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Friday Bulletin: Issues

March 2, 2018

by Daniel Cornwall on 2018-03-02T14:58:00-09:00 | 0 Comments

News from the Division

Free original cataloging available for small libraries

New @ASL – a service for Alaskan libraries with limited access to cataloging resources. ASL will create bibliographic records for uncataloged items on behalf of Alaska libraries wishing to add to these items to their local collection. All of the details and the online request form are on the  Original Cataloging for Alaska page.

This is a free service. Initially the service will place a priority on creating a bibliographic records for Alaska related print materials. However, all items types will be considered, and we encouraged libraries with cataloging needs to complete the online request form

#5WomenArtists: Can you name five women artists?

Women's History Month 5 women artists

The Alaska State Museum (ASM) is partnering with the National Museum of Women in the Arts as well as hundreds of arts and cultural organizations from all over the world to share important contributions made by women in the arts.  

This campaign is a continued effort to increase gender parity in the arts during March, Women’s History Month. Using #5WomenArtists, ASM will share important contributions in our collections made by women with a special emphasis on sharing the stories of women artists of color.  Check out our accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to share what we're sharing. Then spread the word!

New YouTube URL for Division Channel

Our Division YouTube Channel has a new URL. Visit  https://www.youtube.com/c/AlaskaLibrariesArchivesMuseums for your LAM viewing pleasure!

Accessibility Tip: Defining Link Text on Webpages

Imagine opening up a handy toolbar that lists all the links on a webpage. That’s exactly what screen readers can do for people with a visual impairment! Now imagine browsing through that list and feeling lost because all you see are five “click here”s and three “read more”s. Not helpful, right? This is an everyday challenge for people using screen readers.

Tips:

  • Links should make sense out of context.
  • Use informative words or phrases that clearly define where the link leads.
  • Keep hyperlinked text short.
  • Avoid using “click here”, “read more”, or writing out the URL.
  • Alert the user if the link opens a document or a new window. (in parenthesis after the text, add PDF or Opens new window)

Bonus: These tips can (and should) be applied to Word documents, too! If you need to include a written out URL for a printed document, place it in parentheses after the hyperlinked meaningful text, but not set as a hyperlink itself.

Read more in-depth on how links impact screen readers and usability:

Recently digitized: Roads, Wickersham, Juneau

We have another three photograph collections where our Alaska Historical Collections has digitized a portion of the collection and placed it on Alaska's Digital Archives. These three collections all have at least a hundred photos online, but only represent a fraction of the collection.

State Library at AkLA 2018

Several people from the State Library will be at the Alaska Library Association (AkLA) conference in Anchorage next week. If you see us, feel free to say hi and have a chat. 

News from L.A.M.S in Alaska

Museums Alaska: Call for Proposals

Relationships
2018 Museums Alaska Annual Meeting
September 12-15, 2018 in Nome, Alaska

Call for proposals:
Museums function within a complex network of relationships from individual work/life balance to staff and board relationships, and working with communities, stakeholders, funders, institutional collaborators, and more. How can we best maintain healthy and productive relationships on all of these levels? As museums adapt to shifting climates, audiences, and economics, how can we build and maintain resilient relationships for both immediate and long-term success? How do we stress resourcefulness, collaboration, and engagement in our museum relationships?

Session proposals may focus on the conference theme or on other topics of interest to the Alaska museum community.

Please send proposals to program@museumsalaska.org, or fill out this online form, by March 31, 2018.

Proposals should include:

  • Contact email address
  • Lead presenter name
  • Lead presenter title and affiliation
  • Additional presenters’ names, titles, and affiliations
  • Type of proposal (90 minute session, half day workshop, full day workshop, roundtable discussion, or other)
  • Format of presentation (lecture, panel, powerpoint, hands on, roundtable discussion, lighting rounds, workshop, etc.)
  • Proposed title
  • Description (limit 1000 characters)
  • Hardware required (laptop, projector and screen, speakers, etc.)

Other Announcements

SLED links to Sheldon Jackson digitized collections

We recently learned about two collections of digitized materials on Sheldon Jackson that had been put up on SLED,  under Resources by Topic -> History ->  Alaska History Research Resources:

New classes from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM)

The National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NNLM) recently announced a number of free online course to library staff. Four we thought might appeal to a larger audience are:

Library of Congress Posts Interviews with Patterson and Brownstein

This past week the Library of Congress noted the posting of two videos that we feel will be interesting to a wide audience:

  • Interview with Lotsee Patterson - Lotsee Patterson discusses her life and work as a librarian and advocate of tribal libraries and Native American librarianship with staff from the American Folklife Center. Watch the video.

  • Comics & Intellectual Freedom - Charles Brownstein shared the history of comic book censorship from the medium's origins to the present day. He discussed the censorship trend that began in the 1940s, and how history informs legal challenges to graphic novels today. Watch the video.


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