Those of us at the Alaska State LIbrary who worked with Mary Jennings Penzenik in any of her many roles with the State Library or Alaska Library Association were deeply saddened to learn of her death on Saturday, May 26, 2018. State Librarian Patience Frederiksen spoke for all of us in a May 27th e-mail to the AkLA-L mailing list:
Dear AkLA Friends,
I have just learned that Mary Jennings Penzenik passed away yesterday after a battle with cancer.
Mary worked for the Alaska State Library as the talking book librarian and as the grants and statistics librarian in the Anchorage office until her retirement in 1999. Mary was extremely active in AkLA in many capacities - conferences, president, and executive officer- from the 1970s until 2013.
She was positive and outgoing and bright. She mentored me and many other librarians. I will miss Mary Jennings Penzenik.
Patience
At this time we are checking with Mary's family to see how they'd best like us to remember Mary. Details will be shared on the AkLA-L list.
We'd also remind you that if you've been waiting to get in touch with someone, stop delaying. They may not be around when you finally pick up that phone or send that e-mail.
Our division is currently hiring the following positions for our Juneau location:
Today, Zachary Jones of the Alaska State Archives passed along this happy news about Alaska Railroad records transferred from the National Archives to the Alaska State Archives:
Initially, NARA transferred 1,278 boxes of Alaska Railroad Corporation records to us. Our efforts appraised the collection and retained only materials of historic value. The collection has important historical value in many areas. The Alaska Engineering Commission, which built the railroad starting in 1914, laid out the Anchorage township, as well as other towns along the way. The records of the Engineering department have steadily been requested by researchers looking into the founding of Alaskan towns, tourism, Denali National Park history, maps, World War I and II, the 1918 Flu, and the list goes on. A while back I put some of the railroad’s aerial photographs of glaciers online (two examples below), and I know some climate scientists really liked these, as they were new content for the documentation of glacial recession. The railroad had these made to document drainages, so they could plan for flooding, etc., along their railway lines.
A selection of images and other Alaska Railroad records are available on Alaska Digital Archives
Static web pages are a lot like Word documents. We organize our content into sections with headings, lists, hyperlinks, tables, and add images for flair. But did you know that people who use screen readers (often those with visual impairments) rely heavily on these structures?
Screen readers have built-in navigation aids to help users quickly jump around the content of your web page, just as a sighted person skims a page for context and content. One of those built-in tools is a Headings Menu that allows users to quickly access the structure of your content.
Today the Alaska State Museum opens the traveling exhibit "Titanic of the North" about the 1918 wreck of the SS Princess Sophia. The exhibit runs from June 1, 2018 - October 6, 2018. If you'll be in Juneau during that time we hope you will visit. If you'd like to learn more after viewing the exhibit or simply cannot make it to Juneau, check out the new resource guide put together by the Division. The guide contains links to digitized materials, notes of upcoming events and highlights of books, DVDs and other material related to the Princess Sophia.
A note from the State Archives about their recent instagram post on a Japanese diary captured at the battle of Attu:
This month marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Attu, the only battle fought on American soil during WWII. Below are images of the translated and transcribed diary of Nebu Tatsuquhi, a Japanese Medical Corps Officer, who was killed during the battle. You can find his diary online on Alaska’s Digital Archives.
In the May 18, 2018 issue of the Friday Bulletin we mistakenly said William H. Smith was appointed an "Association Professor." His actual appointment was to Associate Professor of Library Science, Emeritus. We regret the error and have corrected the original item.
Our division recently started keeping a list of observances and anniversaries related to Alaska or of broad interest to libraries, archives or museums. We thought it would be helpful to share with you, not only for your planning, but to help us see what we've missed. Here's what we have for July:
July
Month long observances
Week long observances
Specific day observances
Conferences
We recently teamed up with the Alaska Library Network to provide several social media friendly Live Homework Help memes. You can find this and other graphics on the Live Homework Help page on ALN.
Petersburg Public Library director shared information with us about their May 17th raising of a "storytellers pole." From their Facebook post:
Unveiled on May 17, 2018, the Storytellers Pole is a 20 foot red cedar artwork developed and created for the Petersburg Public Library by master Tlingit carver Tommy Joseph. The Library is honored that Tommy decided to share this special and unique piece with our library and our community! The Storytellers Pole acknowledges the tellers of stories, their audience, the importance of oratory and written stories and how place impacts stories. It is inspired by familiar children’s stories, rhymes and tales most of us grow up with; stories and story tellers that connect generations. The project is made possible with funding from the Rasmuson Foundation, Petersburg Community Foundation, Friends of Petersburg's Libraries and scores of individual donors and with help from the Seetka Kwaan Dancers, ICICLE Seafoods, the tender Windham Bay, and the Petersburg Borough Public Works crew. Thank you! (Photo credits: Tommy Joseph, Skip Hallingstad, Nicole Hallingstad, Susan Wood, Janine Gibbons)
For those unable to open Facebook at work, here's a peek at a few of the pictures:
State Librarian Patience Frederiksen was part of a group effort of Alaskan libraries to share concerns on library issues with our Congressional delegation. She offered this report of their activities:
On May 8, four Alaska librarians (Mary Jo Joiner, Katie Baxter, Deborah Rinio and I) visited the Washington DC offices of our congressional delegation to discuss federal support for libraries through IMLS and LSTA, the ongoing need for a robust E-Rate program, and the Tribal Connect Act, which will allow tribal libraries to receive E-Rate funding. In Senator Sullivan’s office we met with a young man names Joseph Hopp. Joe told us he grew up in Anchorage and was enjoying his time as a staff aide to the Senator.
During our presentation, Deborah discussed LSTA-funded grant projects for school libraries in Alaska. She talked about Brain Pop and Student Resources in Context, then said: “I really love this next grant project. Battle of the Books –“
Joe exclaimed: “I did Battle of the Books. I loved doing Battle of the Books. It was so much fun!”
Score one for the home team…
Then Senator Sullivan came in to talk to us. We went over our talking points once more, then Mary Jo swung into a story about how the Kenai Community Library dealt with a veteran who had behavior issues. Staff aides kept opening the door to tell the Senator his next meeting was starting, but he waved them off as Mary Jo told about how her staff researched services for this veteran and guided him to these services and how he fared – this man is now holding down a job and has an apartment in Kenai.
Senator Sullivan said, “Wow! That is such a wonderful story. I am teary-eyed after hearing this. I had no idea that libraries could do stuff like this.”
We had about 25 minutes in that meeting with the Senator, which is amazing. Score two for the home team!
We met with staff aides in Senator Murkowski’s office, then had about 15 minutes with the Senator. She talked about how important it is to get books out to our rural communities in any way we can so that people have something to read. That startled me a bit because I seem to spend so much of my time on internet and broadband issues that I forget about how closely people equate libraries with books. It made me think about the resources we do have in place to get Alaskans to books – the Books by Mail program, Sesame Street e-books on SLED, the Ready to Read Resource Center bags, the Alaska Digital Library, and the Talking Book Service. We just need to carve out funding and time to advertise these services directly to Alaskans, which I plan to work on this year.
Next year, I have asked Robert Barr from Juneau and Melissa Harter from Fairbanks to participate in the National Library Legislative Day. ALA may be changing this event to something that coincides with their 2019 ALA annual conference, which is set for Washington DC in late June. I am sure they have their own adventures with this annual event!
If you're thinking about using Facebook to reach teen users, you might want to read this Slate article from 5/31/2018:
Teens Are Abandoning Facebook. For Real This Time by Will Oremus,
The author examines five years worth of reporting on Facebook usage by 13-17 years by Pew Internet and finds a significant drop in usage. As of April 2018, only 51% of US teens report using Facebook, preferring YouTube, Instagram (owned by Facebook) and Snapchat.
Facebook remains popular among US adults, so it would be wrong to say it's dying. But it might not be the best tool for teen outreach - unless your own teens say it is. While national trends are important, seeing what's in use in YOUR community is best for deciding what social media - if any - to use.
0 Comments.