Eds. Launch event is between 2 and 4 p.m. at the UNLV Tam Alumni Center (enter at S. Maryland Pkwy. at E. Harmon Ave.). On camera interviews are available.

LAS VEGAS--April 27, 2008-- UNLV University Libraries today launched its newest digital reference library, the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project. This collection contains 335 hours of interviews with more than 150 people affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during its 40 years of atmospheric and underground nuclear testing. The Internet-based, publically accessible library includes searchable transcripts, audio and video clips, scanned photographs and images.

"The project provided researchers in the UNLV College of Liberal Arts, including graduate students, the opportunity to meet face to face with a host of individuals and groups who were vital to making history at the Nevada Test Site," said Mary Palevsky, director of the Nevada Test Site Oral History Project. "It is our hope that the collection will contribute to local, state, national and international understandings of the unique and complex story of Cold War nuclear testing in Nevada."

"Our librarians used this significant collection of oral histories to create a one-of-kind digital library, making the full range of perspectives on this critical aspect of our history available for the first time worldwide," said Patricia Iannuzzi, dean, University Libraries. "The fully searchable records will benefit researchers, historians and citizens long into the future."

The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project at UNLV is a comprehensive program dedicated to documenting, preserving and disseminating the remembered past of people affiliated with and affected by the Nevada Test Site during the era of Cold War nuclear testing. From September 2003 through January 2008, a wide range of oral history narrators participated in the project, including national laboratory scientists and engineers; labor trades and support personnel; cabinet-level officials, military personnel and corporate executives; Native American tribal and spiritual leaders; peace activists and protesters; and Nevada ranchers, families and communities. The project is a collaborative effort between the faculty, staff and students of UNLV University Libraries and the UNLV College of Liberal Arts.