Seeking an Electronic Resources Librarian

We're hiring for an Electronic Resources Librarian here at the Alaska State Library. This position will coordinate the Library's serials collection and other electronic resources. It is a full-time Librarian I, pays $4,355 monthly with state benefits, and is located at the new Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff State Library, Archives, and Museum in Juneau, Alaska. The job description and application information are available on Workplace Alaska.

The Alaska State Library, Archives, and Museum building in Juneau, Alaska, with the iconic Nimbus sculpture in front. Photo by Lara Swimmer.

Here are four reasons why you should apply for this position and consider moving to Juneau.

1. It's in Alaska. If you've ever wondered about living in Alaska, this could be your chance! Juneau is a great place for people who love kayaking, hiking, and the outdoors, and prefer cool temperatures and mild winters. If your image of Alaska is a frozen block of ice, think again. Juneau's weather is less extreme than most of the country. My friend in Washington, D.C. reported a colder Thanksgiving Day than we had here.

2. Juneau has a great library community. There are three branches of the Juneau Public Libraries, a university library at the University of Alaska Southeast, and the State of Alaska operates the law library, legislative library, and the Alaska State Library. No matter your library interest, there's a way to pursue it in Juneau.

This position is based in the library, but you'll have a chance to work with people from special collections, archives, and museums.

3. Working here is a great way to explore the field. The Electronic Resources Librarian position is part of the Library's Information Services section, but that doesn't mean that the work is limited to state government needs. Since the Library shares a facility with the Alaska State Library Historical Collections, the Alaska State Archives, and the Alaska State Museum, this is a perfect place for an information professional interested in history or heritage work to get a wide variety of experiences.

The Library's Reading Room gets beautiful natural light thanks to the clerestory windows that circle the building.

4. You'll love coming to work. Our building opened in 2016 and we still can't get over how lucky we are to work in this beautiful space. Our office windows overlook Gastineau Channel and Douglas Island and you can see mountain goats on Mount Juneau from our break room. Many coworkers enjoy walking to the shops downtown or along the new seawalk to the whale park on their lunch breaks. We have dedicated parking and indoor racks for bikes.

The recruitment closes on Monday, December 3, at 5 pm Alaska time. Come join our team as our next Electronic Resources Librarian!

Connecting Alaska through the Alaska Library Consortium

Last month, Fairbanks area libraries joined the Alaska Library Consortium, meaning that 92% of Alaskans can freely and easily share 3.2 million titles through one library catalog. For us, the addition of UAF Rasmuson Library is particularly exciting, since Rasmuson has an excellent Alaska collection, especially for materials about the interior and Arctic regions.

Each library in the Alaska Library Catalog has its own configuration. Although the materials are the same, using your home library's catalog has certain benefits. One is that your library will appear at the top of the locations list.

Many libraries in the catalog have this book, Walter Harper: Alaska Native Son. Although there's one at the State Library, it's in Historical, so it's only available for in-library use. To check it out, you need to request it from another library.

To request this book from another library, click on "Place Hold" on the right, enter your library card number and PIN, and designate your pickup library. Then one of the libraries will find it on their shelves, package it up, and mail it to your local library for you to pick up. When it arrives, you'll get a phone call or email depending on how your account is set up. If you don't know your PIN, you can ask your favorite librarian to look it up.

If you're impatient and don't want to wait for an item to be mailed, you can limit search results to local results only. The catalog knows that there are three systems in Juneau, the State Library, Juneau Public Libraries, and UAS Egan Library (Sealaska Heritage Institute is also included, but their books cannot be checked out). The Juneau area libraries use a courier to transport items between libraries and it usually takes just one or two days for a Juneau item to be delivered.

Selecting Juneau area libraries means you can see what's available in your area. You can also limit the results to your library, or Alaska Digital Library for e-books and audiobooks.

Want a little help navigating the Alaska library catalog? Visit your library and ask for a quick tutorial. We're happy to help you borrow more books, DVDs, audiobooks, and music than ever! The joint catalog also means that if you're traveling, you can use your local library card at any of the libraries in the consortium, and you can return your books or DVDs to any of the 87 libraries.

