Omaha, Nebraska

The largest known Chuck Hagel archive is located here, at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. But good luck accessing it: Despite intense national focus on the defense secretary nominee’s record, this reporter was shunned from taking a look inside the trove of Hagel’s videos, audio recordings, documents, pictures, and artifacts.

James T. Shaw, director of collections and the government documents librarian here, insists Tuesday morning he is not “stonewalling” efforts to gain access to Hagel’s record. Preventing immediate access, he says, is imperative for the academic integrity of the institution. A trained archivist has not yet organized the entire record, Shaw explains.