it has never been easier to fill out the Census without leaving your house. Respond to the Census online at my2020census.gov, or over the phone at 1-844-330-2020.
No Bulletin was published on 7/3/2020 due to the Independence Day Holiday.
Our facilities in Juneau (State Library, State Archives and State Museum) and Sitka (Sheldon Jackson Museum) have been open to walk-in visitors since the week of July 7th.
The Alaska State Library and Alaska State Archives in Juneau are open Tuesday – Friday, from Noon - 4 PM. The Alaska State Museum in Juneau and the Sheldon Jackson Museum in Sitka are open Wednesday – Saturday from Noon - 4 PM.
To protect our staff and visitors, we recommend:
If you want to give your young children the best start in learning, you could take a look at the Caregiver Chats and other videos posted on the Ready to Read Alaska YouTube channel. Caregiver Chats provide 15 minutes of training for parents on topics such as Supporting Writing, Reading for Young Children, and Screen Time for Young Children. Supercharged Storytimes provides six hour-long training modules for librarians on how to enhance storytimes.
Ready to Read Alaska is a statewide resource for families and caregivers of infants and toddlers in Alaska. During the first three years of a child’s life, the brain develops at a phenomenal rate. “Our mission is to promote early literacy development in Alaska’s pre-kindergarten children to create the foundations needed for when a child begins to learn to read.” Ready to Read Alaska is staffed by librarian Samantha Blanquart. It is located at the Z.J. Loussac Library in Anchorage and funded through the Alaska State Library by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Learn more about the free reading kits available to parents and day cares on the Ready to Read Alaska website.
June 2020 saw 33,722 wireless internet sessions used by patrons at libraries participating in the Alaska statewide contract to WhoFi. This represents an increase of about 28% over May 2020.
In June 2020, 29 libraries had wifi session statistics for at least one month. 23 libraries reported a change in usage. Three libraries reported decreasing usage and 20 reported increasing usage. The other six libraries started gathering statistics in June.
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 hope your public library will join us in demonstrating how much library internet is used across Alaska.
In June 2020, the OWL Videoconference Network hosted 22 videoconferences with a total of 152 participants. Representative videoconferences included:
If your library would like to schedule an OWL videoconference, please visit https://lam.alaska.gov/owl and complete the Schedule a videoconference through OWL form.
On 7/7/2020, KUCB in Unalaska reported that the Museum of the Aleutians is open to the public again.
According to the article, the museum will:
… let a few people in at a time—no more than three family groups or individuals who will practice social distancing, and they will have to wear masks," said Museum Director Ginny Hatfield. "We're going to screen people when they come in. So it'll be a restricted opening, but it's an opening, and we're pretty excited.
Patrons will be limited to one hour visits during specific time slots and 15 minute cleanings will take place between visits.
For more, see: Museum Of The Aleutians Welcomes Visitors Once Again By Maggie Nelson (KUCB) 7/7/2020.
The UA Museum of the North Hours and Admission page reports they welcomed the public back to the Museum starting 7/8/2020. Admission comes with some conditions:
For additional information about the Museum’s COVID-19 measures, visit their Hours and Admission page.
According to a 6/26/2020 Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) press release, donated a work that blends art and COVID-19 awareness. From the press release:
Juneau artist Lily Hope wove the mask as a nod to the Coronavirus pandemic using an ancient art practice in a new way. The piece, Chilkat Protector Mask, is a work of fine art that will go into the institute’s permanent collection and tell the story of the virus through the Native world view for many years to come, said SHI President Rosita Worl.
“This mask—made of ancient Chilkat weaving but adapted to new purposes to ward off this new virus—is a symbol of our cultural strength,” Worl said at the ceremony. “During the 1918 flu pandemic, our ancestors who were stricken by an unknown disease crawled away from our village along the Chilkoot River so they would not infect their families.”
“We too are taking care of our families by isolating and wearing masks.”
The Kodiak History Museum recently repurposed an exhibit from a temporary gallery to an online experience. From the Hold. An Introduction home page:
This exhibit was originally designed for the temporary gallery space inside the Kodiak History Museum. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and our related closure, we decided to make this exhibit freely accessible online. Even during these difficult times, we are dedicated to our mission of sharing Kodiak history. Enjoy!
The exhibit is split into four sections:
We’re grateful to the Kodiak History Museum for sharing these mindfulness resources.
This month the Anchorage Museum began a new public photography installation. The exhibition is called “Unheard.” From the ProPublica article announcing the exhibit:
Co-presented by the Anchorage Museum, Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica, the installation features 27 empowering portraits of survivors of sexual assault from across Alaska, along with quotes from them about their experiences. The portraits and stories were originally published by the Daily News and ProPublica throughout June as part of a joint reporting project of the same name.
Occupying 27 nine-foot panels on the museum’s outdoor façade, the photography installation also includes recorded audio from most of the people featured, literally making their voices heard. It will remain on view through mid-September.
