Staff at the Division were saddened to learn about the death ofDee Longenbaugh. Dee's Observatory bookstore was a Juneau institution for many years and Dee herself was a major expert on rare books and maps relating to Alaska. More than that, she was a friend to all who knew herand an advocate for libraries and learning. Our Historical Collections has several of her written works in their collections.
Dee will be buried in Sitka, with a funeral service scheduled there on Saturday, Feb. 17, at 3 p.m. at St. Peter's-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church. A memorial service in Juneau is scheduled for Saturday, May 19 at 2 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Holy Trinity Church elevator fund, or to the Front Street Clinic in Juneau.
We leave you with two articles, Dee's obituary at legacy.com and a profile done by KTOOin 2014 when the Observatory was still open.
The Division is also sad to note the passing of former Southcentral Library Coordinator Judith "Judy" Monroe. Judy was hired by the Division in October 1977 and worked until her retirement in July 1997. Former Division Director Linda Thibodeau described Judy as "certainly legendary in Alaska libraries and this is a loss to Alaska library history, as was Dee Longenbaugh’s death."
Former Head of Library Development Nina Malyshev provided this picture of her and Judy at workshop from back in the day. Judy is in the front row wearing a black blouse:
Judy's daughter Cynthia Monroe asked that the following tribute from the family be shared widely:
It is with hearts both grateful and bereft that we write to tell you of Judith’s passing. Before dawn on February 14th, as Beth and Cynthia held her hands and sang many of her favorite songs, Judith quietly stopped breathing. The family had been keeping vigil for the previous days, and the day before she left us her room was full with loved ones who waited with her and said goodbye.
Over the past several years, Judith journeyed through Alzheimer’s and cancer with the grace and pluck that were her hallmarks. Although she was aware of memory loss, which caused her frustration and grief, she remained grateful for her full life and for the friends far and near who had given it such meaning. Cynthia recalls one day in Victoria, sitting in the sun room, when Judith said in a happy and contemplative way, “I’ve had a great run. It wouldn’t be sad to go. I just don’t want to leave Mick.” At the time, she was healthy and the remark was startling. Now those words—and her explanation of how grateful she was for everything she had done and experienced and especially all the friends along the way—bring us comfort. To the last, through smiles, squeezing hands, and eventually through deep sighs, Judith expressed just those sentiments: deep love and gratitude for all those around her, and boundless devotion to Mick.
In the days to come, we hope to collect stories, and to remember and honor her achievements, but at this moment we simply want to reach out to the communities most important to her—friends and Friends through library work, Friends meetings, love of writing, stories, Alaska and being outdoors, and happenstance—to let you know of her passing and to thank you for being part of our lives.
We plan to hold a private family celebration of Judith’s life at the family home in Hockley, Texas, in March. We would cherish any memories, stories, or photos (including ones simply of yourself or of places Judith loved) that you are able to share by email or physical mail for the album we are compiling.
In lieu of flowers, Judith would honored if you were to plant a pollinator-friendly plant in your garden this summer, or if you wish to make a donation in her memory, organizations that represent Judith’s concerns and passions would be: Alaska Center for the Environment (Since 2016, The Alaska Center - eds)for its efforts on behalf of the land she loved, the Alaska Humanities Forum for promoting cross-cultural understanding, and the Alaska Native Heritage Center for keeping Alaska Native arts and culture alive and accessible.
We are deeply grateful for your part in our lives.
With love,
Mick Monroe, Beth Monroe Walz, Cynthia Monroe & family
For email:
Scouting.fun@gmail.com, c.monroe.writes@gmail.com
For physical mail:
Beth Walz
21500 Murrell Rd
Hockley, TX 77447
A picture is worth a thousand words. But what if someone can’t see that picture? Maybe they struggle with a visual impairment. Or worse, the image doesn’t load due to slow Internet or a network block.
Solution:
The perk of alt-text? Your image can now be indexed alongside your other content by Google.
This can be a fairly in-depth topic, but in most cases, you can’t go wrong by adding alt-text to all of your graphics. And it’s really easy to do, once you know where to add it.
Here are details on how to add alt-text to:
What’s the best way to write alt-text? Read Alt-texts: The Ultimate Guide for pointers from Daniel Göransson, a web developer with a visual impairment. For more in-depth reasons to use alt-text, and how to decide what your images say, go to the World Wide Web Consortium’s site.
Thanks to Division webmaster Amy Carney for this ongoing series.
Although the Alaska State Library Historical Collections has place thousands of digitized photographs and other digitized materials onto Alaska's Digital Archives, these digitized items only represent a smallportion of the Historical Collections holdings. But sometimes a significant proportion of a collection is made available online. Here are three instances where more than half of a photograph collection has been digitized and placed on Alaska's Digital Archives:
As you may know, Auto Repair Reference Center will be going away from the SLED Databases at some point, although we don’t know when. We’ve already got access to its replacement, AutoMate. EBSCO has a short (under 2 ½ minutes) tutorial available at http://go.ebsco.com/Be00PL2Qs00000uN0I1HT3T , which might be helpful if you’re not already familiar with the newer product.
Congratulations to our friends at the Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) for the selection of the Baby Raven Reads literacy program for the Library of Congress' 2017 Best Practice Honoree award. Baby Raven Reads is one of only 15 programs in the world to receive the honor this year.
From SHI's press release:
Baby Raven Reads is a culturally-based program that promotes early literacy, language development and school readiness of Alaska Native children. The program focuses on children age 5 and under because research indicates that children who are fluent readers by the end of third grade are likely to do well in school and go on to higher education.
The Library of Congress Literacy Awards honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad and encourage the continuing development of innovative methods for promoting literacy and the wide dissemination of the most effective practices. The program was founded by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein in 2013.
Our friends at the National Network of Libraries of Medicine Pacific Northwest Region (NNLM PNR) wanted to spread the word about a webinar happening next week:
What: PNR Rendezvous webinar session: “Hope from Our Grandmothers: Decolonizing Data through Stories of Resilience”
When: Wednesday, February 21, 1:00pm PT, Noon Alaska time
Description: Much research has been historically rooted in controlling American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) and other indigenous peoples to exploit land and natural resources, or even heredity and group identity. Yet, AI/AN community ties, tribal sovereignty rights and claims, and cultural values are emerging as critical elements of resiliency key to reversing the very health and social issues that have plagued indigenous populations as a whole since the dawn of colonization. The practice of research and utilizing information collected by means of observation, hypothesis-testing, repetition of experiment and sound conclusions to inform decision-making, have been integral to indigenous survival and wellbeing for centuries. This webinar will review some of the modern scientific values in comparison to AI/AN ways of knowing and provide examples of indigenous research concepts as they align with decolonizing data.
Presenter: Rose James, PhD (Lummi), Director of Evaluation and Research for the Urban Indian Health Institute
How to connect: Registration is encouraged but not required. Register and learn how to connect at https://nnlm.gov/class/hope-our-grandmothers-decolonizing-data-through-stories-resilience/8148.
1 Medical Library Association (MLA) Continuing Education credit is available.
Recording will be posted a few days later at https://nnlm.gov/classes/pnr-rendezvous, scroll down to Past Classes.
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