Wednesday, March 29, noon-1 pm

Please join us for the free webinar Find Your Voice (2023) Summer Reading Showcase.

Five librarians from various Alaska public libraries will share summer reading programming and outreach ideas, summer reading log information, and book suggestions for the iRead theme Find Your Voice. Talkeetna Public Library will discuss their experience with the Summer Food Service Program, and the Alaska State Library will share some important details about the statewide summer reading program.

Speaker information is listed on the registration page.

The team behind “Chickaloonies” is part of the Łuk’ae Tse’ Taas or Fish Head Soup collective of Alaska Native comic artists and writers, which aims to share visual stories of Alaska’s rich regional cultures. The comic collective is in-residence at the Bunnell Street Arts Center in Homer for March.

On March 4, members came together for their first ever in-person panel to share about their creative work and the new collective...

The “Chickaloonies” comic morphed into a live interactive workshop Macheras and Silver bring to schools and communities around Alaska, including one recently offered at the Homer Public Library. It shares Alaska Native storytelling, comic drawing and expression, around themes of sharing culture and Native values, and has drawn people of all ages.

“We found out the comic was almost secondary. What it was was the experience we had and the stories we were sharing,” Silver said.

Corinne Smith, March 13, 2023. Alaska Public Media.

Libraries have long played a part in food security, distributing lunches to underserved students and helping patrons apply for nutrition assistance programs. The need for such services increased significantly during the pandemic, and it is about to reach new levels...

Margot O’Connell is the adult services librarian for the public library in Sitka, Alaska. The population is less than 9,000. Groceries have to be brought in by plane or barge, and the prices show it.

To build food resiliency, the library established the Sitka Seed Library. Residents who sign up to participate can take seeds from a library card catalog cabinet. Most are heirloom seeds that are suited to a wet climate without much sunlight.

“We’re going to have more and more people rely on food assistance programs who haven’t previously needed them,” she says. “Libraries have an important role to play because we are trusted organizations where people are welcome, without barriers to entry and access.”

Carl Smith, March 13, 2023. Governing.com.

Related

• What is a Seed library? And how are they saving Alaska’s gardens?
• Become a Summer Food Service Program Sponsor

In his recently published book, “Watch the Bear: A Half Century with the Brown Bears of Alaska,” Stonorov presents decades of observations and field time with brown bears at Lake Becharof and the McNeil River in western Alaska. The book is “memoir, anecdote and science,” he writes in the introduction.

“It’s my story of how I have come to understand bears. It’s based on my research and observations and mine alone.”

The book, which Stonorov will present at Homer Public Library tonight, provides hundreds of pages of description of classic ethology of the animal, social stratification, reproductive behavior and other features typical within the species, as well as the individuality of many specific animals he identified and observed over the years.

Emilie Springer, March 9, 2023. Homer News.

The Anchorage School District has closed five elementary school libraries to evaluate potentially dangerous snow buildup on top of schools.

In an email sent to parents Monday night, the district said that libraries at two Anchorage elementary schools — Klatt and Spring Hill — were closed after the maintenance department identified ceiling damage. 

The district also decided “out of an abundance of caution” to proactively close the libraries of Bear Valley Elementary, Fire Lake Elementary, and Ravenwood Elementary, which share the same building design with Klatt and Spring Hill. 

Tim Rockey, March 7, 2023. Alaska Public Media.

Death and taxes.

Obituary writer and author Heather Lende knows plenty about what is certain in the world. She also knows how to get the last word.

Last Friday night and Saturday afternoon, Lende, Alaska's current state writer laureate, came to Kodiak [Public Library] to speak about her life's work — extracting meaning from lives well lived. That topic is also the title of her most recent book, "Find the Good."

A self-professed homebody, Lende introduced herself Friday night as a mother, grandmother and writer "by accident." She spoke about her children, life and the start of her writing career in the challenging town of Haines.

Phyllis Moraitis, March 1, 2023. Kodiak Daily Mirror.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to major changes in employment for all types of U.S. workers, but these changes looked different for women and men.

Some employees transitioned to remote or hybrid work, while essential workers faced hazardous conditions in the workplace. Many workers had to adjust their schedules or leave their jobs. And sudden shifts in demand for goods and services led to fluctuations in employment across different occupations, leading to different changes for men and women.

This Census feature is shared as part of the Alaska State Library’s activities as a Federal Depository Library

Soldotna Elementary students from kindergarten through sixth grade visited River City Books on Wednesday, with each given the opportunity to select a book to keep as their own.

Kindergarten teacher AnnMarie Rudstrom said she pitched the idea when she heard Soldotna Elementary had Title I money to use for the promotion of literacy.

“We use that money for tutoring students and literacy curricula,” she said. “We decided this would be another great way to promote literacy — having the students self-select a book that they get to keep themselves.”

The event was intentionally scheduled to precede spring break, she said.

Jacob Dye, March 8, 2023. Peninsula Clarion.

Sharing Honors and Burdens: Renwick Invitational 2023 features artists Joe Feddersen (Arrow Lakes/​Okanagan), Lily Hope (Tlingit), Ursala Hudson (Tlingit), Erica Lord (Athabaskan/​Iñupiat), Geo Neptune (Passamaquoddy), and Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe). Together, these artists present a fresh and nuanced vision of Native American art. The artists were selected for their work that expresses the honors and burdens that Native artists balance as they carry forward their cultural traditions. These artists highlight principles of respect, reciprocity, and responsibility through their work that addresses themes of environmentalism, displacement, and cultural connectedness. 

Image credit: Lily Hope, Memorial Beats, 2021, thigh-spun merino and cedar bark with copper, headphones, and audio files, 16 x 4 x 10 in., The Hope Family Trust. Photo by Sydney Akagi.