Are you a tech-savvy librarian eager to champion access for all to the wonders of technology, the internet, and all things library? If so, we have the perfect role for you at the Alaska State Library in Juneau!
At the Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center in Bethel in early December, Jimmy Riordan stood behind tables piled with an odd assortment of weathered cassettes, VHS tapes, records, and recording equipment that comprise his pop-up digitization station. It is the last day of the Anchorage-based artist and educator’s visit to Bethel, where he has become a familiar face, coming into town at the invitation of the Kuskokwim Consortium Library to offer DIY workshops ranging from leather-tooling and animation, to storytelling and stuffed animal-making.
Cindy Andrecheck, who moved to Bethel in 1975, stopped by to check up on some old tapes containing radio sketches and promos from the early days of KYUK Radio that she dropped off for Riordan to digitize.
Last November, the Mat-Su Borough School District was sued over the removal of fifty-six books from school libraries. Now, the plaintiffs in the case are requesting that they be returned to shelves pending the final outcome of the case.
The Mat-Su Borough School District was sued three times in the last quarter of 2023. One of those lawsuits was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of students represented by the Northern Justice Project. The suit claims that the removal of more than fifty books from school library shelves constitutes a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Savannah Fletcher is an attorney with the Northern Justice Project and is representing the plaintiffs. She outlines why the removal of books can be considered a constitutional violation.
“To remove the fifty-six books from every single library so that a student whose parent is a-okay with them reading Slaughterhouse Five, can no longer check that book out and read it. That is a major Constitutional violation, because it really limits your ability to access ideas, and really is then the government, in this case the school board, forcing certain ideas and mainstream thoughts on you in ways that our Constitution doesn’t allow.”
On December 14th, the Mat-Su Borough School District’s Library Citizens Advisory Committee met to discuss four books that are being challenged in school libraries.
December’s books included Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, Forever by Judy Blume, It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, and Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
Each month, the committee’s eleven members are tasked with reading the books scheduled for the next meeting and casting two votes advising the school board about their future in MSBSD libraries.
A drag queen story hour event planned for the Soldotna Public Library this weekend has been postponed following online uproar about the event.
The storytime event was part of Soldotna Pride’s winter celebration, called Happy New Queer, scheduled for Saturday. Other events include a drag trivia night at The Goods in Soldotna, and karaoke at The Bow Bar in Kenai.
The organization announced the postponement in a Facebook post Tuesday afternoon, citing online rhetoric and a need to protect participant safety.
Riley Board, January 3, 2024. Alaska Public Media.
The Ketchikan Public Library will again see challenges over whether several books should remain on its shelves in 2024, after a year of controversy surrounding book bans last year. The library advisory board will take up the issue Jan. 10.
“During that meeting, there will be a public hearing on request to move two books from the teen room to the adult section,” Library director Pat Tully told KRBD about the upcoming library advisory board meeting on January 10.
The Fairbanks North Star Borough library system may see a change in how it considers materials and hears appeals, according to a draft policy from the borough mayor's office.
Library Director Jamia Alexander Ball said at Wednesday's Library Commission meeting that most of the substantive changes relate to the library's selection process. The proposed changes would limit requests for consideration to materials directly owned by the library system, rather than additional electronic materials shared through the Alaska Library Consortium...
The changes would also ensure that protested materials would not be removed, relocated or otherwise restricted during the reconsideration process. Additionally, only library card holders could make a request to have materials removed or relocated.
Jack Barnwell, December 22, 2023. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
People of Haines, the Friends of the Library bow down to your awesomeness! To all the talented bakers (too many to list here, but you know who you are!) who pored over your favorite holiday cookie recipes and shopped and baked, thank you from the bottom of our hearts! And to everyone who stopped by Cookies by the Pound on Saturday, thank you for supporting our library. We hope you’re enjoying your tasty treats – the Friends certainly enjoyed seeing you and catching up over cookie shopping! And thanks to all you cookie bakers and buyers, we raised almost $1,300 for the library! That’s right! $1,300! For cookies! We know this is a busy time of year for everyone and we appreciate your support so much. Thanks again, Haines – we’ll see you around town, but especially at the library! Happy Holidays!
Laura Clement, December 21, 2023. Chilkoot Valley News.
The Anchorage Museum is now offering free general admission to Alaska Native peoples, the museum said Wednesday.
To receive complimentary admission, Alaska Native visitors can inform employees at the museum’s ticket counter but don’t need any identification or tribal enrollment information.
“We prioritize strengthening relationships with Indigenous communities and expanding our representation of history guided by Indigenous voices and leadership,” Anchorage Museum Director/CEO Julie Decker said in a statement. “Free general admission for Alaska Native people is an active choice to honor these commitments as we continue to expand our museum practices.”
