The Chilkat robes in the Alaska State Museum collections feature formline faces woven with yarn. The historic ceremonial garments combines once-vibrant yellows that have softened with age with warm black-browns and striking blues and greens.
Museum conservator Ellen Carrlee and her collaborators wanted to figure out where those classic pigments came from. The color curiosity evolved into Chilkat Dye Working Group, a collaboration between staff from museums in Washington, Oregon and Juneau, chemists from Portland State University and Alaska Native weavers from across the region that set out to study historic and modern dye techniques. Carrlee presented their research results during 2024’s Celebration.
With only three colors to identify, how hard could it be?
Do you love to read, but need a bit of inspiration to help you read more or decide what to read? For the past nine years, Homer Public Library staff has been compiling Lit Lineup, an annual list of books that includes staff picks and community member suggestions and covers numerous genres.
Started by library tech Teresa Sundmark when she noticed a decline in her own reading, Lit Lineup encourages people to read 15 books from the list throughout the year.
“I felt like my brain had been co-opted by social media and that I’d gone from reading several books a year to all of a sudden spending time at home with my laptop on my lap instead of a book in my hand,” she said. “I figured I might not be the only person who could use a little incentive to read more. Lit Lineup has become like a reading program for adults, similar to the summer reading program we have for kids, with the idea to get people to read more books.”
While Petersburg residents are hoping to trade rainy days for sun, the public library is encouraging kids and readers of all ages to trade in pages for prizes with their annual summer reading programs.
Baby Shrimp - the library's playful parenting program for kids ages 0-3 - and Summer Stream - their flagship program for kids ages 3-12 - have both gone through major restructuring this year, while the Go Wild program is continuing to invite teens and adults to join in on the activities.
During the first few years of Fairbanks’ existence, miners and pioneers built nearly everything with their own hands. Especially anything they considered the essentials of community life which included homes, trading posts and even a library.
The 115 year old George C. Thomas Memorial Library still stands at the corner of First Avenue and Cowles Street in downtown Fairbanks. The red-painted square log building was the town’s only public library for 68 years.
Library efforts in Alaska were spearheaded by the Episcopal Missionary Society, who believed they had the responsibility to provide mental enrichment to people in isolated areas. They distributed magazines and newspapers, and kept a 24-hour ‘Reading Room’ open at their Church of St. Matthew.
There are over 2,400 archaeological sites of all types across the Kodiak Archipelago; many of which date back to when the Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people first started living off the land. Archaeologists are focusing on some surprising finds from one area in particular in the island’s interior as they plan more digs for this summer.
The Alutiiq/Sugpiaq people have been using Karluk Lake for more than 6,000 years. It’s located in the southwestern part of the island, near the village of Larsen Bay. Archaeologists recently completed a dig at one major site in the area and plan to excavate another site later this summer, which is only hundreds of years old rather than thousands. Patrick Saltonstall, the curator of archaeology at the Alutiiq Museum, said the upcoming dig involves a ceremonial house or qasgiq.
Separately, Saltonstall referred to one of the sites the team has already excavated at Karluk Lake, site 309, as a super structure. This was an unexpected find for the team of archaeologists, especially because of the amount of labor that would have gone into building it.
Umiartusqaq masiinaq stuulumi et’uq. – The computer is on the table.
There is a common misconception that technological change is synonymous with cultural change, that as people adopt new items of technology they adopt the values and perspectives of other cultures. For example, many visitors to Alaska think there are no true Alaska Natives because people of indigenous descent do not continue to live as their ancestors did, in sod houses, hunting from skin boats with hand-carved tools.
While the technologies people use can profoundly influence the ways they interact with the world, technology is not the sole measure of identity. Anthropologists recognize that all people will use the best technologies available. However, every culture integrates tools into its practices in unique ways. Alutiiq hunters, for example, use their skiffs and rifles to hunt seals in Alutiiq ways, with knowledge of the environment, seal behavior, and the spiritual world passed through generations.
