Public library workers of all types in Alaska are invited to register for a monthly virtual Alaska Public Library Chat. Valarie Kingsland, Head of Library Development and Public Library Coordinator at the Alaska State Library, will host these informal meetings.
Public library workers are encouraged to register, even if the current time doesn’t work for them, to receive email updates and participate in a poll to determine the best time for those registered. The meeting details, topics or themes, Zoom link, and updates will be emailed to each registered participant. Meetings will not be recorded.
How do Indigenous communities define community-centered collections? How do we navigate the management, care, and access to Indigenous materials in a sector that is still defined by colonized standards that do not recognize Indigenous lifeways? How can we decolonize those standards in the areas of acquisition, description, organizational policies and procedures, and access and sharing? Please join our panelists for an in-depth community conversation on Indigenous community collections stewardship and learn more about how the museum and archival professions can help reframe how they engage and serve Indigenous communities.
Find out more about the moderator and speakers in the link.
The Friends of the Homer Public Library and the library itself are wrapping up the six-week 2024 Big Read series of events focused on Jess Walter’s book “The Cold Millions.”
This historical fiction novel about the 1909 Spokane Riots included themes that inspired events and in-depth conversations across a variety of community organizations and venues. These conversations centered on themes of finding a home, the treatment of Indigenous people, the roles and treatment of women, roles of labor unions, and the fight for free speech.
Friends of the Homer Public Library hosted 17 diverse events related to the book.
The University of Alaska Board of Regents on Friday approved two projects that will reshape the University of Alaska Fairbanks Troth Yeddha' Campus. In a unanimous vote, regents approved schematic designs for the $53 million Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center and an $8.3 million planetarium addition at the University of Alaska Museum of the North. The vote allows UAF to move forward with both projects.
The Indigenous studies center will be built between the museum and the Reichardt Building on UAF’s Troth Yeddha’ Campus in Fairbanks. The 40,300-square-foot building will house academic and research units within UAF’s College of Rural and Community Development, as well as Rural Student Services and the Rural Alaska Honors Institute.
"The Troth Yeddha’ Indigenous Studies Center is essential to our continued growth as an R-1 [research] institution and for positioning ourselves as a destination university with cultural, academic and research distinction," said Charlene Stern, UAF’s vice chancellor for rural, community and Native education, during a board subcommittee meeting. "Troth isn’t just a project to help UAF achieve these goals; it is the project."
Palmer city officials should not block users from accessing library books flagged by community members as controversial because doing so could be a civil rights violation, an attorney for the city told the city council at a meeting Tuesday.
The recommendation came during a more than one-hour briefing by city attorney Sarah Heath on state and federal rules for removing or restricting access to books in the city’s library collection.
Under state law, library books can be removed or have their access restricted only if they can be considered “obscene” or “harmful to minors” by a “reasonable person” in any part of the U.S., not just by a group of local community members, Heath said.
The Mat-Su School Board has removed the book “This Ends with Us” by Colleen Hoover from library circulation.
The 6-1 vote Wednesday is the board’s first action on one of 56 books that the district removed from school libraries over a year ago, following public complaints.
The board also voted to send 18 books to the district administration to determine what age restrictions, if any, should be placed on them.
Tim Rockey, February 23, 2024. Alaska Public Media.
As libraries across the state face increased scrutiny over what books are appropriate for their collections, the president of the American Library Association is hearing directly from Alaskans.
Emily Drabinski was invited to speak at the Alaska Society for Technology and Education Conference in Anchorage on Monday, and has spent the week meeting with librarians from across Alaska to hear their struggles and successes.
While the state faces unique logistical challenges, Drabinski told Alaska Public Media’s Wesley Early that many problems facing Alaska librarians are happening across the country.
The Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak has released a series of step-by-step tutorials for anyone wanting to learn Alutiiq sewing.
The set of instructions reveals how to make an Atkuk Parka, a piece of traditional Alutiiq regalia.
Education Manager Leda Beuthin said that the museum saw the interest and importance of providing a way to carry on traditional methods of creating regalia.
Casandra Mancl, February 29, 2024. Alaska's News Source.
The 2024 Tournament of the Readers had an exciting finish in the Haines School library this week. The Literary Llamas (Gwendolyn Kosinski, Meg Davis, Asher Jimenez and Ivy Elliott) were undefeated this year and worked hard to take first place. Playing for the first time this year, The Wild Readers (Zephyr Cox, Olen Stickler, Hazel Schweinefus and Loralai DeWitt) captured second place and The Library Legends (Thomas Hunter, Piper Carlson, Sam Thompson and Leon Rogers) took third. Overall, we had eight teams with 32 students reading eight books. They answered 224 questions. Our tournament began Jan. 29 and ended Feb. 20, playing every day in the library. I look forward to running this reading incentive program each year and working with your students. In addition to reading, our competition reinforces teamwork, sportsmanship and just makes reading fun.
Anchorage’s historic city hall will become a new downtown public library.
Mayor Dave Bronson made the announcement at a news conference Thursday at the building on 4th Avenue.
The city’s former downtown library closed in 1986. Bronson said most of the funding for the project comes from Janet Goetz, a longtime advocate of the city’s library who died in 2010.
Wesley Early, February 29, 2024. Alaska Public Media.
This new State of Alaska Aquaculture Report from NOAA Fisheries landed in the inbox of the State Library’s Federal Depository Coordinator. The State Library, as a federal depository library, preserves federal publications relevant to Alaska.
The report provides an overview of mariculture in Alaska including such facts as the primary species grown for aquaculture including oysters, blue mussels, and sugar, ribbon and bull kelp. Forty-two seaweed and invertebrate species have been permitted for aquaculture in Alaska.
There’s a chart showing the amount of seaweed over time (In 2022, nearly 900,000 pounds!), along with highlights of producers and state regulators. The report concludes with a listing of resources and funding opportunities for new entrants into this industry.
The State Publications Program at the Alaska State Library preserves state publications and makes them freely available to Alaskans. Here's a recent addition.
The Alaska Native Language Preservation and Advisory Council (ANLPAC) released this action plan with strategies that all people and institutions can take to foster use of Alaska Native languages. It outlines four focus areas and includes policy recommendations for the state and federal governments, the Alaska Legislature, and the general public. Read the complete plan on the Council’s website. Review the Council’s 2014-2022 biennial reports in the State Publications Digital Library.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has extended the deadline for Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program Funding Opportunity to March 22, 2024.
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