Research Tools: KUAC-FM Audiotapes Collection

With funding provided by the Council on Library and Information Resources, 126 hours of recordings from the KUAC-FM Audiotapes Collection held in the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections & Archives at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), have been digitized by the Northeast Document Conservation Center.

The recordings were made by public radio station KUAC-FM in Fairbanks, Alaska, from approximately 1979 to 1997. The digital recordings are now available through the UAF Library Catalog for anyone with an Internet connection.

Topics of national and international significance include Arctic policy, global warming, effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, whaling, dog mushing, interviews with well-known Alaska Native leaders and programs about youth, racism and women in the political process, just to name a few. Additional historical KUAC programs, contained on the 950 open-reel audiotapes that make up the full collection, will also be made available as funding permits.

The easiest way to access the recordings is to do a series search for them in the library catalog. Series include:

• Conversations (65 recordings)
• Fairbanks Arts Review (10 recordings)
• Homefires (22 recordings)
• I Didn’t Know That (6 recordings)
• Newsmaster (58 recordings)
• Northern Storyteller (21 recordings)
• Straight Talk (12 recordings)
• Sunday at Noon (21 recordings)

Use this finding aid to locate and listen to the recordings.

1. Start at the Rasmuson Library homepage (https://libguides.library.uaf.edu/) and click the Library Catalog tab.
    
2. Then click the link to the Library Catalog. 
   
    
3. Using the first drop down menu, select UAF Rasmuson & BioSciences Library and from second drop down menu select Series. Type in the name of the series you want to access, in this example its is conversations, and click Search.
   
   
    
4. Using the Author filter on the left, check KUAC (Radio Station) and click Include.
   
    
5. To listen to the recording, select Click here to listen to audio.