Developing polar networks : Ideas & possibilities for the future

Abstract

Alaska’s geographic location places it at the forefront of research activity and information gathering about the Arctic and the changing environment of the Polar Regions. To facilitate sharing such information with the residents of the state, the Alaska Discovery Portal uses an integrated approach to retrieve materials from for-profit publishers, vetted websites, Alaska’s Digital Archives, open access resources such as the University of Alaska’s Institutional Repository, online topical Research Guides, and more. By licensing resources for all Alaska residents, the Discovery Portal can do what Google and other search engines cannot—pass through pay walls put in place by commercial publishers. Using whaling in the Arctic as an example, this presentation will demonstrate the wide variety of formats for different audiences that can be retrieved, and the interdisciplinary nature of those formats. From contemporary to historical, locating scholarly or newspaper articles, or multimedia, photographs, drawings, maps, or web resources in disciplines that span geography, ecology, and anthropology to name just a few, are possible through the Discovery Portal. This unique resource, available to anyone in Alaska with an internet connection from home, school, or library, is helping to bridge the digital information gap across the state. The cooperative efforts that created and developed Alaska’s Discovery Portal, how it is maintained and by whom, both financially and in terms of ongoing input of materials, along with suggestions for implementing a similar network in other locations will be discussed.