Alaska Digital Newspaper Program

FAIN: PJ-287886-22

Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums (Juneau, AK 99801-1878)
Anastasia L. Tarmann (Project Director: January 2022 to September 2022)
Freya Anderson (Project Director: September 2022 to present)

Digitization of 100,000 pages of Alaska newspapers, published prior to 1963, as part of the state’s continuing participation in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

The Alaska State Library requests funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize Alaska’s microfilmed newspapers for the Alaska Digital Newspaper Project. Through this cycle, the Alaska Digital Newspaper Project will identify new titles and extend runs of previously identified titles, with a focus on digitizing mid-century newspapers. During this period of history newspapers reported on capital industrialism and militarism that greatly expanded the scope of natural resource development and socio-economic issues. Significant historical events during this period were the Great Depression, WWII, the Cold War, nuclear testing, Alaska Statehood, the Tuberculosis epidemic, and civil rights achievements of Alaska Natives and labor groups. This cycle will focus on locating issues of several smaller but significant titles such as the Alaska Spotlight, possibly the only African American newspaper produced in the state. Other papers of interest are newspapers in rural villages