by Kay Myers

Alaska Representative 

People

Barbara Rudio has retired as director of the A. Holmes Johnson Public Library in Kodiak. Lisa Booch is currently serving as acting director. Joe D'Elia, from New Jersey, will begin as the new director in early April.

David Bantz, director of the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Rasmuson Library moved to a new position with the UA Statewide System Administration. Susan Grigg, head of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collection and a professor in the UAF Northern Studies Program was appointed acting director of the Rasmuson Library. The selection of Paul McCarthy, former Rasmuson Library director, to resume the post was recently announced. A longtime UAF librarian, McCarthy was director at the Rasmuson Library from 1987-1993. In 1995 he was named CEO of WLN. After the merger with OCLC, he was executive director of OCLC/WLN.

Chicasato Jimura is the new cataloger at the Keith B. Mather Library at the UAF Geophysical Institute. John Iliff and Daria Carle are recent hires at the University of Alaska Consortium Library in Anchorage. John is the Electronic Services Librarian and Daria is the new Science Librarian.

The Alaska State Library has hired Tish Orr to replace LuAnn Fisher in Information Services. Freya Anderson has been hired as the State Library's new Interlibrary Loan Librarian.

Alaska Library Association

The Alaska Library Association celebrated its 40th anniversary at the annual conference held March 2-5, 2000, in Fairbanks, Alaska. 202 people registered for a record 75 sessions. An exciting 'preconference' which featured Northern children's book authors and illustrators was planned by Sue Sherif for the Authors to Alaska and Authors to Fairbanks groups. Canadian Ian Wallace was a featured speaker.

Other well-attended 'preconferences' were "Electronic Interlibrary Loan: Life in the Fast Lane" and "Learning Styles and the Web". The conference keynote speaker was Roy Tennant, internationally known pioneer in digital library development and Internet training. Tennant was a dynamic speaker who looked at libraries from a public-services perspective. In one of many hints, he urged libraries to emulate amazon.com and simplify public catalog interfaces.

Honorary life memberships in AkLA were presented to recent retirees Nancy Lesh and Della Mathis and soon-to-retire Roz Goodman, Southwest Regional Schools Librarian. Art Robson, a committed and active supporter of libraries in Fairbanks, was the fourth recipient of an honorary life membership. Roz and Della also received honorary life memberships in the Alaska Association of School Librarians (AkASL).

AkASL honored two librarians with special awards. The year 2000 School Librarian of the Year is Linda Masterson, librarian at Goldenview Middle School library in Anchorage. The Linda K. Barrett Service Award was presented for the first time to someone not currently working in a school library. Sue Sherif, head of children's services at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library, received this award for her work with AkASL's Battle of the Books program and many other activities that she does to promote children's books and reading.

New Association officers have been announced. Moe McGee, head librarian for the Anchorage Municipal Libraries, will be vice-president/president elect. Deb Kalvee, from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Rasmuson Library was re-elected to a second term as treasurer. Dan Masoni, librarian at the Unalaska Public Library, will replace Kay Myers as Alaska's PNLA representative.

Recently retired librarian Mary Jennings was selected to be the next Executive Officer for the Association. She replaced Bob Anderl whose resignation took effect at the end of the AkLA conference. AkLA's new webmaster is Judith Terpstra from Anchorage.

The Rasmuson Foundation funded $6,000 of a requested $15,000 for reference training and materials in rural libraries. Aja Razumny, from the State Library, and Dee McKenna, retired librarian from Nome's Kegoayah Kozga Public Library, are working on this project.

News

The State Legislature is instituting a missions and measures approach to government to help the legislature determine whether funded programs are meeting their missions. The Legislature wants to cut $30 million from state government in the coming fiscal year. Decisions on final cuts will be made closer to adjournment in May.

Karen Crane, State Librarian, announced that from May 1999 through January 2000, Alaskans have conducted more than 530,412 online searches in the Statewide Databases and have retrieved more than 230,000 full-text articles.

The Friends of the Homer Public Library won the 2000 Friends of Libraries USA/HarperCollins Publishers Award. The award includes a $10,000 prize for the purchase of books. The Homer Friends group publishes the works of local writers and the Homer Public Library catalogs and circulates them. No local author is ever rejected as long as simple guidelines are met — manuscripts of 50 pages (32 pages for children's books) must be typewritten, have a cover sheet and be submitted by March 31 of each year.

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Rasmuson Library staff have created an informational brochure about the Statewide Database project: Information For You. This brochure is available on the Alaska Library Association web site: http://www.alaska.net/~akla/dfa_1.html

Check out a new website developed through a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission by the Division of Libraries, Archives and Museums in 1999. "Alaska's Gold" makes archival, library and museum materials on Alaska's gold rush more accessible at http://www.eed.state.ak.us/lam/goldrush/

The U.S. Coast Guard Library in Kodiak has closed. The Kodiak High School Library acquired approximately 2000 books from the collection. The juvenile books went to the village of Larsen Bay.

Return to PNLA QuarterlySpring 2000 Table of Contents