Alaska's Digital Archives

If there's anything you have ever wanted to know about Alaska, I recommend visiting the state's digital archives. Culled from the holdings of ten universities, museums and archival organizations, the impressive collection includes albums, oral histories, moving images, maps, documents and physical objects.

Collection Principles:

Specifics regarding the reasons for the selections are not included, but links to the various contributing organizations are provided. According to the site's 'About' section, the archives is federally funded and is intended to give an overview of the state's history.

Object Characteristics:

Searching features on the site are terrific. Browsing may be done using keywords, and the digital objects may be sorted by institution, subject matter or medium. You can also assemble a page of favorites. The photos are presented as jpgs and may be viewed with the browser; oral histories and film clips are presented with standard audio and video players, so downloading any applications is unlikely. The objects are organized using content digital management; in other words, they are listed in a table under the following headings: title, subject and description.

Metadata:

Compared to the other sites I've reviewed thus far, the metadata is terrific. As applicable, each image includes a collection name, an identifier, a title, a description, its original creator, the subject TGM, a corporate name, the location and region, the period during which the image was taken, and the type. Ordering information is also provided. Each descriptor is also a link to a collection of objects sharing that characteristic. Actual dimensions are included with the physical objects.

Intended Audience:

The site is for researchers, but it's also of interest to anyone wanting to know more about Alaska.