Well folks, a new opportunity arose for the Archives in the final quarter of last year – we received funds through Congressionally Directed Spending to focus the next three or so years on improved description and digitization of lands-related collections in our holdings! This project also allows Becky Butler Gallegos to extend her contract with the Archives AND adds an archives technician position to the department. I (Becky) am a big fan of that! I’m also invested in making collections more easily accessible to our community; this project supports that mission.
A slide from Don Grybeck’s collection. Grybeck was a geologist for UAF and USGS. He captioned this photo, “Looking northwest from near Red Adney’s cabin over Chandalar Lake. 1963-1964.”
So what exactly does this project look like? The Archives identified 18 collections that would benefit from this increased attention. These all touch on lands from various perspectives, including ANCSA land claims, Alaska Native rights to land, land use planning, geology, development, and more. What we need to do with these collections varies as they each have their own needs and quirks, but the ultimate goal is to make them all more findable, searchable, and/or usable digitally. Here’s the list of collections:
Neil C. Johansen Alaska State Parks history; 1970-1995
Helen D. Nienhueser papers; 1960-2023
John L. Beck papers; circa 1967-1984
Victor Fischer papers; 1950-2009
James B. Gottstein Alaska Mental Health Trust Lands litigation records; 1982-1997
Walter Parker papers; circa 1940-2014
Arctic Power records; circa 1978-2003
R. L. Button and Associates records; 1970s-1990s
Joan Elva Corliss papers; 1960s-1970s
Commonwealth North records; 1979-2007
Bob Jones papers; 1924-1998
Alice E. Brown papers; 1965-1973
Alaska Rural Rehabilitation Corporation records; 1921-1970, bulk 1935-1949
Don Grybeck slides; 1955-1996
Fred and Lidia Selkregg papers; circa 1950-2000
RurAL CAP records; 1965-1985
Charles Konigsberg papers; circa 1947-1995
As you can see linked above, many of these collections have a preliminary description on our website. For many of these collections, though, Becky and the archives tech will expand that description. Some need a description PERIOD. These descriptions (or finding aids, in Archives-speak) promote accurate and more comprehensive results appearing in Google or internal website keyword searches. There will be additions to Alaska’s Digital Archives, and there will be digitization of select portions of collections to allow keyword searching within them. We’ll work on digitizing VHS tapes and some audiocassettes; we’ll scan photographs and slides. It’s a LOT of work, and it will keep us busy! We want to use these collections to maximize student archival engagement. The end product will hopefully connect more Alaskans to one of our most precious natural resources – the land.