• How do I search the Alaska Gold Lode database?
• How do I use the Browse function?
• How do I use the Simple Search function?
• How do I use the Advanced Search function?
• Choices of Pull-down Menus
  • Subject terms
  • Categories
  • Themes
  • Geographic regions
  • Mediums
  • Date
• Understanding the results
• Are there copyright or other restrictions?

How to Search

The Alaska Gold Lode contains images and descriptions of materials selected from the Alaska State Library's Historical Collections and the Alaska State Archives, from the era of the Alaska - Klondike Gold Rush. The bulk of the materials date from 1880 through 1920. This collection of materials includes nearly 3500 documents and other historical items. In order to access the images of the documents and artifacts, you can search the Alaska Gold Lode database four ways: simple search, advanced search, browse by collection or browse by author. Remember to ALWAYS press the "Submit Search button" to obtain your results. When searching with advanced search and selecting one or more of the pull down menus, make certain to push the reset button after each search; otherwise a future search may not produce the desired results.

• Browse by collections yields an alphabetical listing by the title of the collection.

• Browse by authors yields an alphabetical list by last name of the creator of the image.

• single word: type in one word, such as skagway, territorial
• part of a word: type in just part of a word: rail (the search will yield results like railroad, railbelt, railway, etc.)
• several words: type in a series of words, like district court or circle city

• Use the AUTHOR and TEXT KEYWORD (Boolean) to create a Keyword or boolean search in which you may combine search terms. Enter keywords you wish to find. This keyword search will find information in the Title, Notes/Transcript, and author fields.

• Use the operators AND, OR and AND NOT to create a very broad or very narrow search.

To search using one or more of the pull down menus:

• Select one or more choices.
• Use the pull-down menus to select your search terms.
• Within each menu, you may designate more than one term by pressing "ctrl" key on your computer as you select.
• Indicate whether you wish to see thumbnails images in your results. (Thumbnails will slow the response time.)
• Submit your search by clicking the "Submit Advanced Query" button.
• The database will return an alphabetical list of titles of the images

SUBJECTS: Fifty-four broad subjects (derived from Library of Congress subject heading)s are assigned to all of the images in the database. Often, several subjects are assigned to an image. The complete subject list is as follows:

Afro-Americans
agriculture
Alaska Natives
armed forces
artists
Asian-Americans
buildings
camps
children
cities and towns
clubs
commerce
criminal justice, Administration of
disasters
dogs
domestic animals
education
elections
family
finance, public
fisheries
harbors
health
hotels
ice
labor
land use
law
legislation
legislative bodies
lighthouses
manners and customs
miners
mines and mineral resources
mining engineering
performing arts
postal service
public institutions
public officers
public works
railroads
recreation
religion
seasons
shipping
ships
statutes
transportation
trapping
travelers
vehicles
water
wildlife resources
women

CATEGORIES: One or more curriculum categories are assigned to each item in the database. The categories will assist teachers and students in locating resources that may be relevant to study topics. Six broad social studies curriculum categories incorporate the following areas of study and roughly correspond to one or more social studies disciplines. They are noted here to give educators and students another approach to the resources in Alaska's Gold. Many objects in the collection are relevant to more than one of these categories.

• Cultural Connections: cultural anthropology and global connections examples: family culture, cultural groups, influence of indigenous peoples, social roles, past and present cultures, cultural identity

• Economic: production, distribution, and consumption examples: meeting family and personal needs for food, clothing and shelter and earning money; natural resource benefits and use; state, local and regional economy; economic development; global interactions shaped by economy

• People, Places, and Environment: geography examples: landmarks, features, influence of landscape and location, influence on development of economy, culture, society, politics, and government; interaction of peoples with physical environment

• Power, Authority, Governance: citizenship, civic ideals, and practice examples: individual citizen's governmental role and responsibility, role and obligations of government in society, government organization and structure, affect of legislation and law on cultures and individuals, political agreements among peoples, relationships between society's government and its citizens; foundations and ideals of governmental systems

• Social Development and Responsibility: individual's role in conflict and cooperation examples: individual responsibility for own actions and appropriate choices, ways of learning and communicating, preservation of fundamental rights, role of individual in change, conflict and cooperation in society; individual beliefs and their effect on community; role of individual and nation in foreign policy and international issues, such as war, treaties and cooperation

• Time, Continuity, and Change: patterns of social and political interaction, history examples: understanding significant events that shaped and affected family, community, and nation; influences on understanding and interpreting history and cultures; social and political patterns over time, including religious movements, revolutions, events, and ideas; understanding the relationship between historical developments and present day society, ideals and reality of governing

• Discovery of Gold: who, where and how prospectors found and staked their claims?

• Traveling to the gold fields: how did people reach the gold fields and what did they find along the way?

• Gold mining: who were these gold miners and how did they do their job?

• Daily life: what was living in a gold rush camp like and how did a boom town begin during the gold rush era?

• Legacy of the Gold Rush: what were the effects of the gold rush on peoples, natural resources, government, and society?

• Alaska--Interior-Yukon Valley
• Alaska--Northern-Arctic Slope
• Alaska--South Central
• Alaska--Southeast
• Alaska--Western

• Alaska--unidentified localities

• Canada--other
• Canada--Yukon and Northern British Columbia
• Other-- United States and other countries

MEDIUMS These note the type and/or format of the source material. The list of terms used follows:

• diary, journal
• government report
• letter
• manuscript
• map, graph, chart
• newspaper
• photograph
• publication
• sheet music
• telegram
• ephemera: includes almost everything else, such as menus, post cards, drawings, brochures, programs, broadsides

Dates: Chose one or more dates for your search. Please be aware that many items do not have specific dates assigned.

UNDERSTANDING THE RESULTS

• Your search results are returned in an alphabetized list. At the top of the list, the number of titles (or "hits") found is displayed.
• Twenty-five hits at a time are displayed on the results page. If there are more hits, then an option to review the "next results" is given at the bottom of the page.
• The title is a hyperlink to the image and to the full description in the database.

It is the user's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or distributing materials found on this web site.

Some materials in these collections are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Some materials may be further restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions, privacy and/or publicity right, licensing and trademarks.

The nature of historical archival collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Whenever possible, the division provides information about copyright owners and other restrictions in the records and texts that accompany collections. The division provides such information as a service to aid patrons in determining the appropriate use of an item, but that determination ultimately rests with the patron.

Permission to use these materials must be obtained from the appropriate section within the Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums. Permission does not constitute a copyright clearance. The Department of Education and Early Development is not responsible for misuse of copyrighted materials. For more information, please contact the Alaska Historical Collections, the Alaska State Museum, or the Alaska State Archives.

The Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums is eager to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified so that appropriate information may be provided in the future.