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.
The Alaska State Museum has partnered with the Forest Service to make our museum an Agents of Discovery mission site.
Mission 49: Journey to Alaska’s Past is a game within the Agents of Discovery app that is played on a mobile device, either at the Museum or virtually at home. It engages kids and families in learning about Alaska cultures and Alaskan History, and concepts like stewardship and sustainability.
In exploring artifacts from different places in Alaska, kids build awareness of cultural differences and similarities, while deepening their appreciation for Alaska heritage, homelands and public lands held in trust for all. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based educational backstories guide youth through the scavenger hunt.
Download Agents of Discovery for free from the App Store or Google Play to begin.
In August 2020, the OWL Videoconference Network hosted 42 videoconferences with a total of 272 participants. Representative videoconferences included:
If you are a non-profit, local, state or federal government agency interested in doing outreach/training through library partners, please contact OWL Program Manager Daniel Cornwall at daniel.cornwall@alaska.gov
In August 2020, 30 libraries in Alaska used the statewide WhoFi contract to report wireless session activity. These 30 libraries saw 34,952 sessions, which was a two percent drop from July’s 35,699 sessions.
Top five libraries by total sessions:
Want your library to automatically and accurately collect your wifi statistics? Have your library’s director send a request to Daniel Cornwall, Alaska State Library Technology Consultant at daniel.cornwall@alaska.gov. Learn more about the State’s WhoFi contract and the detail of reports it can provide you with by visiting https://lam.alaska.gov/wireless/whofi.
Based on our statistics, here are the top five resources accessed during August 2020:
As people on the AkLA list saw on Thursday, the REALM (Re-opening Archives, Libraries and Museums) project posted its fourth round test results that suggests that stacked materials may retain virus longer than single books, DVDs and other materials. The results of this test, as well as the three previous REALM test results have been posted to our Libraries and COVID-19 guide.
Libraries – Are you still finding the Libraries and COVID-19 guide useful? Are there things we ought to take off? Or add? Or rearrange? Send your suggestions to daniel.cornwall@alaska.gov.
The Valdez Museum, in collaboration with artist Kevin Crowley, has posted an online exhibit called Raptora Borealis: Alaska's Birds of Prey on a stand-alone website
The exhibit features an artist bio, his drawings and commentary on falcons, eagles, hawks and ospreys, and links to educational resources about Alaska’s birds of prey. In the art section, Alaska Native names are provided for specific species. The Valdez Museum also recently opened a YouTube channel and posted their recording of the 8/11/2020 Zoom-based Raptora Borealis launch where Kevin Crowley demonstrates how he makes his prints.
Hat Tip to Arlene Schmuland for letting us know that the Alaska Digital Archives has started tweeting with the handle of @AKDigArchives:
The September 2020 press release from the Ketchikan Public Library brought this bit of innovative news:
The Writers Program - now hosted online through a free service called Discord, which allows writers to talk via chat, voice, and video calls with ease. Contact us for an invite code so you can join the server and check it out. Virtual meeting times for Fall are currently TBD, but they already have both a professional fiction editor and a former New York Film Academy instructor to give virtual presentations in the coming months.
Discord is an app that was originally designed for online gamers to communicate worldwide, but has since popped up in many different places. This is the first Alaskan public library instance that we’ve heard of at the Friday Bulletin. We salute Ketchikan Public Library for their creative problem solving in this ongoing pandemic age.
For more about Discord, check out this 8/24/2020 LifeWire article about the app.
Does your library, archives or museum have a group held together through an online resource? What do you use and how is it working so far? Tell us with an e-mail!
An 8/31/2020 press release from SHI [Link to https://www.sealaskaheritage.org/node/1273] contained this happy news:
Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI) has won a federal grant to process and make available a large archives left by the late scholars Richard Xwaayeenák̲ and Nora Ḵeixwnéi Dauenhauer, who played a critical role in documenting Tlingit oral traditions and producing the Tlingit language materials students use today.
The $150,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will allow SHI to process the entire Dauenhauer Literary Estate, which was donated to the institute in 2020. The collection includes more than 275 linear feet of documents, three boxes of journals, 18 boxes of media and 89 boxes of books, which will be processed over two years and made available to the public.
Approximately 2,700 documents from the collection will be digitized and put online under the scope of the grant.
For more background on the project and about Richard and Nora Dauenhauer see:
SHI wins federal grant to process, make available archives from Dauenhauer estate: Part of collection to be digitized, posted online, Aug. 31, 2020, Sealaska Heritage Institute press release.
Art and culture continue to be produced in these pandemic times. KCAW “Raven Radio” recently reported on one such effort in Sitka:
[Tommy] Joseph is working on the park’s second reproduction of the “Waasgo Pole,” which tells the story of a Haida legend. The park no longer has the original. Park records indicate that it came to Sitka around the turn of the century from Koianglas, a Kaigani Haida village on Long Island in southern Southeast Alaska. Territorial Gov. John Brady placed the pole and several others along the park’s present-day Totem Trail.
