ACCESS TO SCHOOL'S FIRST NEWSPAPER MADE EASY WITH ON LINE DATABASE

Fairbanks, Alaska - Stories of college pranksters, professors, and home economics for miners emerge from the 1923-1958 issues of the "Farthest North Collegian." The publication was the first newspaper of the Alaska Agricultural College & School of Mines, which would later become the University of Alaska. With support from the Alaska State Library, the Rasmuson Library has added 3,247 articles to the Alaska Periodical Index.

"Indexing breathes new life into otherwise underutilized publications," said Ron Inouye, editor of the Index.

The Collegian was written at a time when the academic groundwork for northern agriculture, cold-weather mining, natural resources management, Arctic anthropology and northern science was nurtured by dedicated faculty and eager students.

"Researchers will find delightful stories about early pioneers, creative student life and meager institutional budgets that chronicle Alaska’s territorial times," said Inouye.

Microfilm copies of articles available in the state’s major libraries are now more useable with this indexing which provides access by subject, author, geographic region, corporate and personal names to 35 years of the Collegian. The Alaska Periodical Index, an electronic on line database, is available free on the UAF Rasmuson Library web page http://www.uaf.edu/library and via SLED, the statewide electronic doorway, at all Alaska public libraries.