Special Note: No Bulletin will be published 2/1/2019. The next regular issue of the Friday Bulletin will be 2/15/2019.
A screen reader is a computer program or app that reads aloud text from a computer or phone. Created for people with low-vision or blindness, it helps bridge equal access to the use of computers and consumption of information on the Internet. TalkBack is the built-in screen reader on Android devices.
How to Use TalkBack
Turn on TalkBack (Settings > Accessibility > TalkBack).
Swipe left or right to move focus on the screen.
Double tap to open up an application.
Turn off TalkBack (Settings > Accessibility > TalkBack).
5 Common Gestures for TalkBack
|
Gesture |
Task |
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Swipe right |
Next focusable item (like the Tab key) |
|
Swipe left |
Previous focusable item (like Shift+Tab key combo) |
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Swipe up, then right |
Access Local Context Menu (like VoiceOver’s rotor) |
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Single tap |
Stop reading |
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Double tap |
Activate link or button |
Learn TalkBack In-Depth
The Alaska State Library is responsible for the Alaska State Publications Program and they recently posted the list of state publications they cataloged between September and December 2018. Here are a few highlights from the list.
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s January Artifact of the Month is a Yup’ik mask (SJ-B-102). The mask was collected from Andreafski by Sheldon Jackson in 1893. Unfortunately, the museum has very little information on file about this mask. There is no record of the maker, nor the ceremonies or dances in which it was worn. Masks were frequently collected throughout history without any documentation of the stories they told. Because the connection between the masks and the stories they tell is so fundamental, we are limited in our ability to fully understand this mask and its purpose, yet we can appreciate the craftsmanship that went into making it and find some common elements that are typically present in masks from this part of Alaska.
For past objects visit the Museum's Artifact of the Month archives page.
E-rate specialist Valerie Oliver wants all libraries to know that FCC Form 471 requesting E-rate Funds has a deadline of March 27, 2019. Please direct questions on this deadline to Valerie (phone 907-227-4051).
The Alaska State Library is accepting applications for two summer internships in public libraries. Interns will receive travel reimbursement, per diem ($60/day for 50 days), an honorarium and free housing during the eight-week internship. The internship is sponsored by the Alaska Library Network.
The Alaska State Library Internship Project is a grant-funded project that will bring two interns who have recently or are near completion of their Master’s degree in Library or Information Science to work in Alaska public libraries for two months in the summer of 2019. The goals of the project are to provide assistance to public libraries in Alaska who lack staff expertise to sustain long-term projects that would benefit their libraries and communities, provide internship and professional development opportunities to MLIS graduates and increase the number of MLIS graduates applying for jobs in Alaska. Application period will close February 16, 2019.
To learn more about the Alaska State Library Internship Project and apply visit our internship page.
For more information contact Julie M. Niederhauser at 907.465.2916 or julie.niederhauser@alaska.gov
We got this press release from University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) after the last Friday Bulletin went to print:
Karen Jensen has been named UAF’s Director of Libraries.
Jensen is a Professor of Library Science and has been at UAF since 1996, when she served as library assistant in the Biosciences Library, followed by a position as the Circulation, Interlibrary Loan and Media Manager from 1998-2006. Jensen then took a position as a faculty member and head of Library Collection Development, overseeing the subscriptions and purchases of journals, electronic databases and books.
Among other experience, she has served as president of the Alaska Library Association (AkLA) and has led numerous projects and committees within Rasmuson Library and in Alaska.
Jensen will provide Library leadership, oversight and administration and will report to the Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor.
Several of us at the State Library know Karen and we’re all thrilled to learn of this appointment! Best of luck Karen!
The January 2018 newsletter of the Gustavus Public Library came with a list of books judged best by patrons. By permission of Public Services Librarian Jen Gardner, here is the list:
Fiction:
Nonfiction:
Memoir:
Young Adult:
Juvenile:
Has your library involved patrons in building reading lists? If you’re willing to share your lists, drop us a line.
