Project Jukebox to add "Sea Ice in Barrow" based on traditional knowledge

Posted: June 27, 2013

Project Jukebox, the digital branch of the Oral History Program [http://jukebox.uaf.edu/site7/project/532] at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, has received a grant from the North Pacific Research Board to create a new multimedia segment, “Sea Ice in Barrow.” The $61,205 grant will allow staff from UAF’s Elmer E. Rasmuson Library to record interviews in the Barrow area, and to transcribe exisiting interviews conducted by other researchers.

Project Jukebox was created as a way to integrate oral history recordings with associated photographs, maps, and text. It currently consists of more than 35 projects from throughout Alaska, each specific to a topic or an area. Library staff are working to make the recordings in the oral history collection digitally available.

The Oral History Program is part of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections of UAF’s Elmer E. Rasmuson Library. The program was established in 1981 to collect and curate audio and video recordings that relate to various aspects of Alaska’s history. The collection contains over 9000 individual tapes, including interviews with politicians, pioneers, and Native elders.

Key collections include “Alaska Native Songs and Legends” by the Alaska Library Association, “Early Day Alaskans” by the Tanana-Yukon Historical Society, “The Alaska Native Elders-In-Residence Program” by the UAF Alaska Native Studies Department, and “On the Road Recordings with Old Timers” funded by British Petroleum Corporation.

For more information, visit jukebox.uaf.edu/site7.