PNLA Quarterly, Vol. 63 No.3 Spring 1999

ALASKA
Kay Myers, Alaska Representative

People

Kathleen Braekel is the new librarian at the University of Alaska, Southeast campus at Ketchikan. Ann Doyle, interlibrary loan librarian at the Alaska State Library, has transferred to a position in the Historical Collections Section.

Librarians announcing retirement plans are Clara Sitter, University of Alaska, Anchorage, Consortium Library, and Pat Dennis, Library Media Specialist at the Northwest Arctic School District. Clara has accepted a faculty teaching position with the University of Denver Graduate Library and Information Services Program.

Emily DeForest, Kenai Community Librarian, will retire April 30. Her replacement is Ewa Jankowska, currently the Assistant Chief Librarian for Electronic Resources, General Research, New York Public Library.

Alaska Library Association (AkLA)

Eugenie Prime, manager of Hewlett-Packardıs corporate libraries, gave the keynote address at the 1999 Alaska State Library Conference in Juneau. Her address was titled "The Unapologetic Librarian". Other highlights included: Newbery Medalist Paul Fleischmanıs string storytelling workshop, Dr. Michael Eisenbergıs session on life in the fast lane for the NEW School of Library and Information Science at the University of Washington, an afternoon discussion of 50 years of Newbery Medal books, and Dr. Carolyn Brodie (Kent State University) sharing collection weeding techniques.

AkLA--Anchorage Chapter awarded the 1999 Conference Scholarship to Susan Baker, director of The Chiniak Public Library on Kodiak Island. The $350 award offsets the expense of a southcentral library staff person to attend the annual conference. Susan is a volunteer. She and other volunteers host three fund raisers a year to keep the Chiniak library operating.

The Public Library Roundtable of AKLA announced the first seven recipients of an Interlibrary Cooperation grant for Public Library work exchanges. This program is funded through a grant from the Alaska State Library. Each recipient traveled to a public library of their choice to gather information about various services such as online library systems, reference interviews, adult and youth programming. They will report on their experiences at the annual Alaska Library Association conference.

News

The Gustavus Public Library received a donation of over 800 new books and other library materials from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association. The Rural Library Project is a program of the PNBA which sends books to rural libraries after the Booksellersı annual convention.

The Kenai Community Library celebrated 50 years of library service on March 7 with storytelling and speeches. This gave staff, library board members, volunteers and patrons the opportunity to honor Emily DeForest, who is retiring after 30 years as librarian.

As a result of continued low oil prices, the Information Resource Center at BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. is to be closed. A process to determine the disposition of the collection will be completed by the end of March.

The University of Alaska Press announces the arrival of the 1999 Catalog of Publications. Visit the website at http://www.uaf.edu/uapress or contact them for more information at fypress@uaf.edu or (907) 474-5831.

A recent auction of rare books, sponsored by The Friends of the Anchorage Muncipal Libraries, featured many donated, out-of-print Alaskana titles as well as an eight volume set of the complete works of Alexander Pope, published in 1795. About 75 people attended and plans are to make the auction an annual event. The Friends presented the proceeds of this auction and a preceding one ($11,000) to the Alaska Collection to use for the purchase of rare books. The Anchorage Assembly approved an additional $181,900 for the Anchorage Municipal Libraries' 1999 budget. These funds are to be used to purchase books and shelving and to hire one staff person to manage the new purchases and processing. The intent is to add this amount to the Library's budget annually in an effort to increase the number of books per capita.

The Alaska Film Archives at the Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, was chosen to participate in the Treasures of American Film Archives program. The program is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and organized by the National Film Preservation Foundation. When work is complete the first commercial silent film made in Alaska, the first independent film about the Alaska Territorial Guard during World War II, and a representative sample of gold mining in Alaska will be preserved.