Thanks to Dawn Biddison, Museum Specialist for posting the following message to the Alaska Museums mailing list:
The Alaska office of the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center at the Anchorage Museum has completed a new YouTube channel, presenting videos from its programs, where you can learn from Alaska Native elders, culture bearers and artists about their languages, arts and lifeways. Go to:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNpC1tX-kqJaSU7ZSxUWAfA
Playlist subjects include Dena’ina, Iñupiaq and St. Lawrence Island Yupik languages and cultures; making Aleutian Island bentwood hats; processing and making art with salmon, gut, ivory, porcupine quill and cedar bark.
We believe this new resource will be valuable to libraries and archives as well as museums.
An item sent on the Sutton Public Library mail list surprised us:
Thursday, January 17th, 6pm
Cooperative Extension Presents – Chicken University: Learn the fundamentals of raising a backyard flock in Alaska.
This fun program will cover the basics of coop design, breed selection, nutrition, incubation, disease control and even a little chicken psychology.
We asked Sutton Librarian Juli Buzby about this and she explained that she works with the Mat-Su/Copper River District Cooperative Extension Office in Palmer to bring programs to the library. These Extension classes at the Sutton Library are monthly.
If you’re interested in approaching an Extension Office for programs at your library, visit their District Offices page. If they’re open to doing a class but can’t make it to your location, suggest the possibility of an OWL videoconference. If they agree, contact Daniel Cornwall, OWL Program Manager if you need help in setting up a videoconference.
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) is donating a copy of its interactive exhibit, Our Grandparents’ Names on the Land, to schools across the region so students in Southeast Alaska may learn about ancient place names and the innovative inventions that Native people engineered to catch halibut and salmon sustainability.
Native Voices on the Land is an interactive map display featuring 3,500 Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian place names in Southeast Alaska written in the correct orthography, 2,500 of which have audio files so viewers can hear them as they were spoken in the past. Some have photos, sound and video that present and explain clan at.óowu (clan-owned objects, stories, songs and names) associated with the place.
For more information, please see the full SHI press release dated 1/9/2019.
Because of changes in copyright law, no material since 1922 has entered the Public Domain (that is, free to use, reuse or remix) since 1999. That drought ended on January 1, 2019. Now everything from 1923 (for the most part) is now available to us for free. A few of the newly freed works are:
According to the Library of Congress, from now on works will be entering the public domain on a yearly basis.
This release also means that people who want to perform music and plays written in 1923 can now do so without paying licensing fees to the copyright holder or look over their shoulders for a copyright infringement claim. Same goes for institutions showing movies from that year.
For more on this first release of materials into Public Domain materials in two decades, read these two short blog posts:
We are very happy to share the following news from J Pennelope Goforth:
The Sea Chest, journal of the Puget Sound Maritime Society, devoted the winter issue completely to Alaska. The cover is the venerable Yukon River sternwheeler SS NENANA which under the leadership of the Friends of the NENANA in Fairbanks is undergoing a restoration. Alaskan archeologist James Rogers and historians Gary Stein, Bruce Merrell, and Rebecca Poulson all contributed articles on Alaska maritime history. Guest Editor for the issue is J Pennelope Goforth, writer and photographer who added a piece on the Mailboats of the Aleutians: STARR in the Wake of the DORA. Alaska History Day is coming up and director Amanda Dale of the Alaska Humanities Forum encourages students to delve into Alaska's maritime history and historians to step up help them. Finally, four book reviews cover the latest in Alaska and maritime books from one about ship's cats, Seafurrers, to the latest shipwreck compilation by Good and Burwell and the story of the discovery of the KAD'YAK. Now in its 50th year, The Sea Chest is available through the Puget Sound Maritime Society.
Our friends at the Library of Congress recently noted some web resources we think you will find useful and possibly enjoyable:
The Occupational Folklife Project began in 2010 as a multi-year project to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition. To date, fieldworkers have recorded more than 600 interviews with workers in many areas. The interviews feature workers discussing their current jobs and formative work experiences, training, challenges, rewards, and aspirations. The latest set of interviews added to the site features home health care workers. For example, Nargiza Turanova describes her experiences as a home care worker, what caregivers discuss when they talk to each other, and her job satisfaction.
This collection for theater lovers is now available in a much improved format and features stage and costume designs, photographs, posters, playbills, and playscripts from 1935-1939 including productions of Macbeth and The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus as staged by Orson Welles.
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