The Friends of the Library recently received a $950 donation from the Juneau Community Foundation toward our ongoing effort to digitize every page of the Wrangell Sentinel, 1902 to present. The plan is to put the easily viewed images online for researchers, family members, students and all the curious people who want to look through the community’s history.
The project started several years ago and received a big boost in 2019 when the Wrangell Cooperative Association contributed to the effort as it secured an $8,250 grant for the work from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
With the available funds, including community donations, the Irene Ingle Public Library has completed the electronic file work through 1956. The online newspapers also include the Sentinel’s predecessors: The Stikeen River Journal (1898-1899), Fort Wrangel News (1898) and Alaska Sentinel (1900s). You can search the early newspapers at https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/batches/ak_arcticfox_ver02/. All those pages, plus half a century of the Wrangell Sentinels, are now online and searchable, but we would like to help the library finish the job and bring the database current.
There are still several decades of newspaper pages to turn into digital files, to ensure that the history is preserved and accessible for everyone to read far into the future. No yellowing, brittle newspaper pages to turn, and no old microfilm spools to spin through. Putting the past online is the future.
We ask your help.
Any donations would be warmly welcomed and would help preserve the community’s stories to share with future generations.
It seems a good time of year — when we are celebrating the nation’s birthday — to also celebrate and help preserve Wrangell’s history and 100 years of local library services.
Tax-deductible donations may be dropped off at the library or mailed to Friends of the Library, PO Box 679, Wrangell 99929.
Carol Rushmore, president
Friends of the Library
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