by Kay Myers

Alaska Representative 

People

Ann Symons, the immediate past president of the American Library Association and librarian at Juneau Douglas High School, has been awarded the Robert B. Downs Intellectual Freedom Award.  The Award is given annually and acknowledges individuals or groups who have furthered the cause of intellectual freedom, especially as it impacts libraries and information centers.    

Debbie Cook and Dana Scofield are job-sharing as library directors of the Kegoayah Kozga Public Library in Nome.

            Schelly Boudreau is the new librarian in the combined school/public library in McGrath.

Dona Helmer, librarian at College Gate Elementary School in Anchorage, was one of 97 educators nationwide selected to participate in an intensive program at Harvard University.  Harvard faculty and other scholars from around the country presented their research and engaged the educators in a dialogue about teaching students the ideas associated with the role of media in our democracy.

                Mary Ellen Baker, who recently resigned as director at the Wasilla Public Library, joined the staff at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library as Public Services Manager.  Mary Ellen replaced Jack Rasmussen who took a partial retirement and continues to work as a part-time reference librarian.  Betsie Branch, a University of Michigan graduate, has been hired as a reference librarian at the Fairbanks North Star Borough Public Library.

The new director of the Wasilla Public Library is Cornell Thomas who comes to Alaska from Nevada.  Laura Salisbury also joined the staff of the Wasilla Public Library.  She is the Adult/Electronic Services Librarian.

Recent changes at the Anchorage Municipal Libraries:  Peg Thompson, Samson-

Dimond Branch Librarian, is now Automations Librarian.  Deborah Mole, from Minneapolis, has been hired for the Samson-Dimond Branch Librarian position. Jennifer Pawlak is a new Youth Services librarian.

New librarians at the Anchorage School District are Elizabeth Prince at Baxter Elementary; Eileen Knox at Bowman Elementary;  Linda Kumin and Gretchen Nelson at Denali Elementary; Jill Gann at Girdwood Elementary; Geraldine Foster at Klatt Elementary; and Lynn McNamara at Polaris.

Christopher Barth, Anchorage Daily News librarian, relocated to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.  His replacement is David Willem.

Rich Greenfield, Technology Coordinator, left the Alaska State Library this fall to return to the Library of Congress.  Mary Jennings has retired after 24 years with the State Library.  Patience Frederiksen has been hired to fill Mary¹s position as Grants Coordinator.  Patience has been the Government Publications librarian.  Daniel Cornwall is the new Government Publications librarian.  Della Mathis¹ recent retirement was of short duration.  She is working in a parttime position and continues to be the state guru on e-rate.  Lois Petersen is the new School Library Media Coordinator, Della¹s former position.

Sherry Taber has left the University of Alaska Southeast Egan Library for a director¹s position at the Durango, Colorado, Public Library.  Carol Hedlin has been appointed acting director of Egan Library.

Alaska Library Association News

                At the Fall Face-to-Face Executive Council meeting, priorities for the 2000 legislative session were passed unanimously:

1) AkLA supports continuous annual funding for statewide licenses to access full-text databases.

2)  AkLA supports the programs and services of the Alaska State Library.

3) AkLA supports equal access to information for all Alaskans.  This includes continued funding for SLED, creation of a state universal service fund for  telecommunications, and other measures which remove barriers between rural and urban libraries.  (SLED is the state¹s access to electronic information.)

Sue Sherif is considering changes to the Newspoke publication.  She would like to see longer articles and book reviews in each issue along with Association business.  Print versus web versions of the Newspoke were discussed.  The print version will continue for awhile, since many libraries in the state still don¹t have computer internet access. 

Ramya Subramanian, Vice-President and 2000 AkLA Conference chair person, discussed preliminary plans for the spring conference “Steeped in Tradition; Responsive to Change” to be held in Fairbanks, March 2-5.  Roy Tennant of the Digital Library Project at Berkeley will be the keynote speaker.

The Sitka Chapter of the Association offered to host the 2001 AkLA conference.  Dates were also selected, March 8-11.

The Ketchikan Chapter and Follett combined forces to offer a $400 credit toward book purchases to the Alaska librarian who wrote the best essay on the topic “How New Books Will Make a Difference to Kids in My Library”.  Charlotte Glover requested funding from AkLA to continue this project.

Bob Anderl, AkLA¹s Executive Secretary, has submitted his resignation effective March 2000.  The position description has been revised, renamed Executive Officer,  and is being advertised on AkLA-L. 

News

Anchorage Mayor Rick Mystrom extended municipal internet filtering software to all municipal internet computers, including the public terminals at the municipal library system.  His action was taken without input from library staff or the public.  AkCLU is planning a suit against the mayor.

In Fairbanks, the Ethnic Committee, an advisory body of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District, sought to remove The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from a high school approved reading list.   Discussion continues at the School Board level.

The Alaska Humanities Forum and the public libraries in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough brought storyteller Donald Davis to Alaska.  Mr. Davis performed “Stories for our Generations” in public libraries in the Borough and led a storytelling workshop at the Palmer Public Library.

Ebsco training sessions gave librarians and teachers throughout Alaska an overview of the Ebscohost databases featured on Alaska¹s statewide database network. 

Some Books About Alaska Received 1998, an annual publication of the State Library, is now available on their web page:   http://www.eed.state.ak.us/lam/library/hist/somebooks/some98.html

Statistics Of Alaska Public Libraries, FY 1998, has also been published by the State Library.   It is noted that circulation statistics rose slightly in public libraries across Alaska during 1998 while interlibrary loans and reference questions declined.

Still another recent State Library publication is Information Empowered:  The School Librarian As An Agent Of Academic Achievement In Alaska Schools.  The study of Alaska¹s schools shows a close correlation between test scores and the presence of a school librarian.  For more information about the study contact Lois Petersen:   Lois_Petersen@eed.state.ak.us

The State Library joined the Cooperative Summer Library Program, a joint summer reading program for Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota and Utah.  The 2000 theme is “Cosmic Connections”, and the State Library is purchasing basic program kits for Alaska libraries who wish to participate.

The Anchorage School District has announced selection of SIRSI¹s Unicorn ECOLE as the new library system for the district.  The timeline is for the new system to be in place by December, 1999.

Return to PNLA Quarterly Winter 2000 Table of Contents