Taos County, New Mexico. Children crowd into the Harwood Branch Library after school at Ranchos. National Archives at College Park [Public domain]
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is the nation's record keeper. Of all documents and materials created in the course of business conducted by the United States Federal government, only 1%-3% are so important for legal or historical reasons that they are kept forever.
Since 1941, NARA has microfilmed Federal records of high research interest to make the records available for researchers while preserving the originals from deterioration and damage from handling.
The New Mexico State Library has many NARA records collections on microfilm; they are organized by record collection number. We have a number of other collections of records that are not a part of the NARA records. Let us know if you need help locating the information you need.