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The Two Universities of Alaska, AnchorageA brief historical sketch of the University of Alaska, Anchorage and Anchorage Community College.
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Proceedings 26th Polar Libraries Colloquy Mapping Change: Chitduug Gha Nen' Ch'etnetl'edzPublished July 2023 by the University of Alaska Anchorage, UAA/APU Consortium Library, and edited by Daria O. Carle. Copyright in individual papers is held by the contributors. A digital copy of this publication can be found at https://polarlibraries.org/colloquy-proceedings/ and in ScholarWorks, the University of Alaska’s Institutional Repository, https://scholarworks.alaska.edu/. A copy of the 2016 Colloquy program is also available at https://polarlibraries.org/colloquy-proceedings/. Further information on the Polar Libraries Colloquy, including details of membership and upcoming conferences, is available at https://polarlibraries.org
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Developing polar networks : Ideas & possibilities for the futureAlaska’s geographic location places it at the forefront of research activity and information gathering about the Arctic and the changing environment of the Polar Regions. To facilitate sharing such information with the residents of the state, the Alaska Discovery Portal uses an integrated approach to retrieve materials from for-profit publishers, vetted websites, Alaska’s Digital Archives, open access resources such as the University of Alaska’s Institutional Repository, online topical Research Guides, and more. By licensing resources for all Alaska residents, the Discovery Portal can do what Google and other search engines cannot—pass through pay walls put in place by commercial publishers. Using whaling in the Arctic as an example, this presentation will demonstrate the wide variety of formats for different audiences that can be retrieved, and the interdisciplinary nature of those formats. From contemporary to historical, locating scholarly or newspaper articles, or multimedia, photographs, drawings, maps, or web resources in disciplines that span geography, ecology, and anthropology to name just a few, are possible through the Discovery Portal. This unique resource, available to anyone in Alaska with an internet connection from home, school, or library, is helping to bridge the digital information gap across the state. The cooperative efforts that created and developed Alaska’s Discovery Portal, how it is maintained and by whom, both financially and in terms of ongoing input of materials, along with suggestions for implementing a similar network in other locations will be discussed.
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Blazing Trails Through an Untamed Wilderness: Improving Your Library's Self-Guided HelpLibraries provide self-guided help on their websites through FAQs, guides, and tutorials. This content, often created to meet immediate needs and located on multiple webpages, can become an untamed wilderness over time. A group of librarians at the University of Alaska Anchorage took a holistic approach to reflect on, re-envision, and renew our library’s online self-guided help in order to provide students with a more navigable path to research success. This group includes an instructional design librarian and four subject specialist librarians who have responsibility for a significant amount of library instruction, LibGuides, and other tutorials. When we realized the scope of the changes and the extent of the content we needed to edit and create, the project felt overwhelming, but by sharing our experience, we hope to empower others to blaze a trail to improve their own self-guided help. This paper will describe our project and process, lessons learned, and resulting impacts.
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COMMFISH: all about Alaska's commercial fisheries collectionsOne of the more unique holdings in the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS) stands out due to its extensive size and breadth—the CommFish collection. The entire management history related to Alaska's commercial fisheries is documented here, including controversies over fishing rights, subsistence, and much more. These reports, including primary source data reported nowhere else, precede statehood and capture in great detail the extent, scope, successes, failures, policy decisions, and inventories of Alaska's fisheries statewide. When statehood was realized in 1959, the agency responsible for managing commercial fisheries was also established: the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G). Fishery managers in the newly created agency recognized early on that much of the data compiled would be of professional interest, while other information clearly had a public right-to-know component. As a result, a diverse number of series to meet each of these information needs was initially established. Over time, however, these series have been subject to the familiar vagaries common to all gray literature, such as title changes, name irregularities, and murky bureaucratic authorship. ARLIS inherited these extensive collections from several ADF&G libraries over a period of years. Most of the items had never been distributed outside of the agency, and ARLIS often owns the only copy. Recently, ARLIS has spent much time and effort to provide original cataloging for these materials in OCLC. ARLIS’ approach to cataloging these complex series may also be of interest to librarians facing similar challenges.
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Alaska Resources Library and Information Services: Building Community in the 49th StateThe Institute of Museum and Library Services recognized the community-building achievements of an unusual library in Anchorage, Alaska when it bestowed one of three 2001 National Awards for Library Service on the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS). This award, the highest in the nation, is given to libraries that “demonstrate a core commitment to public service through innovative programs and active partnerships that address the urgent and changing needs within the communities they serve.”
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Alaska Resources Library and Information Services: Pioneering Partnerships on the Last FrontierFive federal agencies, one state agency, one state-federal entity, and one university combined their library resources to create the Alaska Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), which opened in Anchorage in 1997. This new library focuses on Alaska’s natural and cultural resources, and serves agency personnel, university faculty and students, and local and international researchers from the public and private sectors. Funded by its parent agencies and collectively directed by a team of six librarians, ARLIS is recognized for its unique and innovative structure, one-of-a-kind collections, and quality in-depth service.
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How to Make Friends and Influence StudentsGiven the widespread adoption of social media on the University of San Diego’s (USD) campus, Copley Library formed a Social Media Committee to manage the library’s social media presence with a mission to promote the library’s services and events. To determine which social media platforms undergraduates were using the committee designed and administered a survey in the fall of 2013. The survey confirmed that USD undergraduates were still using Facebook and showed 56% use multiple social media sites. The conference session discussed Copley Library’s implementation of four social networking platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.
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Ventures in Social MediaAcademic libraries are actively involved in social media platforms as part of their campus communities. They have moved past the debate of whether to participate in social media and are focusing on strategies to develop engaging content and assessment of their efforts. Social media use in the campus classroom continues to grow with more faculty using social media in academic context. Given the widespread adoption of social media on the University of San Diego campus Copley Library formed a Social Media Committee (SMC) to manage the library’s social media presence with a mission to promoting the library’s services and events. After establishing Facebook and Twitter accounts the committee looked to expand their presence on other platforms. To determine which social media platforms undergraduates were using, the committee designed and administered a survey in the fall of 2013. The survey confirmed that USD undergraduates were still using Facebook and showed 56% now use multiple social media sites: Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram. The SMC diversified onto Instagram and Pinterest platforms to interact with students on visual platforms.
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Un-mentoring in the Last FrontierIn the fall 2005, when two faculty librarians at the University of Alaska Anchorage’s (UAA) Consortium Library realized that three people on the library staff were enrolled in library school, they saw the perfect opportunity to start a discussion group that would benefit both currently employed librarians and students entering the information field. The original three students were enrolled in the MLIS distance program at the University of Washington, working in the Consortium Library, and taking classes part-time. The two faculty librarians had been out of library school for more than ten years by then, so the intent was to organize a forum with an informal, relaxed atmosphere that would be an engaging way to keep up with current curricula, to learn about class projects the students were working on, and to hear about their experiences. While the librarians learned from the students, the students could, in turn, share their new expertise with the library faculty. That was the beginning of what came to be known as FLIP: Future Library and Information Science People.1 Now, nearly seven years later, FLIP is still going strong. What the name stands for has changed slightly—to Future Librarians and Information Professionals—and the membership has expanded to include anyone considering a career as a librarian or enrolling in an MLS or MLIS program. Characterizing FLIP as a “mentoring” program misses the mark, since so much more than just mentoring is happening. Because the benefits go both ways, we prefer the term “un-mentoring” to describe FLIP. Regardless of its definition or description, however, the original purpose remains the same: to provide an informal discussion forum that enriches library school studies with librarian expertise, advice, and insight.
