William Schneider Receives Alaska History Award

Submitted by Jennifer Collier
Phone: (907) 474-6413
10/15/03

William Schneider, Curator of Oral History at Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, received the Contribution to Alaska History Award for 2003 from the Alaska Historical Society at their annual meeting in Haines, Alaska at the end of September.

Schneider was honored for more than thirty years of work in Alaska collaborating with local communities, utilizing oral history to document all types of Alaska history.

Schneider developed the Oral History Collection of the Alaska and Polar Regions Archives into one of the largest repositories of Native history in the country with over 8000 recordings with Alaskans from all walks of life.

He has also been a teacher and mentor in the methods and ethics of oral history, documentation, preservation, and access.