Book Cart Repairs (Or, The Aftermath of a Library Move)

During our move, we damaged several of our brand new book carts. We purchased a style that our cataloger specially requested for use after the move, so we were disappointed that the carts had held up so poorly to the wear of moving.

Bent casters on the carts made them unstable and unsafe for use.

Fortunately, since they were new, the vendor was very helpful in providing us with the tools to repair them. They sent us new casters and new caster sleeves (the plastic inserts that go into the legs of the carts), and a caster sleeve removal tool.

The handle on the caster sleeve removal tool slides up and down, giving you some leverage for extracting broken caster sleeves.

When I removed the casters using a pry bar, I discovered that the stems were severely bent and needed to be replaced. On the most damaged casters, the plastic sleeves were also cracked, so I removed them using the caster sleeve removal tool. It wasn't clear to me exactly how to use it, but our Deputy Director came by and gave a demonstration. I wish I'd been quick enough to record a video of it. You screw it into the sleeve just like a corkscrew and then the handle slides up and down, allowing you to work out the broken sleeve. It made an enormous racket in our work room, so I recommend it for working out some aggression.

One of the bent caster stems.

We had one older cart with square legs that needed some re-shaping. It had been overloaded previously and collapsed, causing the metal to stretch. My colleague used the side of the pry bar and a mallet to coax it back into shape. Then I hammered in the new caster sleeves with a rubber mallet, and pounded in the new casters using the mallet and a screwdriver to get the right angle without hammering on the wheel. The manufacturer said that it's important to make sure that the casters are fully seated in the legs before using the cart.

The new caster sleeve wouldn't fit into this socket, so it needed to be hammered back into a square shape.

Although they're not as good as new, all the carts that were damaged during the move are back in service in the new Library. The manufacturer noted that fully loaded carts should be moved with care over door thresholds and uneven ground to prevent this kind of damage. If your library is planning a move, care for your book carts by making the terrain they need to travel as smooth as possible.

View from the Future: Spotlight on Alaska's Centennial Libraries and Museums

As part of the remediation plan for the Kashevaroff State Library, Archives, and Museum, the Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums published The View from the Future, 2017: Fifty Years after the Alaska Purchase Centennial, edited by Tricia Brown, now available for purchase from Taku Graphics. In a previous post, we highlighted the section on the Alaska State Museum, our sister institution, and today we look at a few other projects from around the state.

Many communities built libraries and museums for their centennial projects, including Juneau, Ketchikan, Wrangell, Cordova, Petersburg, Kotzebue, Anchorage, Valdez, Homer, Kodiak, Nome, Fairbanks, and Bethel. In this way, the Alaska Purchase Centennial provided the foundation for the preservation and dissemination of Alaska's history around the state.

Kodiak used centennial funds to renovate a historic log building to house the Baranov Museum. Baranov Museum by J. Stephen Conn, CC BY-NC.

Homer citizens built the Pratt Museum, a natural history museum, as their centennial project. Beaked whale by Travis, CC BY-NC.

Nearly fifty years later, these institutions are showing their age, as weather, erosion, and neglect have taken their toll. Some of the centennial facilities proved completely unsustainable. The Kotzebue City Museum closed down in the late 1980s and the artifacts were scattered around to city offices and the traditional council. The museum at Fort Kenay was transferred to the Kenai Visitors and Cultural Center in 1991. The Yugtarvik Region Museum in Bethel was badly damaged by fire in June 1980. Others struggle to hang on despite major issues. On the coast, roofs of the centennial buildings have been particularly problematic. In Cordova, the ceiling is held together with Visqueen and duct tape, scant protection against wind and rain. At the Tongass Historical Museum in Ketchikan, the flat roof in the wettest place in Alaska soaks up moisture like a sponge, continuing to leak long after it stops raining outside. Former director Michael Naab noted, "It's like a wetland up there...There are actually small bushes and small trees on the roof."