Carver George Benson then created a reproduction in the 30s that was moved inside Totem Hall after it fell and suffered damages in the 90s. Sitka National Historical Park’s Jessica Perkins says they want to place Joseph’s reproduction outside, where the original once stood.
“ And this Waasgo Pole is one of the few that currently is not along the trail,” she says. “And so, therefore, this is part of a larger effort to restore that historic cultural landscape.”
Perkins says park staff have been reaching out to Haida communities to make sure the park’s history of the pole is accurate. It’s a new effort to make sure Haida culture is appropriately represented along Totem Trail
.For more, visit: Tlingit master carver recreates Haida totem pole for Sitka National Historical Park. By Erin McKinstry. KCAW, Aug 20, 2020.
Webinar announcements from our friends at the Government Publishing Office
Webinar: Pharmaceutical Research Sources Available for COVID-19
Date: Thursday, September 10, 2020 Time: 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. (EDT) / 10:00 a.m - 11:30 a.m. (AkDT)
Speaker: Emily C. Wild; Chemistry, Geosciences and Environmental Studies Librarian; Princeton University
Learning Outcomes: Princeton University Library’s chemistry collection supports library users interested in pharmaceutical research. Often called the “Medicine Chest of the World,” New Jersey is home to 14 of the world's 20 largest pharmaceutical companies. This session will provide an overview of pharmaceutical research from Government sources and other freely available sources for the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the coronavirus disease, COVID-19. Attendees will learn how to find pharmaceutical information for virus tests, antibody tests, vaccines, and treatments for those with COVID-19. Examples will consist of inquiries and information for various chemistry knowledge levels, including nonscientists.
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Webinar: Cite It with Style! How to Cite Government Information Resources Like a Pro (Revised and Updated)
Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 Time: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (EDT) / 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (AkDT)
Speakers: Bobby Griffith, Government Information Reference Specialist, Eagle Commons Library, University of North Texas Libraries
Learning Outcomes: This webinar will provide an overview of the principles of scholarly citation and focus on the specific problems and peculiarities involved in citing Government documents. We will examine each of the parts of a complete Government information resource citation and discuss the best ways to present that information in accordance with the most frequently used style manuals. Viewers will learn tips and tricks to simplify the citation process and render it a little less daunting. This is the same material that was presented in a 2016 webinar, but revised and updated to reflect the latest research trends and current editions of the most popular style manuals. Gov Docs 101 Webinar Series: Gov Docs 101 is a series of introductory subject webinars on frequently-requested Government information topics. The webinars are designed for newer depository coordinators, however anyone with an interest in the subject may attend.
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Webinar: Beauty, Creativity, and Diversity: Art Resources from the Government
Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2020 Time: 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. (EDT) / 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. (AkDT)
Speaker: Jane Canfield, Coordinator of Federal Documents, Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico
Learning Outcomes: Art takes many forms, from paintings to sculptures, and even body and garden art. Come along on a journey through resources which illustrate our diverse creativity as a Nation and our appreciation of the wonderful and fantastic. We’ll visit the National Gallery of Art, stroll through a few museums, and look at some resources designed to open our minds to art and teach us to appreciate a great diversity of artistic creativity. Our resources will come from the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House, and the Smithsonian, among other places. Join us and relax into the world of art, and leave with some new resources to share with friends, family, and your library patrons.
From our friends at the Library of Congress:
American Folklife Center Launches New Podcast 'America Works'
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress is bringing the voices of workers throughout the country to listeners with "America Works," a new podcast series that celebrates the diversity and tenacity of the American workforce during a time of economic crisis and transition.
Each 10-minute episode of "America Works" introduces listeners to an individual worker whose first-person narrative adds to the wealth of our shared national experience. On Thursday, Sept. 3, the first four episodes will become available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and at loc.gov/podcasts [Link to https://www.loc.gov/podcasts/] . A new episode will be released weekly and featured on the Library's social media channels beginning Thursday, Sept. 10.
.Constitution Day, 9/17 is less than two weeks away. If you need resources or programming for this day, look over the latest US Archives Education Updates post Get Ready for Constitution Day.
Among the offerings listed in this blog post is a Constitution workshop. From the post:
Constitution Workshop
What does the light bulb have to do with the U.S. Constitution? Or the board game “Monopoly”? How about the letter you wrote to the President when you were in elementary school? The answer to all three questions is: Plenty! – if you know your Constitution.
Our Constitution workshop is available as an online or on-paper activity. In both versions, students will analyze primary source documents, then establish each document’s constitutional relevance.
The US Census Bureau recently put out a press release in honor of Labor Day that recounts the history of the holiday here in the United States. According to the press release, recognition of Labor Day was sort of a trickle up process. From the press release:
“Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
“The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed in 1885 and 1886. From these, a movement developed to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During 1887 four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 more states had adopted the holiday, and on June 28, 1894, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.”
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