A look back at the Alaska State Museum, an Alaska Purchase Centennial project

Demolition of the Alaska State Museum, August 5, 2014. Photo by Damon Stuebner.

The Father Andrew P. Kashevaroff Library, Archives, and Museum is being constructed on the site of the old Alaska State Museum in downtown Juneau. Last summer, the Alaska State Museum, a distinctive boxy building covered in a flicker feather motif, was torn down to make room for SLAM's new exhibit galleries, classrooms, reading rooms, and offices.

The Alaska Centennial Commission, 1966. Vernon Farbes and Senator Ernest Gruening hold a conceptual painting of the museum building. Alaska State Library - Historical Collections. ASL-Alaska-State-Museum-1.

The Alaska State Museum was constructed in 1967 as part of the Alaska Purchase Centennial celebrations, which commemorated the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia. Although the Museum was a state facility, the community of Juneau embraced it as their own. State and federal contributions didn't cover the $1.2 million price tag, so residents of Juneau voted to increase local sales tax by 1% for a year to raise the remaining funds.

For 47 years, the Alaska State Museum was a gem of downtown Juneau, attracting artists, researchers, culture-bearers, and visitors from around the world. Although supportive of the SLAM project, many people were upset by the idea of demolishing the Museum. Part of the effort to mitigate its loss was an attempt to save two of the flicker feather panels, which could be incorporated into the landscaping of the new SLAM. Unfortunately, the panels were irreversibly adhered to the structure of the building and were impossible to remove intact.

Over 1,000 people said good-bye to the Museum at its Final Friday event, February 28, 2014. Photo courtesy of Carl Brodersen.

A more successful part of the mitigation plan is the publication of The View from the Future, 2017: Fifty Years after the Alaska Purchase Centennial. Editor Trisha Brown worked with writers and photographers around the state to revisit the Alaska Purchase Centennial projects and examine their social and economic impacts through photos and interviews with Centennial Commission members, historians, and other Alaskans.

The Library's copy of the book - excuse the glare off the mylar cover!

We'll take a closer look at the book and the Centennial projects in future posts.

Building codes

Question: Where do I find the Alaska building codes?

Answer: Like many states, Alaska relies heavily on uniform building codes. The precise codes that the state uses, as well as any changes or sections not employed, are listed in the Alaska Administrative Code: 13 AAC 50. The Alaska State Library maintains the current and previous two editions of the International Building Code and some other codes. For details, search our catalog.

The specific codes you need may be available at a library near you, but they usually are not available to be checked out. If they aren't available locally for you, you can request specific pages through interlibrary loan, or you can purchase a copy (or, much less expensively, purchase portions that relate to your specific needs). Just check your favorite local or online bookstore.

Alaskan historical census data

Question: How many WWI veterans lived in Anchorage in 1970?

Answer: 82, according to "Table 102, Social Characteristics for Places of 10,000 - 50,000: 1970" found on page 3-135 of the US Census "General Social and Economic Characteristics: Alaska" from the 1970 Census.

The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development/Research and Analysis Division has scanned and posted PDFs of Alaska related census reports from 1880, 1910 and 1940 through 1990 at Alaska Census 1880-2010. For 1980, these reports include:

Number of Inhabitants
General Population Characteristics
Detailed Population Characteristics
General Social and Economic Characteristics

Alaska Census Data from 2000 and beyond can be located at Labor's Alaska Census Data and Information page.

Alaska Pipeline Oil Spill Data

Question: Where can I find oil spill data for Alaska online?

Answer: The best place online for this information is the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Division of Spill Response at http://dec.alaska.gov/spar/index.htm. This agency is required by federal law to log spills and responses. The following are several links to their data:

1. Spills Database Online Query at http://dec.alaska.gov/Applications/SPAR/PublicMVC/PERP/SpillSearch.
Complete information back to 1995. Prior to that the data may be incomplete and/or inaccurate. Direct contact information for the agency is listed on the page in case you need older data. If you choose to search the database, the “Spill Specific Search” will allow you to limit by location, type of incident, type of substance and more. In addition, you can use two other buttons search by facility or affiliate (company) if you have the information.

2. Oil and Hazardous Substance Spill Data Summaries at http://dec.alaska.gov/spar/perp/data.htm.
These reports are general, but the larger reports will indicate major pipeline spills. You can then take that information and go back to the online database’s “Spill Specific Search” for details.
3. Response Updates back to FY04 (July 2003 – June 2004) http://dec.alaska.gov/spar/perp/response/sr_active.htm.
This is a browse portal without searching capabilities. You can find basic information on the active responses and read detailed situation reports.

End of Term Palin/Parnell Web Snapshot

Questions and Answers about the Alaska State’s Library web snapshot of the Palin/Parnell Administration
Prepared By
Daniel Cornwall and Sheri Somerville, Alaska State Library
July 30, 2009

Q: Where can I find the end-of-term Palin/Parnell web snapshot collected by the Alaska State Library?


A: The Palin/Parnell end-of-term website snapshot is hosted by Archive-It.org and is available at http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1200.


