The Alaska State Archives is pleased to announce the roll out of their new online catalog. Researchers can make inquiries or request specific materials directly through the portal or continue to email the Archives reference staff.
The Noel Wien Public Library continues to set some record numbers more than three months after its re-opening following extensive renovations.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Library Director Jamia Alexander Ball provided an update to the Assembly Library and Literacy Commission last week, highlighting several numbers including visitations.
"Our average daily number of patrons for August was 2,144 people," Alexander Ball said.
For the entire month of August, the Noel Wien Library door count hit 57,909 visits. The borough tracks visits by fiscal year, from July 1 to June 30.
Master Alutiiq skin sewer Susan Malutin will share her techniques at a mitten making workshop set to start this weekend at the Kodiak History Museum.
The workshop is an opportunity to learn skin sewing — beaver and otter — from an accomplished artist in a supportive community setting. And there is no cost for the 16-hour workshop. Costs are covered by the Cook Inlet Region Inc. Foundation’s “A Journey to What Matters: Increased Alaska Native Art & Culture” program.
Beth Short-Rhoads alerted the Sitka School Board to the project at its regular meeting on September 4 (9-4-24).
Her testimony had a feeling of déjà vu, as Short-Rhoads was in the same chair six years ago, arguing against the closure of the middle school library when her daughter was in 6th grade.
“Now, she’s a senior,” said Short-Rhoads. “She doesn’t have a school library at the high school where she can check out books on a regular basis...
“I know very well what the district is facing and the budget cuts that have come from on high but I was told, and many other parents were told, that the Sitka High library would be open this year and that students would be able to check out books,” said Short-Rhoads. “That has not been the case at the beginning of the school year, students weren’t able to check out books from any library in the district. That’s unacceptable.”
Robert Woolsey and Katherine Rose, September 9, 2024. KCAW.org.
At the Seward Community Library and Museum this month, a traveling exhibit titled “Americans and the Holocaust” sheds light on how, when and what Americans learned of the Holocaust during the 1930s and 1940s. Seward’s is the first of 50 libraries in the nation to receive the exhibit over the next two years.
Library Director Sue Drover said Thursday, Sept. 12, that the library is hosting an array of events and field trips to share the learning experience with as many in the local community and Alaska as possible.
The exhibit, she said, came to Seward on a grant from the American Library Association. It’s a partnership between the association and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Public libraries are an essential resource for communities. They provide access to knowledge, information, educational programs, and community events open to anyone in the area.
For these programs to take place, funding is needed. That’s where the Friends of the Wasilla Public Library comes in...
Upcoming events funded by the Friends include a Firelight Book Club on Oct. 7, a Tea and Author visit with Tricia Brown, an author from Fairbanks, on Oct. 8, and several summer reading events.
The library is back on regular hours and there are many activities happening over the next few weeks including a small business start up presentation, pressure canner gauge testing, crafts for all ages, sensory play for little ones, and a special tween craft. Amie Toepfer gives details about this and much more.
The Mat-Su Borough’s Library Citizens Advisory Committee, or LCAC, recommends removing another book from Public Library shelves.
Citing a feminist slant, occult leanings, and other issues, the Committee ultimately recommends removing the fantasy book Red Hood by Elana Arnold from the shelves. Committee Chair Pastor Chad Scott spoke at length about how the book was not a good resource for sexual assault victims. And says that the killing in the book was more appropriate for fathers.
“In this book, Red Hood, I’ll kind of skip to the end. But the coping mechanism is murder. Now, I’m not opposed to predators being dealt with that way. I wouldn’t necessarily put a 16-year-old in that position to make that. I think I would prefer a book written for dads along that line maybe.”
Kari Petersen, Petersburg Public Library Programming Director, (left) stands alongside Tlingit artist Mary Ann Rainey who led workshops this month at the library for crafters to sew and bead ornaments depicting local animals in Tlingit formline designs. The ornaments are intended to adorn the Capitol Christmas Tree in Washington D.C. The tree will be harvested from the Wrangell Ranger District in late October and its cross country journey to D.C. is expected to take around two weeks. This year will be only the second time that an Alaskan tree has been used as the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree...
A proposed zoning change downtown could help provide the Kodiak Maritime Museum with a permanent home.
Longtime downtown resident Gerald Markham wants to donate three lots he owns, one including the old Madsen house, adjacent his Mill Bay Road home to the Maritime Museum, a request museum founder Toby Sullivan said would fulfill a long-term goal.
"It would change us in a major way. We've been working on this for years," Sullivan said.
Sullivan currently describes the Maritime Museum as a 'museum without walls' to visitors and supporters. A cramped office at the St. Herman Harbor serves as display space currently, and the museum's current centerpiece, the classic seiner Thelma C, is outside under a permanent awning on Oscar's Dock.
Steve Williams, September 9, 2024. Kodiak Daily Mirror.
State grant funding for the crosswalk at the Talkeetna Library will not be enough to complete the project.
Earlier this summer, the State awarded the Talkeetna Community Council $70,000 for the crosswalk across the Spur Road to the Library. It is likely less than half of the funding needed to construct the project.
Alaska State Representative Kevin McCabe nominated the project for the funding after hearing community concerns at a Council meeting. The funding was a surprise to the Council since no formal budget or project outline was created.
The Alaska Department of Education has pledged to fully fund libraries across Alaska after hearing widespread outrage at a surprise 73% funding cut announced last month.
