it has never been easier to fill out the Census without leaving your house. Stay home and respond to the Census online at my2020census.gov, or over the phone at 1-844-330-2020.
As of this writing the Census Bureau has paused field operations. So we need everyone with a phone or internet connection to count themselves!
The Census Bureau has a site where you can view view 2020 Census response rate rankings. Alaska’s response rate as of 4/20/2020 was 33.7%. Which ranked us …. Nevermind. Where we fall in state rankings is not nearly as important as getting every Alaskan counted.
While the Census Bureau has currently paused field operations, you can still get counted by visiting my2020census.gov, or over the phone at 1-844-330-2020. Please share this information far and wide. Out of every three people you are sharing this with, two of them may be currently uncounted. Let’s change this. Together.
If you or your patrons have young children, check out these resources from Alaska’s Ready to Read Center provided to us by State Library Early Literacy Outreach Coordinator Samantha Blanquart:
On 3/17/2020, libraries, along with museums and archives in the State of Alaska were ordered closed under State of Alaska Health Mandate 2. Some libraries made the choice to leave their wifi on for patrons in cars and otherwise socially distanced to keep making use of the libraries’ wifi.
Thanks to statewide contract to WhoFi, we know that from 3/17/2020 through 4/14/2020, 16,350 sessions happened at 17 libraries who had WhoFi deployed before mid-March. Each of these 17 libraries can point to utilization of library internet as an important source during closure. They had access to those numbers even if staff were not in the building to count sessions.
WhoFi is offered free to public libraries under our statewide license. See more about what reporting is available from WhoFi by visiting our Getting Wireless Statistics page. If you are authorized to speak for your library and you’d like your library to join our statewide license, send an e-mail to Daniel Cornwall at Daniel.cornwall@alaska.gov.
We intend to keep sharing aggregated wireless session data with the larger library community. We’ll put out a number for 4/15-4/30, then, a full April 2020 number and then monthly after that. We feel this cumulative number will educate people on how much library wifi connections are used by their communities.
Fun and we hope useful news from our Friends at Tumblebooks.
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Dear Teacher/Librarian:
You can now create a personalized link to any book on TumbleBooks' website!
These book links can be used on your website, shared by email, social media, and within your remote learning platforms like Google Classroom!
It is really simple!
First, log in to your subscription.
In the blue nav bar below the site header you’ll see options for “Home” / “Index” / “My Favorites” / “Playlist” / etc.
Click on “INDEX”.
The index lists all our titles in our collection, and you can sort it by Title, Author, Type, or AR number if you wish! You can also jump to a specific letter of the alphabet by clicking on the letters in the “Jump to” line.
On the top left of the index header, you’ll see “BookID”. Each title in the collection is assigned a unique number which, like your username and password, is a necessary portion of the Direct link.
Click on the BookID number beside the book you want, and the line will expand to show your specific URL for that book.
Highlight the URL and press CTRL + C to copy it. Then, press CTRL + V to paste it into your website management tool.
You’re done with setting the direct book link!
When users click on a book link, they can read the book, take a quiz, and more. The rest of the site is also available to them if they wish to browse. (Note that these links will not work on mobile phones at this time; however, it will still log you into the collection).
We encourage you to use these links however you see fit, and especially for your distance learning initiatives. They will work in remote learning platforms like Google Classroom and others.
Don’t hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
Happy Tumbling!
TumbleBooks
Many people across the United States are engaged in telework. Including people involved in NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover:
NASA's Curiosity Keeps Rolling As Team Operates Rover From Home (NASA, 4/14/2020)
The article shares a glimpse of the difference between defining activity for Curiosity when the team in all in one room vs when the team is all in home offices:
Programming each sequence of actions for the rover may involve 20 or so people developing and testing commands in one place while chatting with dozens of others located elsewhere.
"We're usually all in one room, sharing screens, images and data. People are talking in small groups and to each other from across the room," said Alicia Allbaugh, who leads the team.
Now they do the same job by holding several video conferences at once while also relying more on messaging apps. It takes extra effort to make sure everybody understands one another; on average, each day's planning takes one or two more hours than it normally would. That adds some limits to how many commands are sent each day. But for the most part, Curiosity is as scientifically productive as ever.
To make sure everyone is being heard and understands one another, science operations team chief Carrie Bridge proactively talks to the scientists and engineers to close any communication gaps: Does anyone see issues with the current plan? Does the solution the engineers are converging around work for the scientists?
"I probably monitor about 15 chat channels at all times," she said. "You're juggling more than you normally would."
Typically, Bridge would make her rounds to several groups working in a kind of situation room where Curiosity's data and images are viewed and commands are generated. Now she calls into as many as four separate videoconferences at the same time to check in.
"I still do my normal routine, but virtually," she said.
The transition has taken getting used to, but Bridge said the effort to keep Curiosity rolling is representative of the can-do spirit that attracted her to NASA.
Do you have a work from home story you’re proud of? Let us know!
Girls Who Code are making sure that computer science learning continues without a classroom with their Code at Home initiative. From the Code at Home page:
We know that parents, educators, and girls are looking for support and connection during these challenging times. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to school closures and significant disruption to daily life, Girls Who Code is making CS educational activities available for download free of charge, to anyone who wants to access them.
We will release activities weekly — some online, some offline, of varying levels of difficulty—over the course of the next few months. Each activity will include a feature of a woman in tech who pioneered innovative technology.
Activities posted to the website as of 4/20/2020 include:
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