Q: What can I find on the end-of-term Palin/Parnell web snapshot?

A: You should be able to find every web page, photo, video and audio file hosted on the web servers of either Governor Palin or then Lt. Governor Sean Parnell. Because no web spidering software is perfect, there may have been some inadvertent omissions. Some links of interest include:

• Governor Palin’s Press Releases
• Governor Palin’s First Official Press Release 06-001
• Governor Palin’s Photo Gallery
• Sean Parnell’s Speeches as Lt. Governor

Q: Why do you have so many URLs on your start page at http://www.archive-it.org/collections/1200?

A: On our start page we offer a browseable version of the following URLs:

• http://gov.state.ak.us/
• http://ltgov.alaska.gov/speeches.php
• http://ltgov.state.ak.us/
• http://ltgov.state.ak.us/newsletters/
• http://www.gov.state.ak.us/
• http://www.ltgov.state.ak.us/

The ltgov.alaska.gov/speeches.php and ltgov.state.ak.us/newsletters/ URLs are there because our initial efforts to retrieve then Lt. Governor Parnell’s web presence failed to collect his speeches or newsletters. We are still analyzing why this happened. We added the specific URLs for his speeches and newsletters in hopes that this would succeed in retrieving these materials. We were successful.

We have both www.gov/gov and www.ltgov/ltgov because our initial retrieval efforts indicated that each address had unique content. That is, some material that was available at gov.state.ak.us was NOT available on www.gov.state.ak.us and vice versa. In an effort to be comprehensive in collecting content, we retrieved documents from both of the addresses given for the Governor and Lt. Governor.


Q: Why did the Alaska State Library collect an end-of-term web snapshot for the Palin/Parnell administration?

A: Under AS 14.56.090-180, the Alaska State Publications Program, known in statute as the “State library distribution and data access center”, has a responsibility to acquire, describe and provide permanent public access to state government information. It was in compliance with these responsibilities that we produced an end-of-term web snapshot for the Palin/Parnell administration.


Q: Is this the first time that the Alaska State Library collected an end of term web snapshot for an outgoing Governor/Lt. Governor?


A: No. We also produced a web snapshot for the Knowles/Ulmer administration and for the Murkowski/Leman administration. Due to technological and resource constraints, these were put onto optical discs:

Knowles-Ulmer:

Alaska State Publications Program. (2003). Knowles-Ulmer web site as of November 26, 2002. [Juneau, Alaska]: Alaska State Library, Alaska State Publications Program.

See libraries holding this disc at http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52370720.
------

Murkowski-Leman

Alaska State Publications Program. (2007). Alaska Governor/Lt. Governor web sites as of November 30, 2006 Governor Frank H. Murkowski (12/5/2002 - 12/4/2006), Lt. Governor Loren (12/5/2002 - 12/4/2006). [Juneau, Alaska]: Alaska State Publications Program.

See libraries holding this disc at http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/123425349.


Q: How much is the subscription to Archive-It cost each year?

A: We paid $5,000 to subscribe to Archive-It. The subscription provides the Alaska State Library the ability to manage our archived collections and preserve selected data for long-term public access. Anyone with Internet access can keyword search all web content found on Archive-It.


Q: What makes Archive-It different from the Wayback Machine at www.archive.org?

A: The Wayback Machine was established in 1996 as a mechanism to create an Internet Library. In past years, the Wayback Machine has successfully archived State of Alaska web sites. Archive-It allows the Alaska State Library to fulfill its statutory mandate to preserve publications for long-term public access through periodic captures of select web sites. In this way, we are better able to manage the materials that are archived.


Q: What else is the State Library doing/planning to do with Archive-It?

A: We are exploring our use of Archive-It, not only for preservation of state documents for library purposes, but also in support of the individual needs of State agencies. The plan is to continue capturing material for our current collections and adding new collections based on single events or topics of particular interest. If you would like to discuss Archive-It or make collection suggestions, please contact Sheri Somerville at sheri.somerville@alaska.gov.


Q: Who is Archive-It?

A: From the Archive-It “about us” page at http://www.archive-it.org/public/about-us (Retrieved 7/30/09):

“Archive-It is a subscription service developed in 2005 by the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded in 1996 to build an 'Internet library,' with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.”

Q: Do other state libraries and state archives work with Archive-It?

A: Yes. The folks at archive-it work with a number of state libraries and state archives. They have worked with most of them longer than they have with us. Current state library and state archive users of Archive-It include:

State Libraries

• Alaska State Library
• Idaho Commission for Libraries
• Montana State Library
• State Library of Ohio
• South Dakota State Archives and South Dakota State Library
• Tennessee State Library and Archives
• Texas State Library and Archives Commission

State Archives

• State Archives of Alabama
• Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records
• Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Delaware Government Information Center
• Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries
• Nebraska State Historical Society
• State Archives of North Carolina and State Library of North Carolina
• South Carolina Department of Archives and History
• Utah State Library/Utah State Archives and Records Service