Dr. Siri Tuttle appointed Interim Director of ANLA

Please join us in welcoming Dr. Siri Tuttle as Interim Director of the Alaska Native Language Archive. Siri is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Alaska Native Language Center and has extensive experience in the documentation and conservation of Alaska Native languages. Dr. Tuttle will continue the important work of ANLA in preserving and archiving the Alaska Native Language collections and making them available to the public, both physically and electronically.

Files offline, June 19-21

Due to scheduled maintenance at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, ANLA digital files will be unavailable from 9:00 AM AST on June 19 through 9:00 PM AST on June 21. Our catalog will continue to accessible.

Digital files offline Aug 21

Due to scheduled maintenance, digital files will be unavailable on August 21, 9:00 AM - 9:00 PM AKDT. Access to catalog metadata will be unaffected.

Preserving the Past: A Basic Handbook for Archiving in Rural Alaska

I created this handbook after several conversations with Alaskans at the Alaska Library Association meeting in Fairbanks in February 2011. Many people asked me questions like “What do I do with my cassette tapes” or, “How can I start archiving some my communities' materials?” My intent is to provide a resource for rural Alaskans, and other people who are looking to start an archive, learn how to digitize tapes, or find a place to donate materials. This is a 15 page basic handbook that can be used by anyone; high-school students and Elders will be able to make use of it. While the resources are available, they are not truly accessible because they are often incredibly technical, and require a background knowledge in archiving. I do not expect all rural Alaskans to have these skills, so this handbook is a skeleton that can be used as a stepping stone for archiving. It is also not a static document; any input is welcomed, and I appreciate the input I have received thus far.  Click here for the handbook. For more information, contact Stacey Baldridge at smbaldridge@alaska.edu.

Tribal Archives meeting 2013

This week ANLA staff are participating in the annual meeting of the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums at Tamaya (Santa Ana Pueblo), New Mexico. The meeting brings together about 500 representatives of organizations ranging from small tribal libraries to national museums. This year there has been a strong emphasis on digital preservation and access--an issue which resonates strongly with ANLA.

ANLA developed its first electronic catalog in 1999 and since that time has worked closely with the digital archiving community to develop standards for digital language archiving, serving as a founding member of institutions such as OLAC and DELAMAN. It's exciting to see digital standards being further discussed and more broadly adopted across the tribal archives community. We at ANLA have already learned much from our colleagues at ATALM -- certainly one of the most productive and informative professional meetings I have attended.

Yesterday ANLA staff gave a workshop entitled No longer gather dust: The role of digital repatriation in supporting traditional language and culture. The goal of the presentation was to show some of the ways that Alaskan organizations are transforming ANLA materials to create online and mobile materials for language learning. You can download a pdf version of the presentation here.

Digital files back online!

Thanks to our great tech support staff, access to ANLA digital files is once again available.

Digital files offline

Unfortunately, due to a system-wide power outage yesterday at the university our digital files are currently offline. We are working to get everything up and running and will post a message as soon as the server comes back online. Thanks for you patience.