The Alaska State Museum and Sheldon Jackson Museum are creating a new strategic plan and need your feedback. Please help ASM/ SJM by completing this five question survey by Friday, September 27.
At the annual meeting, held in Nome September 12-15, the Alaska Historical Society awarded the Alaska State Library, Archives and Museum the Barbara S. Smith Pathfinder Award for the Alaska Newspaper Digitization Project. The Society recognized Anastasia Tarmann and Janey Thompson for their efforts in making historic Alaska newspapers available online and text-searchable through Chronicling America.
The two presented a poster outlining preservation and accessibility progress made on the Nome Nugget, Alaska’s oldest newspaper. During the conference, Anastasia and Janey had the opportunity to visit Nome Nugget headquarters, which houses daily operations and bound volumes of the paper dating back to 1934. Editor and Publisher Diana Haeker, who took over after Nancy Mcguire’s recent passing and her partner, reporter Nils Hahn, provided a tour of the historic building and antique press equipment (they still have original typesetting and lithographs!).
Accepting the award on behalf of the Division was Anastasia Tarmann and Janey Thompson. Janey wrote up their experiences in a post on the Alaska Digital Newspaper Project blog.
Jim Simard, former Head of Historical Collections was give the Evangeline Atwood Award for Excellence at this year’s joint conference of Museums Alaska and Alaska Historical Society (AHS).
From the AHS award page, “The Evangeline Atwood Award for Excellence (called the Trailblazer Award prior to 1989) is given to an individual for significant long-term contributions to Alaska state or local history. The award is named for one of the founders of the Alaska Historical Society who wrote, supported, and advocated for Alaska history from the 1940s into the 1990s.”
The Alaska State Archives and Alaska State Historical Records Advisory Board (ASHRAB) are kicking off October with activities aimed to connect individuals with historic records and learning opportunities, as well as remind government agencies about the importance of managing digital records. October is nationally recognized as Archives Month, a month when archivists make the effort to increase awareness of the value of archives. For Archives Month 2018 the State Archives has produced educational posters, is participating in an educational social media event, is offering a special collections care and research day for the public, and making awards to individuals for educational use of historic records.
On October 4 the State Archives encourages Alaskans to participate in the national #AskAnArchivist Day on Twitter where teachers, students, and the general public can pose questions to Alaskan archivists, librarians, and curators. Alaskans can view past Alaskan discussions under hashtag #AkArchivists.
On October 18, the Alaska Day holiday, the State Archives is participating in the Alaska Day Research Open House. In Juneau from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Andrew P. Kashevaroff Building (APK), located at 395 Whittier Street in Juneau, 2nd floor Research Center, doors will be open and staff available to demystify the research process and provide tips for caring for your own family archives. Alaskans can learn how to research collections at State Archives and Library, see treasures from the collections, and find out how to care for your family photographs, letters, and other papers.
For more on how the State Archives is celebrating Archives Month, see their press release.
The Alaska State Museum has announced the awarding of 15 grants totaling $105,600 to Alaska museums and cultural centers for museum projects around the state. The following awards were made:
Is your library planning on applying for E-rate? Check out these October webinars with State Library E-rate consultant Valerie Oliver:
The E-rate Administrative Window October 4, 2018 10:30am, repeating at 3:30pm
10:30 am | Meeting number: 808 486 012
Or Join by phone at 1-855-244-8681 Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada)
Access code: 808 486 012
3:30 pm | Meeting number: 800 487 697
Or Join by phone at 1-855-244-8681 Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada)
Access code: 800 487 697
Not sure how to operate your OWL video endpoint? Want to learn how you can get interactive video programming for your library? Join Chris Skidmore (OWL Video Services) and OWL Program Manager Daniel Cornwall to answer these questions and learn how to be good presenters and participants in your future videoconferences, meetings, remote college classes, job interviews and more.
Training will start promptly at scheduled time. If no one joins us by 10 minutes after the hour, training will be cancelled.
In October these trainings will be:
If you would like to join this conference, please contact Video Conferencing Services at 1-800-910-9601 or at ua-owlvideo@alaska.edu
Testing your source document before publishing can save you and your users from headaches. Fortunately, recent versions of PowerPoint have made it easy for you to perform automated accessibility checks. It’s not a perfect system, but it’ll help you maintain an accessibility-first mindset.
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s September Artifact of the Month is a Tlingit, twined, spruce root oval mat (SJ-I-A-577B). It is decorated with an inner band and outer band of natural grass and maiden hair fern in false embroidery with the half head of the salmonberry pattern. The space between the bands is filled with concentric single rows of natural grass false embroidery. The edge of the mat is in the style of Frances Paul’s border #1. The mat is one of a set of four collected by Emily McCorkle Fitzgerald and one of fifteen pieces gathered by Emily McCorkle Fitzgerald, the wife of Dr. Jenkins (John) A. Fitzgerald.
Tudor Elementary School (TES) librarian Michelle Carton was recently named School Library Journal’s Champion of Civic Engagement.
Ms. Carton won the award in part for the “Young Global Citizens” curriculum for TES. Here’s a taste of what’s involved from the School Library Journal article:
‘So Carton developed the “Young Global Citizens” curriculum, which she used with her own K–6 students and other educators have used for K–12. She began by teaching kindergartners and first graders about children around the world. They learn by reading books as well as videoconferencing with classes in other countries. Carton might point out that pictures in books show that children in some parts of world don’t wear shoes. “What is in our environment that makes it so we wear shoes?” she asks the students. Inevitably one child will reply that shoes protect their feet from snow. They then have a discussion about how different environments and cultures may necessitate different practices. This makes abstract ideas easier for kids to understand. “It’s hard to describe ethnocentrism to kids,” she explains. “It’s not us versus them. We don’t have to be heroes and rescuers, just to understand the variety of global perspectives.”’
Ms. Carton shares information about her work and the “Young Global Citizens” curriculum through GlobalEducationAK.org.
References:
World Class: Michelle Carton, SLJ's 2018 Champion of Civic Engagement. By Grace Hwang Lynch. School Library Journal, 8/21/2018.
Fairbanks North Star Borough Libraries director Melissa Harter recently told us about their recently established Girls Who Code Club. They began in the spring and already have a full group for fall. The club is facilitated by Christine Osciak, MLS, Digital Literacy Librarian and Laura Lundell, teacher and UAF Computer Technology student.
The previous work of the club was featured in an 8/6/2018 Fairbanks Daily News Article by Kris Capps.
For further exploration:
An announcement from our friends at Internet2:
Sign up for the Presidential Primary Resources Project (PPSP) today. Learn about presidents like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Ulysses S. Grant directly from National Park Service rangers and presidential historians in this live, interactive web series running from January through March 2019.
Share the presidents’ stories with your students through live interactive video and primary source documents.
Register today!
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