Community engagement:

One of UAA’s priorities is to track various ways in which all of us engage with our communities surrounding us. While we do a LOT of that in the Archives, from describing collections to make them available for research, to working with collection donors, to working with local organizations to serve as their archives, to engaging with researchers so they can access the materials, to participating in outreach events, to… Well, it goes on and on. It’s more like “What don’t we do?” But we’ve been asked to pick up to 5 ways every month. Rather than repeat ourselves, we’ll just tag some of the news items below that highlight the work we do with the community: whether that’s Anchorage, Alaska, or beyond.

Outreach & events:

Arlene was interviewed by Eric Sowl of KTUU for a news piece on the renovations, which aired September 19.

Community engagement: To celebrate the return of our collections after the renovations and to celebrate Archives Month (October), we co-hosted an Open House on Weds October 30 from 4-7 pm with AMIPA. Northwest Archivists (a regional professional association for archivists) provided funding for us to have very special cookies at the event. Thanks to all who attended!

Newly described collections:

EPH-0576: Anchorage Weavers and Spinners Guild newsletters; 1981 May-2002 April.

EPH-0577: Valley Fiber Arts Guild newsletters; 1994 November-2002 September (incomplete).

EPH-0579: Alaskan Aviation Safety Foundation Pilot Safety Education Curriculum; 1985.

EPH-0580: Northern Lights ABC School 2002-2003 yearbook; 2003.

EPH-0581: The Alaska Scholarship Pageant Incorporated presents the 1970 Miss Alaska Scholarship Pageant “Kaleidoscope”; 1969.

EPH-0582: Anchorage School District. Food Service Bargaining Unit collective bargaining agreements; 1998-2006.

EPH-0583: Anchorage School District Student Nutrition Handbook; undated.

EPH-0584: Anchorage School District Training for Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse and Neglect; 2000.

Community engagement: HMC-1473-AHS: Chuck Jarecki videos; 1959.0.02 cubic feet. Videos taken on a road trip through the Yukon to Fairbanks and Anchorage. Why is this one specifically selected for community engagement? That AHS at the end of the call number stands for the Alaska Historical Society. Unlike some state historical societies, they don’t have a collecting archives of their own. But people still send them things. We act as the archives for the AHS organization: both their own records and the archival materials people donate to them. They have the advantage of being able to take the materials in and know that they’re well preserved and accessible without having to figure out how to set up and pay for an archives, and we have the benefit of being able to make the materials accessible to all our communities that would like to access them.

HMC-1474: Allan P. Bennison papers; 1966-1971. Letters and a speech written by a geologist, who explored for oil and gas in Alaska.

HMC-1475: Libby’s cannery negatives; undated. 0.01 cubic feet. Color negatives taken in and around a Libby’s cannery in an unknown location.

HMC-1477: Matthew Gilbert papers and recordings; 2002-2019. 0.2 cubic feet and 14.9 MB. Papers and recordings of a Gwich’in Athabascan author and activist from Arctic Village.

UAA-0231: UAA. College of Health. Alaska Center for Rural Health and Health Workforce. Area Health Education Center Program publications; circa 2012. 0.01 cubic feet. Promotional pamphlets for the Area Health Education Center Program.

HMC-1255: Michel Villon papers; 1966-2017. Papers of a chef and educator. 1.0 cubic foot addition.

HMC-1358: David Ramseur papers; 1980-2016. 2.0 cubic foot addition.

UAA-0232: UAA. Institute of Social and Economic Research Russian files; 1981-2009. 3.4 cubic feet.

HMC-1479: Amundsen-Ellsworth 1926 Transpolar Flight photographs; 1926. 0.01 cubic feet.

UAA-0233: UAA. Facilities Planning and Construction master plan, 1990-2015; 1991. 0.2 cubic feet. A master plan for the University of Alaska Anchorage campus facilities and space.

HMC-1480: James Hurley Conference on the Future of Alaska papers; 1969-1970. 0.25 cubic feet. Papers collected and created by a former legislator during the 1969 Conference on the Future of Alaska.

UAA-0234: Anchorage Community College Guild Godspell recording; 1974 August 23. 0.1 cubic feet. Recording of a 1974 performance of the musical Godspell put on by the ACC Guild.

New online:

Community engagement: 18 images from the McLane family photographs Why is this one selected? Well, everything we put on the Alaska’s Digital Archives makes it freely accessible to an international audience, but this one we picked because the digitization was done in response to a researcher request. So one researcher’s request benefits many!

17 images from the Otte Conrad Johnson photographs.

3 videos from the Chuck Jarecki videos.

8 images from the Libby’s cannery negatives.

Other news and accomplishments:

Community engagement: We’re coming back from the renovations with more available appointment times and access to all the collections again. Do you want to come research? You can see our availability for appointments for the next month or just get in touch with some preferred dates and times and we’ll see what we can do. If you’re looking for dates beyond what is listed there, great! We love to book these out as far in advance as possible. Just get in touch.

Over the past year, Arlene co-edited a special issue of Collaborative Librarianship journal with Erin Renee Wahl of New Mexico State University. That issue, on the topic of weaponized tradition in libraries and archives, was released in October.

Community engagement: Gwen was elected to a three-year term the Board of Directors of the Alaska Historical Society.