The closest thing to Santa's workshop - in Alaska, anyway - is a building just blocks from the Arctic coast. It is the nation's northernmost maker's space, a place where Indigenous artists can create things like walrus ivory earrings, figurines made from whale baleen and traditional knives with caribou antler handles. As Emily Schwing reports, what's made here is steeped in thousands of years of tradition.
EMILY SCHWING, BYLINE: It's polar night this time of year in the Arctic, but there's a golden glow from the windows of the traditional room at the Iñupiat Heritage Center in the heart of Utqiaġvik.
(SOUNDBITE OF SAW BUZZING)
SCHWING: Inside, band saws buzz, and sanders whir. Two years ago, Percy Aiken bought a piece of walrus ivory. He didn't know what to do with it, so he came here to take a class. Ever since, he's been fashioning perfectly smooth, shiny beads for bracelets and earrings. Aiken's jewelry is a main source of income for him.
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has launched its first apps that teach the Haida (X̱aad Kíl) and Tsimshian (Shm’algyack) languages, both of which are considered to be endangered.
Two of the free apps teach vocabulary and phrases in Haida and Tsimshian, while another teaches Native words for birds and ocean animals in an interactive environment. Both are available for iOS and Android mobile devices.
Alaskans’ experiences with climate change are often marked by loss and devastation. A new exhibit at the Anchorage Museum explores another side to climate change, with stories of resilience and hope.
The exhibit, “How to Survive,” combines work from within and outside Alaska that highlights how investing in community and caring for one another can be forms of climate mitigation.
As the Arctic warms more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, Alaska is no stranger to the impacts: permafrost thaw and erosion eat away at coastal communities, thousands of people contend with the loss of core subsistence species. The risks from other disasters — fires, floods, landslides — is increasing.
Kavitha George, January 2, 2024. Alaska Public Media.
Building Solidarity for Tribal and Community-led Cultural Heritage Preservation
Tuesday, January 23, 9 am, online
Your Neighborhood Museum (YNM) works to empower artists and communities of color to care for their own cultural belongings and tell their own stories. Please join YNM for a discussion of their work with Tribal communities to repatriate and care for cultural heritage belongings. Founders Jennifer Kim and Lylliam Posadas will talk about their CARE (Caring About and Repatriating Everything) workshops, where Tribal cultural heritage stewards and museum workers come together to share knowledge and strategize on repatriation efforts, develop skills in conservation, and build capacity for preservation efforts. They will also present the Repatriation Meets the Protocols Workbook and Resource Guide, practical tools that provide guidance for archivists to support Tribal communities in researching repatriation cases.
Our beautiful region is, perhaps unsurprisingly, full of artists. In 2014, Southeast Conference reported that artists are 2.6 times more prevalent in Southeast Alaska than the rest of the United States as a whole. At the time of the study, there were over 2,300 full-time and part-time artists with earnings of $29.9 million — nearly twice the size of the regional timber industry, marking a shift in cultural economic priority. In 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported the arts and culture sector contributed just under $1.38 billion and 11,180 jobs to Alaska’s overall economy — a 13% growth in revenue and 5% growth in jobs in a single year.
Despite our burgeoning creative economy, the arts are often cast off as non-lucrative disciplines to young professionals making critical decisions about their lives and careers. The threat of the “starving artist” continues to pass on generationally and economic contributions of the arts sector are often overshadowed by political focus on tourism, fisheries, and other economic sectors.
Shaelene Grace Moler, December 20, 2023. Capital City Weekly.
Attention culture enthusiasts! It's Public Domain Day 2024, and the vault has officially swung open on works published way back in 1928, along with sound recordings from 1923! Get ready to rediscover, remix, and reimagine a treasure trove of creative gems, including:
Steamboat Willie: Chug-a-lug along with Mickey Mouse (yes, you read that right!) in his iconic debut cartoon, now free for all to enjoy and reimagine. Who's up for a Mickey Mouse remix album?
The Mystery of the Blue Train: Agatha Christie's classic whodunit plunges you into a glamorous world of intrigue on the Orient Express. Time to channel your inner Poirot and crack the case for yourself!
Yes! We Have No Bananas: This catchy tune, originally a satirical jab at a fruit shortage, is ripe for the picking. Cover it, sample it, use it to soundtrack your banana bread baking video – the possibilities are endless!
But these are just a taste of the smorgasbord of delights now in the public domain. Think literary giants like Virginia Woolf and iconic films like The Cameraman and The Threepenny Opera.
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