The collection has been designated by the Place Name Survey of the United States as a research center for the study of place names. Scholars from all over the world have made in queries of the materials and receive the bibliography which we publish semiannually. 3a Materials on both personal and place names are purchased regularly. The current focus is to increase materials on Southwest, Mexico, Latin American, and American Indian Names. Resources on Mexico and Latin America are difficult to locate.
Foreign vendors assist in building the collection by watching for materials that fit our criteria.
Faculty from other institutions, name society members, and researchers in the field are active donors to this collection. We need to collect additional materials on personal and place names of the Southwest, Mexico, Latin America and American Indian Names. Additional manuscript resources from people working in the field of Onomastics are needed to give the collection more depth. International journals on onomastics are also necessary to build to a level 4 collection. The reference collection includes dictionaries, indices and bibliographies in both English and Spanish.