CE NEWS

November 5, 2018

Table of Contents

• Alaska Digital Stewardship Intensive
• Honoring Alaska Native Cultural Heritage
• Where to Find Authentic Alaska Materials for Your Library
• American Indian Youth Literature Awards
• Webinars You Don’t Want to Miss
• CE Calendar

Alaska Digital Stewardship Intensive

Starting on January 8, 2019 Alaska State Library, Archive and Museum staff will be coordinating an Alaska Digital Stewardship Training Intensive. The Alaska Digital Stewardship Training Intensive is free and open to any staff or volunteer working in a collecting institution, such as a library, archive or museum.

The Sustainable Heritage Network's Digital Stewardship Curriculum created by the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation at Washington State University, is designed to introduce staff in small cultural institutions to all aspects of the digital stewardship lifecycle. Participants will have twelve weeks to work through the four online modules. The first module focuses on creating collection development policies, bringing collections into your institution and setting up sustainable digital projects. The second module covers organization and management of collections, description, and digitizing planning and procedures. The third module will cover digital preservation, creating a digital preservation plan and physical preservation. The fourth and final module will cover access and use policies, rights management and online access platforms. Participants are also invited to attend a series of virtual lectures and discussions led by experience facilitators from Alaska.  Presenters will also be available to serve as mentors and guides.  The 12 week training will intersect with the Alaska Library Association conference to be held in Juneau, February 28-March 3, 2019.

The deadline to register for the Alaska Digital Stewardship Intensive is December 21^st.  

Honoring Alaska Native Cultural Heritage

The Honoring Alaska Native Cultural Heritage workshop for tribal and community libraries was held at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks during the week of October 21^st.  Workshop organizers Sue Sherif, retired Head of Library Development for the Alaska State Library and Tyson Rinio, Assistant professor and off-campus librarian at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library located at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, created a workshop that not only supported individual participant continuing education needs but also helped foster community and professional relationship connections across Alaska.  Over the course of five days, participants attended presentations led by Aaron LaFromboise, director of the Blackfeet Community College, Sara Piasecki, archivist at the Anchorage Museum, and Valarie Kingsland, director of the Seward Community Library & Museum, Katrina Hotch of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, Anna Berge and Sarala Puthuval of the Alaska Native Language Archive, David Ongley, former director of the Tuzzy Consortium Library, Jason Russell, archivist at the Tuzzy Consortium Library, and Evon Peter, Vice Chancellor for Rural, Community and Native Education, Linda Wynne, American Indian Youth Literature Award Selection Committee Member, Julie Niederhauser, Public Library Coordinator of the Alaska State Library.

Workshop participants toured the Noel Wien Library and had an opportunity to admire the whimsical mural in the children’s area created by the late illustrator William D. Berry. They also attended a special showing of the emotionally riveting Anne Frank-A History for Today exhibit. On the final day of the workshop, participants got a behind the scenes tour of the UAF Museum of the North and attended a short presentation detailing how the museum is working closely with Alaska Native elders to curate their collection. 

Photography by Julie Niederhauser

Several recurring themes were identified during the workshop: a sense of urgency to preserve Alaska Native languages and cultural heritage, the need to foster connections between cultural organizations, and the need for additional training on digital preservation for Alaska staff working in cultural institutions, and the opportunity for an Alaska institution of higher learning to offer library training or a cultural preservation degree.

The best workshops move people to action. The Honoring Alaska Native Cultural Heritage workshop is the catalyst for the Honoring Alaska Digital Stewardship Intensive.

Where to Find Authentic Alaska Materials for Your Library Collection

During the Honoring Alaska Native Cultural Heritage workshop representatives from Sealaska Heritage shared information about the Baby Raven Books, a collection of children’s books based on Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian cultural themes. One of the books in this award winning collection, Salmon Boy: Shanyáak'utlaax  was selected as the winner of the 2018 American Indian Youth Literature Best Picture Book Award.  A link to an audio recording of the book being read aloud in Tlingit by Elder David Katzeek is available from the Sealaska website.

Additional resources for authentic Alaska materials are

• CIRI Foundation Publications
• Anchorage Museum 
• Inhabit Media an Inuit-owned publishing company located in Iqaluit, Nunavut.

Addition resources for books by Native Americans

• Oyate
• Birchbark books
• Yukon Native Language 
• National Museum of the American Indian
• The RoadRunner Press

American Indian Youth Literature Award

The American Indian Youth Literature Award was established to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians and Alaska Natives. The award is overseen by the American Indian Library Association, an affiliate of the American Library Association. The American Indian Youth Literature awards are given every two years to books that present American Indians in the fullness of their humanity in the present, and in past context. 

Webinars You Don’t Want to Miss

• Small But Might Library Management and Innovation
• Everything You Wanted to Know about the Coretta Scott King Award
• Public Library Administration and Innovation for the 21^st Century
• Public Librarians’ Chat: Finding out what the library user REALLY wants to Know
• Marketing on a Small Budget

CE Calendar

Visit the Library Development Training & Continuing Education Calendar for a listing of free webinars and webcasts of interest to librarians.