About: Collections

The Alaska Film Archives holds more than 10,000 Alaska films and videos available for viewing and use by patrons and researchers.

The Archives contains manuscripts, photographs, maps, letters, diaries, scrapbooks, business records, and other papers with a focus on Alaska and the polar north. Additionally, the Archives is the repository for statewide University of Alaska records, beginning in 1917, and those of the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus.

The Alaska Book and Periodical Collection includes scholarly and literary works, travel literature, dissertations, professional journals, magazines, and microfilmed newspapers emphasizing all aspects of life in Alaska and more generally covering the circumpolar North and Antarctica.

The Oral History Program was established in 1981 to collect, preserve, and provide access to audio and video recordings that provide insight into Alaska's history and the people who have contributed to its heritage.

The Rare Books and Rare Maps collection contains over 5,000 Rare Book volumes on polar exploration and the settlement of Alaska from the 15th to the early 20th century, as well as Rare Maps from 16th-century speculative cartography to the Gold Rush era.

The main collection consists of materials relating to Alaska’s twenty Native languages. The scope is broadly defined to include languages spoken outside of Alaska provided they are also spoken in Alaska.