architects and developers on the city’s growth.

Las Vegas stands as a prominent national example of an expansive and expanding planned community void of any common heritage. Vegas PBS, UNLV University Libraries, and the Las Vegas Valley Water District will collaborate on Building Las Vegas. This project will engage community members in collections/digitization events, public programs, and public access collections. In addition to digital collections, this collaboration will also capture video stories and continue public access beyond the events via physical exhibits, digital collection portals, and public service media platforms. The intent of this project is to provide community members with greater context and a better understanding of how Las Vegas’s unique history, environment, and growth helps to shape our own equally unique social and cultural identity. The project timeline is from January 2019 to April 2020.