Nicolas Steenhout interviewed webmaster Amy Carney about her 100 Days of Accessibility on his A11yRules podcast:
As part of good accessibility practice, transcripts of both episodes are available at the A11yRules website.
The Division is proud of Amy’s knowledge and dedication to the practice of web accessibility within LAM.
Today we take a quick look at the SLED history primary sources guide Alaska Highway construction:
This guide features finding aids and other material from:
A few of the collections mentioned are:
In most cases, you will need to visit an institution above to access the materials.
All of the Alaskan Primary Sources guides on SLED are supported in whole or in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Alaska State Library.
As reported by the Sealaska Heritage Institute on March 6, 2019, the Alaska Legislature passed a citation honoring World War II Tlingit Code Talkers Robert Jeff David, Sr., Richard Bean, Sr., George Lewis, Jr., and brothers Harvey Jacobs and Mark Jacobs, Jr..
The State Archives located the Statements of Service for Harvey Paul Jacobs, Mark Jacobs Jr., Richard B. Bean and Robert David and posted them to Alaska’s Digital Archives.
Looking for STEM activity resources and ideas for STEM generally or for your Summer Reading Program? The Alaska State Library has a limited number of STEM activity kits available for lending to public and school libraries. Visit our NASA at My Library Project page for details and for astronomy/space activities you can do rain, shine or midnight sun.
The Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center, housed in the Anchorage Museum, was damaged in last November’s earthquake and was closed pending delivery of replacement special protective glass for its exhibits. According to the 4/15/2019 KTVA report by Dave Goldman, this glass protected the exhibits well and prevented more extensive damage to objects. The article reports that the Center reopened last weekend, which is good news to us.
Here’s to many years of peaceful operation! If your institution has a recovery story from last November’s quake that you’d like to share, drop us a line.
The Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) unveiled a new exhibit this month featuring the work of Tlingit master artist Nathan Jackson, one of the most renowned and internationally recognized Tlingit artists of his generation, according to SHI.
The exhibit, Yéil Yádi—Raven Child: A Nathan Jackson Retrospective, will show Jackson’s work from his earliest productions to his most recent, beginning from the early 1960s and spanning to the present day.
For the full story visit SHI’s press release. The exhibit will be on display until October 15, 2019.
During the 2019 Alaska Library Association Annual Conference Claudia Haines of the Homer Public Library presented on her efforts related to support computational thinking and computer science. Her presentation slides have been posted to the conference website.
One of several helpful slides discusses the difference between Computational Thinking and Computer Science:
We hope you’ll look at the full deck. If you have questions, Claudia’s contact information is on the last slide.
Back in March, Rachel Nash (Soldotna Public Library) and Mary Jo Joiner (Kenai Community Library) made a presentation to a joint lunch meeting of the Kenai and Soldotna Chambers of Commerce. Several resources were demonstrated, including Lynda.com, a video based training service for computer software, marketing, photography and more. The meeting was covered in the 3/13/2019 issue of the Peninsula Clarion. Mary Jo Joiner gave us this statement about the meeting and how she and Rachel were received:
This is part of that Libraries mean Business grant that includes Anchorage, Juneau, Fairbanks, Ketchikan, Kodiak and Homer as well as Kenai and Soldotna. The grant covers the cost of Lynda.com for a year to all cardholders from those libraries. Customers can access the site through the library webpage for the card that they hold. So Soldotna cardholders must login from the Soldotna library website and Kenai cardholders must use the Kenai Community Library website.
The talk was extremely well received. We included information on SLED and the Alaska Digital Library. The Clarion reporter and our Assistant to the City Manager both said they had never heard so many questions following a chamber presentation. The audience was really excited about Lynda.com and our other electronic resources and they asked very good questions. It was a great success. Two business approached us to do presentations at their offices afterwards.
Our congratulations to librarians engaging their local business communities. If your library, museum or archives has been engaged with your local business owners, we’d love to hear about it!
According to the Sutton Public Library’s Facebook page, they started a Home School Group meetup back in January. It was still meeting in late March when the meeting notice said “We will have a snack, brainstorm some future ideas and the head to the park to play. Dress for the weather.”
