The UNO Criss Library Archives & Special Collections collects, preserves, and makes available to the university community and the public unique, rare, and specialized material. This includes personal papers, organizational records, books, maps, ephemera, and other material in selected subject areas including the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection, University Archives, U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel Archives, and Special Collections & Rare Books.
You can learn more about finding and using material in Criss Library Archives & Special Collections online and we encourage you to contact us about your research.
Whether you're working on a paper for a class, producing a film, writing a book, planning a retirement celebration for a UNO colleague, or researching a campus history project, Archives & Special Collections has the resources for your project. We are also able to host classes in Archives & Special Collections, visit your classroom, and offer tours for groups.
OU cheerleaders sending off the football team to the Tangerine Bowl, December 1954.
Credit: UNO Photograph Collection, Archives & Special Collections, Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Library, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
The U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel Archives contains approx. 800 cubic feet of paper and photos, misc. digital records, and hundreds of artifacts, digital video and audio files. The fourteen series listed on this page are available for use as of 2022. Issue mail, clippings, and misc. digital records are currently being arranged and described by archivists and students and will become available following their work.
These papers reflect the complex relationship between individuals and state and federal governments. Issues of regional and national importance play out in the interactions among branches of government, within and across party lines in the Senate, and in the Senator’s representation of constituents. Hagel served on several committees addressing domestic and international issues, though his papers cover almost every issue that arose in legislation or in Nebraska. Significant events during his service include impeachment proceedings, the contested 2000 presidential election, September 11, U.S. involvement in two wars, and economic challenges.
Newspaper articles, government documents, 400+ books (available in Archives & Special Collections), and other related material may be found searching the UNO Libraries catalog.
On October 8, 2008, at the kick-off of UNO's centennial celebration, Chancellor John Christensen announced that U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel would donate his papers and artifacts to his alma mater. 1700 boxes of paper and photos, hundreds of VHS and artifacts, and 400+ books arrived from his D.C. and Nebraska offices arrived in December and the work of arrangement and description began.
A large collection of UNO Masters, Senior Honors, and Writer's Workshop theses and Ph.D. dissertations is also located in Archives & Special Collections. One copy of each thesis or dissertation, usually the original, is retained in University Archives and may not be circulated. A second copy is sent to the general circulating collection which can be located via the Criss Library Catalog or available electronically via the library's Electronic Thesis and Disserations service.
Theses and dissertations from UNL are available from DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln and through inter-library loan requests.