For more about the exhibit visit:
The Anchorage Museum, Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica Present “Unheard,” a Public Photography and Audio Installation Highlighting Alaska’s Sexual Assault Survivors by ProPublica July 1, 2020.
From our new friends at the University of Minnesota Press:
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In an effort to promote understanding and change, the University of Minnesota Press is releasing an open access collection of antiracist books, available free to read online through August 31, 2020.
The books and their authors included in the Reading for Racial Justice collection challenge white supremacy, police violence, and unequal access to criminal justice, education, and resources in Minnesota, the United States, and throughout the world.These books are available in collaboration with the authors with the hope that they can be widely read and can contribute to the necessary and long overdue conversations the Twin Cities and our country must now undertake following the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
The Reading for Racial Justice collection includes such books as Degrees of Freedom: The Origins of Civil Rights in Minnesota, 1865-1912 by William D. Green; Hope in the Struggle: A Memoir by Josie R. Johnson; Tell Me Your Names and I Will Testify: Essays by Carolyn Lee Holbrook; What God Is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss by and for Native Women and Women of Color edited by Shannon Gibney and Kao Kalia Yang; Blood Sugar: Racial Pharmacology and Food Justice in Black America by Anthony Ryan Hatch; Civil Racism: The 1992 Los Angeles Rebellion and the Crisis of Racial Burnout by Lynn Mie Itagaki; Digitize and Punish: Racial Criminalization in the Digital Age by Brian Jefferson; Educated in Whiteness: Good Intentions and Diversity in Schools by Angelina E. Castagno; Prison Land: Mapping Carceral Power across Neoliberal America by Brett Story; Survival Schools: The American Indian Movement and Community Education in the Twin Cities by Julie L. Davis; and others.
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Visit the Reading for Racial Justice collection.
Ready to soar into space and maybe leave current problems behind for a bit? Consider joining NASA as they move towards launching the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover. This probe will also carry the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, a technology demonstration that marks the first attempt at powered, controlled flight on another planet.
The launch is planned for 7/30/2020 and will be shown on NASA TV and elsewhere. It could be delayed for up to three weeks, so stay flexible.
For more see:
Homeschooling help from our friends at the Government Publishing Office:
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Webinar: Teaching from Home: Government Resources Can Take You from Stressed Out Parent to Best Teacher of the Year Status
Register to attend the live training webinar
Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2020
Time: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (EDT) / 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Alaska
Speakers:
Learning Outcomes: Are you teaching from home and working at the same time? Do you need resources for summer fun and for online classes in the fall? This webinar will offer some facts about teaching at home in the age of COVID-19 and cover Federal Government resources along with some state and local resources that provide help for pre-school through 12th grade. Some resources in languages other than English will be covered. Information sites presented will include NOAA, NASA, USGS, and the Department of Education. Special emphasis will be given to presenting Ben’s Guide To the U.S. Government, which offers educational resources on all aspects of U.S. Government for a variety of age groups. Finally, we’ll have tips from real parents who are teaching and working from home.
Registration confirmation information: Upon registering, a confirmation email from sqldba @ icohere.com will be sent with instructions for joining the webinar. To ensure delivery of that email, configure your junk mail or spam filter(s) to permit messages from that address. GPO staff will also email your access information the day before the webinar. If you do not receive your login information, please email FDLPoutreach@gpo.gov.
Prior to the webinar:
For those participating via a desktop or laptop computer (preferred method), a WebEx plug-in must be installed (one-time only). Download instructions. Some features will not be available for users participating with a tablet or smartphone. Devices need to have a WebEx app installed from the device’s app store, which may take time. After installation, the app will ask for you to Allow or Deny permissions.
Visit FDLP Academy for access to FDLP educational and training resources. All are encouraged to share and re-post information about this free training opportunity. Recording and closed captioning are available. All webinars are free of charge.
From our friends at the Library of Congress:
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The 20th Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate “American Ingenuity” in 2020, featuring the creativity and inspiration of some of the nation’s most gifted authors in a reimagined virtual festival the weekend of Sept. 25-27. The festival is part of the Library’s 220th anniversary year, and more details will be announced at a later date.
In a time of social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, people around the world have turned to books for inspiration. As a result, the festival will move online to serve a global audience and demonstrate how authors and their stories help to connect and illuminate the world.
The doorway to this year’s festival will be the National Book Festival website at loc.gov/bookfest. Subscribe to the festival blog for updates on this year’s plans.
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For more information, visit:
Library of Congress Celebrates 'American Ingenuity' and Takes 2020 National Book Festival Online for Readers Everywhere : Festival Lineup Includes Madeleine Albright, John Grisham, Joy Harjo, Jenna Bush Hager, Colson Whitehead, Melinda Gates, Kate DiCamillo and Jason Reynolds
From our friends at the Kodiak History Museum:
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Download a free Kodiak History Museum coloring book! Sarah Asper-Smith of ExhibitAK created this for us using Brianna Gibbs’s beautiful imagery from our exhibits. Download, print, and fill with color!
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