Here’s what’s on our calendar for Alaska libraries, archives and museums during the month of September.
This summer the Alaska State Library placed Veronica Bilenkin at the Petersburg Public Library. Here’s what she said when we asked to introduce herself and explain her work:
Hello! My name is Veronica Bilenkin, and am a graduate student pursuing a Master's in Library and Information Science at CUNY Queens College in NYC. Libraries have helped me grow into an insatiable reader, wherein I discovered my favorite genres of books and digital media: Science Fiction (anything involving space, robots or Bradbury), Historical Fiction/Nonfiction (Lisa See at the moment) , and Adult Graphic Novels (Brian K. Vaughn's Y: The Last Man is a must-read). When I am not reading, I love biking, traveling, playing video games and attempting multiple times to learn how to play the guitar.
This summer, I have the amazing opportunity to work at the public library in Petersburg, AK. My duties primarily revolve around revamping and reorganizing the literature located in children's section of this library, and this includes: weeding, re-classifying, purchasing, cataloging, marketing, and running some programming such as Story Times and Open Play. I am really happy to be applying my grad school knowledge to this project while also learning through hands-on experience about what it takes to run a public library.
World War I Exhibit Description from State Archives
If you find yourself in Juneau through the end of the year, you can visit our Alaska and World War I exhibit on the second floor of the Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building.
This is a quote from the introduction label text:
World War I was a global war that lasted from July 1914 to November 1918 that resulted in over nine million combatant and seven million civilian casualties. The United States initially pursued a policy of non-intervention, but after Germany sank American ships and engaged in acts of war against the United States, the United States entered the war in April 1917. This exhibit features archival content about Alaska’s involvement in World War I. Historical photographs and documents from the Alaska State Archives and Alaska State Library Historical Collections provide a window into a critical time in the history of the early 20th century: a time when global war transformed the world and impacted Alaska.
If you can’t make it here or want to see what all the fuss is about, you can hop over to the State Archives Forget-Me-Not blog and their post Alaska and World War I: A Centennial Exhibit, which has a number of images from the exhibit and a selection of State Archives holdings related to the time period.
The Alaska Digital Newspaper Project recently shared this happy news on their blog:
Exciting news! As of this week, Chronicling America has made these four new Alaska newspapers available online:
Within the coming months, we are expecting additional new titles and more pages added to Chronicling America. And as always, we will provide any updates as they come in.
Happy searching!
Nancy Bertels, director of the Sutton Public Library in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is retiring on August 31, 2018. We hope you will all join us in wishing her well.
An account of her career and the good work going on the Sutton Library was provided by her local newspaper:
FINAL CHAPTER: Sutton librarian retiring after 35 years. By Tim Rockey, Frontiersman.com, Jul 30, 2018.
Our favorite part of this article was a description of a wide range of services provided under Ms. Bertels leadership:
Bertels also oversees a book club in the winter and visits each classroom at Sutton Elementary every week during the school year. Bertels runs after school programs once a month where kids can ride the bus to the library to engage in special programs or art projects. The Sutton library holds more than just books, though. Department of Transportation officials met with residents in the Sutton library on Friday to discuss possibilities of native artifacts on the new Long Lake Hill project. Elections are held in the Sutton library, and as of a few years ago, concerts.
Thank you Nancy Bartels for your 35 years of leadership! We wish you the best in your retirement and wish you much grandmother happiness!
Nenana Public Library recently lost their city funding. Fortunately their Friends group has stepped up to keep the library open. They recently started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to keep the library open. Please help if you can and feel so moved.
If your Alaska library, archives or museum is holding a crowdfunding campaign and want statewide exposure, please drop us a line.
Thanks to KTUU in Anchorage for picking up on a June 2017 Pew Research Center study showing that Millennials are the most likely generation of Americans to use public libraries. The KTUU article connects this national trend with anecdotes on millennial usage from librarians Stacia McGourty and Jon Ebron. According to the article, visits to the Anchorage Public Library System are up by 36 percent over last year. Go Anchorage!
The Alaska Digital Citizenship Week is part of an ongoing effort to support students, teachers, families and communities to know how to make safe, smart, and ethical decisions in the digital world. Curriculum resources can be found on the DEED website. For more information contact Sam Jordan at samuel.jordan@alaska.gov (Reprinted from DEED Information Exchange July 27, 2018)
The contest is part of the Fostering Creative Community Connections (FCCC) project, which seeks to promote reading and literary joy through public libraries. The project is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and managed by the PLA, in partnership with community publisher Short Edition. The submission portal will open at 12 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday, Sept. 25. All entries must be submitted prior to 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Tuesday, Oct. 30. Public voting will take place online through Nov. 20, and the winners will be notified in early December. Read more at their press release.
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