The primary goal of this project is to provide the people of the North Slope, as well as Alaska Natives and researchers in Alaska and beyond, with access to the articles which appeared in the Tundra Times newspaper over a 35-year period from 1962 to 1997. This important resource which documents the history of Alaska Natives and their pivotal political struggles during this period of intense change has never been indexed. The project will additionally enhance the ongoing projects being conducted by the Tuzzy Consortium Library to digitize the entire photograph collection of the newspaper.

The project objectives are to digitize the microfilm of the 35-year run of the weekly Tundra Times newspaper, create a full text index to the articles with links to the scanned newspaper images, to provide the Alaska Periodicals Index with 3000 indexing records, and to develop local talent in advanced library technology practices. The Library will capitalize on existing technology to accomplish these objectives and will do so in the environment of a small, remote library. Training for staff in the most current indexing techniques, support from a consultant and from the Alaska State Library and Rasmuson Library at the University of Alaska Fairbanks will guide Library staff to achieve and maintain nationally recognized standards for access to digital collections and newspaper indexing.

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Project Staff