Latest issue of Newspoke

The latest issue of Newspoke is now available. You can get the PDF here. The July-September 2010 issue (v. 23 n. 3) includes these stories:

• A Legacy to Kenai's First Lady of Reading, Emily DeForest
• Letter from the President
• "A Native Lad": Turning Words into Pictures
• Library Advocacy Day
• Catalogers' Corner
• AkLA Chapter News
• Scholarship Awards for American Indians and Alaska Natives
• When Does A Library Cease to Be A Library?
• Newspoke Guidelines
• AkLA Officers/Calendar

Libraries as Anti-Depressants?

I subscribe to Hold This Thought, a daily blog/podcast featuring quotes from books that have touched various people. According to their about page, Hold This Thought was started through grants from the Alaska Humanities Forum and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

I think the blog features great books and great thoughts nearly every day, but I am highlighting the July 15, 2008 episode because libraries are all about lifelong learning. In this episode, Wayne Mergler shares this quote from the Once and Future King:

"The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn..."is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you."

And what better place for people to learn at their local library? So the next time you're feeling blue or overwhelmed by life, try learning something new at the library. But if you feel down for more than two weeks or have some of the symptoms from the Medline Plus article on Depression at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/depression.html, consider getting professional help.

Canneries, Cabins, and Caches of Bristol Bay, Alaska

The Alaska State Library recently received a copy of the National Park Service publication The Canneries, Cabins, and Caches of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Any library with an interest either in the history of Alaska or salmon fishing owe it to themselves to get a copy of this richly illustrated book. According to the letter that came with this item:

The book documents long abandoned canneries, and those still in use, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Canneries, Cabins and Caches of Bristol Bay, Alaska also provides a view of life upriver, during the winter, along the length and breadth of the three great salmon rivers in the Bay, the Nushagak, Kvichak, and Naknek Rivers. These wild bountiful rivers all head partially or completely in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve and Katmai National Park and Preserve."

Check it out. If you've read it already, let us know what you think.

Purchase ideas

There was a lot to see in the exhibits area, with great books, DVDs and more from longtime and new vendors alike. I also discovered quite a few titles mentioned in the various sessions attended. Here are some of the titles I found jotted down in my notebook. I may post again if I find more goodies as I sort through my notes.

Books
Labels for Locals: What to call people from Abilene to Zimbabwe, by Paul Dickson, rev. ed. 2006
I actually had this listed as Names for Locals, but this is the closest I could find on Amazon,
where it has 5 stars (albeit from one review). Basically, it helps you be culturally respectful by letting you know the correct naming convention for residents of various locales, so we don't all
fall for JFK's classic mistake of calling himself a jelly donut (ein Berliner).

Don't Make Me Think: A common sense approach to web usability, by Steve Krug, 2005

Prioritizing Web Usability, by Jakob Nielsen and Hoa Loranger, 2006

Design of Everyday Things, by Donald A. Norman, 2002

Emergency Response and Salvage wheel and Field Guide to Emergency Response
The text for the wheel is available at http://www.fema.gov/plan/ehp/response.shtm, or it can be purchased in combination with the guide at https://www.heritagepreservation.org/catalog.

List
PRESERVENW: An unmoderated list for discussing "the preservation of archival, library, and museum collections in the Pacific Northwest." To subscribe, go to https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/preservenw.

What titles did you find when going through your notes?