Like the Alaska State Museum, many of the centennial libraries and museums are preparing to move into new, state-of-the-art facilities, or have moved in the past few years. The Seward Library joined forces with the Resurrection Bay Historical Society and moved into the new Seward Community Library & Museum in 2013. Ketchikan Public Library moved out of the Centennial Building in 2013, leaving the museum to renovate and expand into its vacated space. The Cordova Historical Museum and Library will move to the new Cordova Center this year. The Carrie McLain Museum, Nome Public Library, and regional non-profit Kawerak will move into the new Richard Foster Building in 2016. And the Alaska State Museum, Alaska State Library, Historical Collections, and Alaska State Archives will open as the Kashevaroff State Library, Archives, and Museum in the spring of 2016.

Artist's rendering of the Kashevaroff SLAM, opening spring 2016.

How many libraries in Alaska?

Question: I'm wondering how many libraries are in Alaska.

Answer: The answer to this question depends on how you're counting libraries. The Alaska State Library could be considered one library, or up to four libraries, if you count the State Library in Juneau, the State Library Historical Collections, and the State Library in Anchorage, which also houses the Talking Book Center. If you limit the question to public libraries only, you can find the answer from the Institute of Museum and Library Services' (IMLS) report on public libraries. In the fiscal year 2012 report, published in December 2014, IMLS identified 77 public library systems with 93 outlets, which counts central libraries, branch libraries, and bookmobiles.

Since You Asked! Episode 20: Mango and OWL for Language Learning

Librarian Freya Anderson talks about how she uses Mango Languages and OWL videoconferencing to gain confidence and keep her brain young. Find out more about these great resources, accessible to all Alaska residents with internet access, and how you can join the Alaska State Library's French language discussion group.

Listen to Podcast (.mp3)
[10 minutes]
Recorded on November 12-13, 2014

Find out more:

• SLED
• Mango Languages for Alaska residents
• Language learning resources
• The Alaska OWL Program
• Learning a second language as an adult keeps your brain young, by Jessica Hullinger, in mental_floss, published online July 7, 2014
• What happens in the brain when you learn a language? by Alison Mackey, in The Guardian, published online September 4, 2014

Since You Asked! Episode 9: Juneau Public Libraries

Librarian Julie Niederhauser interviews Robert Barr, director of Juneau Public Libraries.

Listen to Podcast (.mp3) 
[ 21 minutes ]
Recorded on January 24, 2014

Contact Juneau Public Libraries:

• Phone: 907.586.5249
• Email: reference@juneau.lib.ak.us
• Website: Juneau Public Libraries

Since You Asked! Episode 8: Online Legal Resources Through the Alaska State Court Law Library

The Alaska State Court Law Library has more locations than any other library in Alaska. At each of these locations, people can access Westlaw and other credible sources for forms, case law, articles, and other legal information. The law library also offers online resources that people can search from their homes or offices. In this podcast, Marinke Van Gelder of the Alaska State Court Law Library describes these resources.

Listen to Podcast (.mp3)

[ 9 minutes ]
Recorded on November 22, 2013

Contact the Alaska State Court Law Library:

• Email us at library@courts.state.ak.us
• Call the Anchorage Reference desk at 907-264-0585, or dial toll free: 888-282-2082 (in Alaska, but outside the Municipality of Anchorage)
• Fax or mail a Request for Information form: Word | PDF

Start using the Alaska State Court Law Library's online resources:
Alaska Court System website
Alaska State Court Law Library website
   Library Catalog
   Locations & Hours
   Electronic Research Resources

Since You Asked! Episode 2: SLAM Building

Librarian Julie Niederhauser speaks with Bob Banghart about the State Library, Archives and Museum building (also known as the SLAM building) currently under construction in Juneau. Bob serves as the Deputy Director for the Alaska State Library and Chief Curator for the Alaska State Museum.

Listen to Podcast (.mp3)
[ 25 minutes ]
Recorded on October 23, 2013

Library services in Alaska

Question: I'll be moving to Alaska soon and the area I'm moving to doesn't have library services. Is there a way I can access library services through the state library, and if so, how?

Answer: Alaska has a mail services, or regional services, program for residents with no local public libraries. This program is administered through the Juneau Public Libraries. For more information about the program and to apply, see http://www.juneau.org/library/mailserv/.

