Tundra Times Photograph Project

Project Name and URL:

Tundra Times Photograph Project located at http://tundratimes.ilisagvik.cc/

Organization Name:

This small project is put on by the Ilisagvik College located at the Tuzzy Consortium Library.

Description of what was Digitized:

The Tundra Times was a biweekly newspaper from 1962-1997 that gave information to natives that were looking to empower their native people. This project looks to take a leading reporter on Alaskan Native life, and make its photographs that were placed in the newspaper during the course of its life open to the public in a digital repository.

Audience for the Project:

The Audience for this project could vary from old employees of The Tundra Times who are interested in their old photographs, also Natives or those interested in the Native movement and the publications that supported it. It appeals to the general public as well as modern researchers on Native tribes in Alaska.

Type of Project Background Information Available on Site:

The website contains a helpful history on the project itself, their goals as an organization and where they are on their project. I was surprised of the exciting story about Native oppression and the rise of a newspaper that helped bring that oppression to the forefront of Alaskan news. It all makes for a neat history of a project that goes beyond just digitization and preservation and allows for patrons to really connect with the projects content.

Metadata present:

The Metadata is somewhat unique because of the tribal content contained. Some of their unique metadata is that the images have descriptors like ethnicity of the photographer of the image, the caption from the original newspaper production, the number on their Free CDs that they give out containing all the images.

Additional Information:

The search bar is old fashioned and the website looks like it was made in the 90s, but that does not detract from the content. Some of the photographs contained in the digital repository tell their own unique stories revolving around Native political rights. Each image also asks if the patron viewing the image can answer any of the missing data on the image, which I think is a very cool feature.