Last year, 79 Alaska libraries were each awarded around $7,000 in state grants. In August, dozens of libraries were shocked to learn they would only get $1,829 each this year. Librarians in rural Alaska spoke of needing to make drastic cuts. Some even feared closing their doors permanently.
State legislators heard outcry from librarians in the following weeks, and on Wednesday, the state education department said the full funding would be paid next month.
The Clausen Memorial Museum is currently hosting the Annabelle Baker memorial art show. This year, the theme is “Layered Landscapes,” and it showcases a variety of mediums, from painting and photography to weavings and poetry. The gallery will be on display September 6-14, and a reception was held on opening night.
Walking into the museum, guests are greeted by a large painting of the Muskeg, bisected by a wooden boardwalk. The vegetation in the foreground is a bright green, while the distant mountains are painted in shades of blue and gray.
“And the sky was just starting to break from the gray to a little bit of blue coming in,” Beth Flor, the artist, said. “It was just like a perfect kind of summer day walk. I want it to feel like you can just go on the boardwalk and up the trail.”
Scott Burton has been awarded the 2024 Marie Darlin Prize, a $5,000 cash prize awarded annually to an individual or collaboration whose work expresses a commitment to the region’s social or cultural history, community advocacy, or Indigenous identity. In accordance with the wishes of Marie Darlin and donors, the Juneau Douglas City Museum administers the Marie Darlin Prize, the Friends of the Juneau Douglas City Museum funds the prize, and the Juneau Community Foundation oversees the fund.
Scott Burton is a multidisciplinary artist based in Dzántik’i Héeni who works in documentary filmmaking, creative writing, directing, and audio and visual storytelling. He has worked in both the public and private sectors producing documentary film, radio programs, podcasts, and audiobook recordings. Burton has won several awards from the Alaska Broadcasters Association for a variety of collaborative projects.
September 2024 News & Events, Juneau Douglas City Museum.
The Fall issue of Preservation Notes is now available...
Nominations for our annual Historic Preservation Awards are being accepted. We have recognized people and businesses for over 30 years for their work involving saving our unique history. If you are interested, the form to complete and send to us is at www.AlaskaPreservation.com on the home page. Please contact us if you have any questions.
For the past week, a break in the sole cable that provides Sitka’s internet and phone service has wreaked havoc on residents and businesses — and, at the same time, effectively launched a massive social and economic experiment: What happens for 8,000 people who have deeply integrated the internet into their lives, when the switch gets flipped off?
On the one hand: It’s an enormous pain.
“It’s mayhem,” said Rebecca Himschoot, the independent lawmaker who represents Sitka in the Alaska House. “It’s just been shocking how dependent we are on the internet and how hard it is to do daily functions without it.”
On the other hand: It’s a blissful reprieve from modernity.
“All over town, you see people walking around more, going to people’s homes, hanging out and talking,” said Jessica Ieremia, the director of Sitka’s library, which has a satellite unit that’s made it a hub for residents seeking internet. “We’ve been hearing that constantly from people, how nice it is. They’re like, ‘If I could just figure out the finances part.’”
Nathaniel Herz, September 9, 2024. Alaska Public Media.
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded the 36th annual Charles C. Eldredge Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in American Art to Megan A. Smetzer for her book Painful Beauty: Tlingit Women, Beadwork and the Art of Resilience (University of Washington Press, 2021). Through extensive archival and museum research, Smetzer shows how beaders countered repressive colonial systems and sustained cultural practices through innovative artistic visions deeply connected to the environment, clan histories and Tlingit worldviews.
This is the first academic monograph that centers contemporary Indigenous community-based knowledge about Tlingit beadwork. Smetzer’s research for Painful Beauty was supported by many Tlingit artists, scholars and knowledge keepers.
Aldona Jonaitis, director emerita of the Museum of the North, University of Alaska, who nominated Painful Beauty described it as “one of the most original and important publications on Northwest Coast Indigenous art history in the last 20 years” and “a model of sensitive and ethical writing that should be emulated by the discipline.”
Maamcuk Foss walked along the edge of the Kuskokwim River in Akiak. It was storming out, but she had bigger concerns.
“This is all falling in, this is all new,” Foss said, gesturing toward the bank of the river where big chunks of land had broken off and fallen straight into the water. “Within one week we just probably lost about 20 feet.”
Foss is the liaison for the Permafrost Pathways project in her hometown of Akiak. Scientists from the nonprofit joined Foss last month to measure the erosion along the bank using high resolution GPS so that they can keep track of how much land is melting away into the river. They can also use the data to map where it’s likely to erode further, which can help the community know if homes or other infrastructure are in danger.
Anisa Vietze, September 11, 2024. Alaska Public Media.
The United States Navy will formally apologize to the village of Kake this month for its devastating bombardment of the Southeast Alaska town and its associated sites more than 150 years ago.
The attack was launched in January 1869 and destroyed homes, canoes and food supplies during winter, which led to many deaths in the aftermath, especially among children and Elders who starved or died of exposure, according to Kake oral histories.
In the many decades that followed, Tlingit leaders from Kake appealed in vain to the military for an apology and reparations.
The recent news of an imminent apology surprised some Kake leaders who were under the impression that such a gesture was out of reach.
The Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP) recently published a guide listing galleries, libraries, archives, and museums that the federal government has designated as national institutions, including:
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