Libraries in the 21st Century

Update: The Mystery Photo blog linked below has ceased. Most of the other resources mentioned below, including much of this blog, are sporadically active at most. The School Librarian Handbook and the Alaska State Library twitter feed are both active. 8/1/11

Question: I'm doing some research on State Library activities. Could you provide a list of state library agencies in the US? Also, what is the Alaska State Library doing with social networking or Web 2.0 technologies?

Answer: To answer your questions in reverse: Some of the web 2.0 or social networking activities by the State Library include:

• This blog.
  
• Hidden Gems Mined by the Alaska State Library, a blog that highlights some of the paper and online resources we make available.
  
• A Mystery Photo blog which gives the general public an opportunity to help us identify people and locations in our historical photographs.
  
• An education wiki that pulls together materials from the classes we offer.
  
• The Alaska School Librarian Handbook, made available via a wiki.
  
• A Twitter feed, which has some live posts but mostly incorporates several automated feeds, including new book listings, Alaska-related articles, class offerings, and more.
  

In addition, several of our staff use other Web 2.0 services informally but related to our library work. These include flickr (photo sharing), Facebook, Twitter, blogging using various platforms, wikis, and more. We are still working on our delicious account (social bookmarking), and haven’t publicized it yet.

We use some additional social networking platforms for internal communications.

For information about other state library agencies, the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has compiled a listing of state library websites at http://dpi.wi.gov/pld/statelib.html. PublicLibraries.com also has a listing at http://www.publiclibraries.com/state_library.htm (please note that this listing includes two links for some states, which may have divided library services between agencies).

One extra note: This question came from outside of the US, and in the process, I found that I needed to translate an Asian language into English. I found that Google language was quite helpful for this. I just clicked on "Language Tools" to the right of the search box on the main Google page, the cut and pasted the text into the provided box and chose the appropriate languages. Handy!

Got a book?

Question: Is it common practice for authors to donate books in order to gain exposure?

Answer: I’m not aware of studies or official figures on this topic, but in my experience, some sort of donation is fairly common. Sometimes books are donated directly to libraries. Sometimes they are donated to reviewers, or library or subject area publications for review. These copies often make their way into libraries as well. We do get some donated books from authors or publishers here at the Alaska State Library. We sometimes add donated titles to our own collection. However, we have limited space and a fairly strict collection development policy, so often we are unable to keep donated titles. We also sometimes pass donations onto to other libraries, when we determine that they might be of better use there.

I have worked in other libraries, too, and I’ve noticed that libraries are often unable to add donated books to their collections because they don’t fit within the libraries’ collection development practices. This practice may be somewhat more lax in public libraries, as compared to research libraries. If you are considering donating a book to libraries, I encourage you to start by sending an email or letter, and only send actual copies when the library indicates that they can add the title.

Alaskans With Library Cards

Question: How many Alaskans have library cards?

Answer: According to information compiled by our Library Development section, 379,206 Alaska residents had library cards in 2007. This number is subject to a few cautions according to Patience Frederiksen, our public library statistician. She notes:

One odd thing about this data is that many of the libraries do not have an online catalog and some do not give out library cards at all, so I gave those libraries their entire population as library card holders.

Another odd thing is that many of the libraries give out temporary seasonal cards to tourism, cruise ship, and fish canning and processing employees, so sometimes they give out more cards than they have residents living in their local service area.

People interested in other statistics about Alaska's libraries should check out the Alaska Public Library Statistics page at http://library.alaska.gov/dev/plstats/plstats.html. The statistics web page is under revision and the FY2006 and FY2007 statistics should appear in January.

Fix a book

Question: Do you have Artemis BonaDea's book, "Conservation Book Repair: A training manual," which was published by the Alaska State Library, available for purchase?

Answer: The State Library no longer has paper copies of this title available for sale. However, the entire book is available online at http://library.alaska.gov/hist/conman.html, and the introduction specifically allows some copying:

The contents of this manual may be reprinted in whole or in part, with proper credit, to accommodate users, library board members, and personnel of libraries. Reproduction of this manual in whole or in part, for resale, except to recover actual costs, is not authorized.

Not banned books

Question: Where can I find a list of the books that Sarah Palin tried to ban from the Wasilla Public Library when she was mayor?

Answer: As far as we know, there is no such list. Fake lists have been circulating around the internet and are documented on the Urban Legends Page at http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp.