A recent article on KNBA radio highlighted the artistic residency of Alutiiq artist June Pardue. She has been demonstrating gut sewing, a practice using seal guts to create waterproof clothing. She also has been teaching classes in gut sewing, substituting sausage casings for seal guts because non-Native Alaskas may not work with marine mammal products.
For more, read:
Alutiiq artist rediscovers Alaska’s original raingear. By Nina Sparling, KNBA, 7/10/2019.
Today we take a quick look at the SLED history primary sources guide Military in Alaska:
This guide consists of collections of primary source material held by Alaskan archives, libraries, and museums, which deal with military activities in Alaska. The guide is divided into three sections, based on the time period that the collections document: Pre World War II, World War II, and Post World War II. You can navigate between these sections using the menu on the left-hand side of the page. This guide is an overview of collections containing significant amounts of material relating to the military in Alaska and is not meant to be comprehensive or include every collection containing material related to the topic.
A few of the collections mentioned in this resource guide include:
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.
This week was National Disability Voter Registration Week. This occasion prompted the Alaska State Library to create a Disability Voter Toolkit.
The toolkit is divided into several sections:
Most of this guide will apply to all voters. We hope that you will register and vote, regardless of political affiliation.
Since March we’ve been doing a presentation by presentation look at sessions done at the 2019 Alaska Library Association (AkLA) Annual Conference where presenters had posted slides and other materials. Today, July 19th, we are happy to share the final two presentations:
This year the Alaska State Library selected Amy Poe, to be an intern at the Petersburg Public Library. According to a recent article from her school:
With the book Useful, Usable, Desirable: Applying User Experience Design to your Library by Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches as a trusted companion, Amy will review the physical library space, service points, policies, and customer service. She will also evaluate library signage and wayfinding, the library’s online presence, and how patrons use the library during her eight-week internship.
For more about Amy and her work, read:
Master's student selected for Alaska State Library Internship Program, University of North Texas Department of Information Science. July 2019.
Hat tip to Tara Alcock, Borough Librarian at Petersburg Public Library for this item.
After 16 years Dorica Rockwell Jackson finished weaving her Diving Whale Robe. Originally commissioned for an ethnographic museum in Antwerp, changed circumstances made it possible for the robe to remain in Ketchikan.
Prior to being put on permanent display at Ketchikan’s Totem Heritage Center, Nathan Jackson, the artist’s husband, wore the robe for a ceremonial dance.
For more details and pictures of the robe, read:
Museum Celebrates Diving Whale Robe. By Elizabeth Gabriel. KRBD, 7/15/2019
From our friends at the Alaska Center for the Book:
Congratulations to our 2019 Contributions to Literacy in Alaska award winners! In our 26th year, we honor: Dr. Stephen Rollins, dean of the UAA/APU Consortium Library and a leader in modernizing and digitizing Alaska libraries statewide; Irene Rowan, a lifelong activist in Alaska Native affairs responsible for Alaska Native/American Indian Heritage Month, Alaska Native Media Group, Alaska Native Book Fair, and much more; and Arctic Entries, a dynamic storytelling program that has captured the ears and imaginations of people across Alaska.
For more information, see the Alaska Center for the Book web page.
A brief item from KFSK highlights a challenge of the Clausen Memorial Museum in Petersburg. The museum’s leadership estimates that between one half and three quarters of the museum’s 50,000 photographs are not cataloged.
For photo examples and ways community members could reduce this backlog, read:
Clausen Museum staff sorting through thousands of uncatalogued historical photographs. By Ari Snider. KFSK, 7/15/2019.
If you’re interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), you ought to take a look at citizen science, a realm where the many can make meaningful contributions to scientific research. If this topic is new to you, consider visiting the Citizen Science guide created by Dan Stanton at Arizona State University. This plain language guide is divided into the following sections:
If your library, archives or museum has started or encouraged a citizen science project, we want to hear from you!
We recently learned about a YouTube series called “Because Science” hosted by a science educator named Kyle Hill. This series looks at a lot of pop culture things through the lens of science in playful way. Each episode comes with links to science items covered.