Computers are among the tools that have become important in Alutiiq communities. Today, Alutiiq children learn computer skills at school, Alutiiq fishermen rely on GPS units for navigation assistance, and computers are critical to Alutiiq organizations and businesses. However, they are also put to important Alutiiq uses. With computers, Alutiiq people are recording the sounds of Elder speakers, building dictionaries, and creating language-learning resources. This twenty-first-century tool is helping Alutiiq people with the very ancient practice of passing their language forward.
Two weeks after its Grand Reopening on June 1, the Noel Wien Public Library in Fairbanks continues to see patrons stream in from the community.
According to the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the library saw 1,661 patrons on its opening day, significantly more than its pre-renovation average of just under a thousand daily users.
By the end of the first week, more than 11,000 visitors had stopped by.
Congrats to the Youth Chess Tournament winner – a adult tournament is this Saturday – there is drop-in crafting, LEGO building, summer Wonder Bags coming, summer reading programs and much more. Pat Tully gives details.
Many thanks goes to all the families who donated so many treasures and new-looking books to the Summer Reading Program! I have been able to spend zero dollars on prizes and prize books for the children this summer because of the generosity of people in Haines. I also need to thank the 15 people who baked pizzas for the Summer Reading Program Kick-Off. One hundred thirty-four children signed up for the reading program that day, and I know the pizza helped bring them to the library. Last, heartfelt thanks goes to the Friends of the Library for being willing to use the Carol Waldo Fund to bring our famous author this spring, Sarah Mlynowski, and our Seattle magician, Jeff Evans, who started the reading program with a show on the magic of reading. I hope to keep seeing kids reading books all summer long at the library!
- Holly Davis, Children’s Librarian, Haines Borough Public Library
In May, the Sitka school board adopted a bare-bones budget that eliminated 16 teaching positions. As staff and families reckon with the changes, the loss of Sitka High’s librarian is hitting particularly hard.
Last year, the district had about 2.5 full-time library positions, spread out between Keet Gooshi Heen, Xóots Elementary, and Sitka High School. This year, the budget has no paid library positions. Instead, the district will be hiring what they call “media specialists and interventionists” – but exactly how many positions, and their job descriptions, remains unclear.
When the Sitka school board met on June 19, parents and community members showed up to ask the board to reconsider eliminating the Sitka High librarian position. Bridget Hitchcock, who has two school-aged children, said that a library is an essential part of the school.
Last Thursday’s show at Juneau’s Goldtown Nickelodeon began with a blood-splattered formline title card on the screen. It read: “Macbeth through Alaskan eyes.”
Beating drums marked the entrance of the three witches. They danced and slinked across the screen wearing masks that showed the barred teeth of a shape-shifting otter from Lingít folklore.
As flashing stage lights evoked the stormy night that sets the play’s murderous plot in motion, actress Lily Hope delivered the familiar first line — when shall we three meet again?
“Xeitl tóox’, séew kaa ch’u k’eeljáa gé,” Hope said — in thunder, lightning, or in rain?
June is Pride Month, when members of the LGBTQ+ community and allies celebrate their identities. But a drag story hour in Seward faced a bomb threat on Saturday.
Families were working on arts and crafts at the Seward Community Library & Museum while waiting for a story hour led by drag performers. That lasted until the building was evacuated after a caller threatened to bomb the place in response to the pride-themed event.
The story time was part of a series of events organized by the Seward Pride Alliance to celebrate Pride Month.
The Fairbanks Diversity Council looks to take a novel concept by launching a new library — of live people willing to share their stories and engage in open conversation.
"It's a concept where people who have a story to tell become a book," said Juanita Webb, the Diversity Council chair, at last week's Fairbanks City Council meeting.
Webb said the people willing to share their stories can come from different walks of life, whether as a grade-school teacher, a police officer, a recovering addict or others.
Take a sneak peek at top picks from the National Museum of African American History & Culture and explore the books on our expert's must-read list — curated just for you.
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