New Mexico Administrative Code
Title 1 - GENERAL GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
Chapter 13 - PUBLIC RECORDS
Part 40 - PRIVATE COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Section 1.13.40.8 - BACKGROUND
The commission of public records (commission) was created by the New Mexico legislature in 1959 and assigned the responsibility for the care, custody, preservation and disposition of public records created by state, county and local governments. The state records center and archives (SRCA) is the facility established by the commission to fulfill its statutory mandate. The SRCA currently houses public records from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of state government, including documents dating from New Mexico's Spanish (1621-1821), Mexican (1821-1846), and territorial (1846-1912) periods of history. The archives also maintains an extensive collection of personal papers which have been donated by families, attorneys, political figures and benevolent organizations. A collection policy is a standard archives practice for publicly declaring an archives's intent to collect documents that pertain to certain subject areas, geographical areas, languages, or physical forms of material.