A few representative episodes:
Kyle Hill does seems to have the science qualifications to be producing these videos. From his bio page at kylehill.net:
Kyle Hill is a science communicator based in Los Angeles, California. He received his bachelors of science in civil and environmental engineering from Marquette University in 2011, and his masters of arts in science communication from the same university in 2013. His work has been published in WIRED, Popular Science, Slate and The Boston Globe, he has appeared as an expert on Fox News, Al Jazeera America, BBC World Service, and Huffington Post Live, held writing positions at Scientific American and Discover Magazine, and has worked as a TV host/expert for Science Channel (MythBusters: The Search, How to Build Everything), Netflix (Bill Nye Saves the World), and Al Jazeera America (TechKnow). Kyle is currently the Science Editor of Nerdist.com, the host of the popular YouTube science show Because Science, and in 2013 was named one of the top science communicators to follow by WIRED magazine.
Kyle's goal as a science communicator is to use popular culture to teach science in a fun and digestible way. He gives presentations at schools and conventions across the country, using enthusiasm and passion to help get another generation excited about science, technology, engineering, and math.
If you know of offbeat but quality resources in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM), please drop us a line.
As of this writing, there are 257 days before the official start of the 2020 Census on April 1, 2020. Libraries have a role to play to ensure every person in the United States as required in Article 1, Section 2 of the United States Constitution.
A recent article in American Libraries lays out additional stakes for next year’s Census:
Billions of dollars in population-based federal funding—for everything from Medicaid to school lunch programs to Library Services and Technology Act grants—hinges on next year’s census. That data also affects how congressional districts are determined and drawn, which in turn decides how many Electoral College votes a state will have. The repercussions of next year’s count will echo for at least a decade, particularly for the country’s most vulnerable communities.
As we’ve stated in this space before, libraries have a role in getting everyone counted. To see how libraries are gearing up and how your library might play a role in getting your community counted, see:
Making It Count: Librarians get ready for the 2020 Census. By Timothy Inklebarger. American Libraries, June 3, 2019
Unbeknownst to us, July 17th was National Tattoo Day, a day to celebrate tattoo artists and the history of tattoos. Carolyn Martin of the National Libraries of Medicine reflected on this day and shared some of the health considerations in getting a tattoo in a post titled Think Before You Ink posted 7/15/2019 on the Dragonfly blog.
While we’re on the subject of Tattoos you might be interested in the Coffee & Quaq podcast episode from 7/5/2018 titled Modern Interpretations of Traditional Iñuit Tattoos. From podcaster Alice Q. Glenn:
This episode explores traditional Iñuit tattooing and the modern interpretations of traditional tattooing. We interview Holly Nordlum and Charlene Apok who are two front runners of the revitalization efforts of traditional Iñuit tattoos in Alaska. I ask them questions about how they became introduced to traditional tattooing, how their home communities received them after they got their tattoos, the history of how tattoos became taboo to our own people, and how Holly and Charlene feel about makeup or temporary tavligun, and how tattoos promote culture, connection, and community.
An interesting item from May 2019 on quickly repurposing library spaces from Library Journal:
Alterspace Transforms Libraries Into “Rooms of Requirement.” By Lauren Young. Library Journal, 5/22/2019.
From the article:
The six different presets automatically triggered programmable LED lights and filled the headphones with a mix of ambiance sounds and music, composed by sound designer Alisa Kolot. A tap on the preset “Relax,” for instance, would soak the space in calming tones of blue, and play a soothing ten-minute track of a plinking piano, chirping birds, and rustling trees. Hitting the preset “Be W3!RD,” on the other hand, submerged users in a rainbow of color, while a slightly faster tempoed tune mixed with the sounds of coffee shop chatter hummed. If none of the presets suited the users’ preference, they could embark on their own journey with the “Customize” button.
“You can change the colors of the light bulb, you can change the brightness of the light bulb. You can turn the sounds off completely, you can make them a little bit louder. You can change them to be whatever you'd like,” Stanton said.
Alterspace is a combination of hardware and software. Listings of both are available on GitHub. You’ll have to read the Library Journal article for the Harry Potter references.
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