Does your library have a group or other support for homeschooling students and their parents? What do you do and how is it received?
The Alaska Center for the Book is seeking nominations for the annual CLIA Award for Contributions to Literacy in Alaska. Nominees may be an individual or an organization that has made a significant contribution to the advancement of literacy, literary arts, or the preservation of the spoken or printed word in Alaska.
Deadline for nominations is May 1. Below is the link to the nomination form for online submission or printing and mailing. Mailed nominations should be sent to: CLIA Award Committee, Alaska Center for the Book, PO Box 242074, Anchorage, AK 99524.
We recently received notice of a webinar and resource that may be of interest to schools, libraries and museums:
You are invited to a NASA's Universe of Learning webinar.
When: May 1, 2019 11:00 AM Alaska / 3:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Topic: MicroObservatory: Observing With NASA
Have you ever wanted to take your own photo of a distant galaxy? Have you ever wondered how pictures of deep space are made? This Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA webinar will explore the free MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network. MicroObservatory: Observing with NASA allows user to control the network telescopes, collect images of celestial objects, and create their own images. Join us to learn how you can use this great tool in your venues and engage the public in exploring the universe.
NASA’s Universe of Learning provides resources and experiences that enable youth, families, and lifelong learners to explore fundamental questions in science, experience how science is done, and discover the universe for themselves. Using its direct connection to the science and the experts behind the science, NASA’s Universe of Learning creates and delivers timely and authentic resources and experiences for youth, families, and lifelong learners. The goal is to strengthen science learning and literacy, and to enable inquisitive learners to discover the universe for themselves in innovative, interactive ways that meet today’s 21st century needs.
Register in advance for this webinar.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
You may explore the MicroObservatory before the webinar.
For questions, please contact Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA at girlsSTEAMahead@universe-of-learning.org
Many institutions are exploring ways to support language revitalization for Alaska’s indigenous languages. We appreciated the participation with winning approach used by a recent spelling bee reported by KYUK in Bethel:
Yup’ik literacy reaches new heights with statewide spelling bee. By Johanna Eurich, KYUK-Bethel, April 15, 2019
From the article:
“Dan remembered that many could not spell the words correctly eight years ago, when she began the spelling bee as a way to help students learn to write Yup’ik. This spelling bee is different for many reasons. First, no one gets eliminated if they spell a word wrong. Contestants just keep spelling new words until it is clear who has spelled the most.”
This seems a fun way to run spelling bees in any language and a good way to encourage young people to keep trying at Yup’ik or other indigenous languages. It may be a way to encourage English language learners at all levels.
If your library, archives or museum is undertaking specific activities in language revitalization you’d like to share with colleagues we’d love to hear from you.
Through KTOO’s Energy desk, we recently learned about a podcast featuring young Alaska Native voices that we wanted to share.
The podcast is called “Coffee & Quaq” (“Quaq” is the Iñupiaq word for frozen or raw meat or fish.) and the program is featured in:
Meet Alice Qannik Glenn, the podcaster who’s trying to get more young Alaska Native voices on the mic By Ravenna Koenig, Alaska's Energy Desk (KTOO), April 10, 2019
From the article:
“We’re often defined by our disparities, some of the struggles that we’re going through, and I don’t want that,” she said. “Yes, those stories need to be told. But also, many of us are happy, many of us are thriving, many of us are doing great things, and hopefully those highlights can inspire other young Native people to do the same.”
In one episode of her podcast, she talks with two young Alaska Native women — one an artist, the other an artist and curator — about cultural appropriation. In another, she digs into why some Arctic Native people don’t like to use the word “Eskimo” to describe themselves, and even find it offensive.
We’re less than a year from Census 2020, which for the first time will be primarily online. Libraries, as places of public internet access, will have a special role to play next year. In preparation for this, the American Library Association (ALA) has established a special resource page for the 2020 Census.
Why is the 2020 Census important and why should libraries care? ALA offers these talking points for your consideration and for the consideration of your funders:
Why the Census is Important
Key Roles for Libraries
In addition to this resource from ALA, you might want to visit a map of Census Hard to Count places to see where your community falls or view Alaska’s 2020 Census Operations as coordinated by the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
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