News from the Division
As Patience shared herself on AkLA-L:
“In March, I announced that I was retiring this year. This week, I set an actual date for my retirement: October 14. I will share news about recruitment for this position as I hear it. Thanks!”
Truly an end of an era. Patience will be badly missed. But not today since we have her till October 14th!
Apply by Next Friday to Run Our Gift and Book Store!
The Alaska State Library, Archives & Museums is seeking proposals from vendors to operate the gift and book store located in the beautiful Fr. Andrew P. Kashevaroff building (APK) at 395 Whittier Street in Juneau. APK is the site of the Alaska State Museum galleries, the Alaska State Library reading room, and the research center for access to the Alaska State Library Historical Collections and the Alaska State Archives. The building also features a classroom, lecture hall, café, and a grand atrium. The store is conceived as a place to strengthen the visitors’ understanding of Alaska and further the combined academic, educational, and cultural missions of the Division of Libraries, Archives & Museums. The store is to be stocked with items and books that reflect or augment the subject matter of the temporary and permanent museum exhibits, Alaska subjects and history in general, and items related to the features of the building.
To learn more and see the Request for Proposals, visit RFP 2022-0500-5121 APK Building Gift and Bookstore Operator - Alaska Online Public Notices (state.ak.us). Proposals must be received by the Procurement Officer by 3PM Alaska Time on Friday, April 22, 2022.
We heard from some of you that the key parts of the recording on the toll free number that provides access to the SLED Databases ID and password was garbled. Thank you for letting us know! Our current phone system doesn’t allow for actual voice recording, but uses automated text to speech. We were able to modify the text and now the recording is the clearest it’s been in years! The spelling is a little slow, but with patience, it should be useful.
If you or another Alaskan aren’t able to authenticate automatically for the SLED Databases and need an ID and password to access them, please go to SLED and either fill out the help form or call the toll free number to listen to the new recording.
In less happy news, we’re still having trouble with the sled.alaska.edu URL, although we’re working on it. Thanks very much to all who responded to the survey! The feedback was consistent and helpful. For the time being, please use https://lam.alaska.gov/sled/ if you’re not able to access it with the traditional URL.
Thanks for your patience and for your help getting the word out so that Alaskans can continue to access these important resources!
The same folks that bring you the popular Tumblebooks subscription are providing a free trial to TeenBookCloud through August of this year, which you can access at SLED. This includes YA/teen graphic novels, enhanced novels, ebooks, classic literature, videos, and audiobooks geared toward middle and high school students, along with educator resources. They're available to an unlimited number of users online, but are not available for checkout/download.
If you or your users try out the trial, please be sure to share your feedback. As you know, budgets are tight and this isn’t an inexpensive resource, so feedback on what databases you would be willing to drop to pay for this will be important.
News from L.A.M.S in Alaska
SHI Partners with an AI/Robotics Company to Explore Submerged Caves
In March, the Sealaska Heritage Institute announced an exciting new adventure. From the 3/2/2022 press release:
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Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is partnering with a team of researchers and a firm that specializes in artificial intelligence to explore ancient, submerged caves in southern Southeast Alaska and to seek evidence of early human occupation.
Through the project, which is funded by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), SHI will team with a group of university academics and Sunfish Inc., a company developed by Stone Aerospace for a future exploratory mission to one of Jupiter's moons called Europa.
The team will travel to the region in 2022 and 2023 to explore underwater caves located around Prince of Wales Island using a SUNFISH® AUV, a cutting-edge robot that can navigate environments on its own while creating a real-time, 3-D map. The SUNFISH can document places inaccessible to divers and use the map it created along the way to find its way back to the surface. It may also be maneuvered by divers.
One of SHI’s major goals is to increase the knowledge of Southeast Alaska Native culture and history through documentation of traditional ecological knowledge and through scientific research. The project has the potential to teach Native people about their ancestors who lived in the area many thousands of years ago, said SHI President Rosita Worl.
“We know much of the terrain that is below sea level now was above ground and accessible to our people approximately 17,000 years ago. For the first time, technology is allowing us to document these places our ancestors called home. It’s a game changer,” Worl said.
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See the full story at SHI to partner with researchers, tap artificial intelligence to document underwater caves in region.
Other Announcements
Nominations are being accepted for the awards, with a deadline of May 15
Since 1993, the CLIA awards have been presented by the Alaska Center for the Book, Alaska’s liaison with the U.S. Library of Congress Center for the Book. The awards go to people and institutions who have made a significant contribution in literacy, the literary arts, or the preservation of the written or spoken word. Since 1993, more than 90 people and programs from across the state have been recognized, ranging from publishers and authors to teachers, librarians, linguists and historians.
The 2021 honorees were Anchorage health educator Nyabony Gat, Imagination Library volunteer Elisabeth Jacobson of Bethel, Vered Mares of Writer's Block in Anchorage, and the University of Alaska Press in Fairbanks.
Nomination forms, a list of previous winners and more information are available on ACB’s website at www.alaskacenterforthebook.org, or call (907) 764-1604.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game ADFG has a number of resources for people of all ages on their Education & Outreach page. Visit the page to see:
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For Educators - Resources, classroom programs, curricula and teacher workshops.
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For Hunters - Hunter education courses, state shooting ranges and more.
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For Anglers - Rod loaner program and how to set line for burbot.
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Camps, Skills, Clinics - Youth camps, Becoming an Outdoors Woman and skills clinics for youth and adults.
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Citizen Science - Volunteer for wildlife research.
ADFG also maintains an events calendar of in-person and online events taking place around the state.
Last Minute Tips and Advice from the IRS
The folks at the IRS have put up two bulletins we think might be of general interest to library patrons:
The Alaska State Library is a Federal Depository Library.
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