Alaska Library Association Conference

The Alaska Library Association Conference took place in Fairbanks February 23-26. At the invitation of Jim Simard, head of historical collections at the State Library in Juneau, Stacey Baldridge, Jim Kari and I gave a presentation about the Alaska Native Language Archive. It was a humbling and sobering experience, presenting in front of so many professional librarians and archivists. Language archiving is a unique field, balanced at the intersection of Linguistics and Library Science. I admit that I have generally approached this intersection with my linguist's eyes, asking for example, why librarians don't consult more with linguists regarding linguistic issues. So I was caught off guard when one of the participants asked why ANLA didn't have any librarians on its staff. Why indeed?

In truth, there are some good reasons for this state of affairs. Libraries and archives have been slow to grapple with language as a subject area, as opposed to simply a medium of expression. So librarians see a Yup'ik math book and catalog it with a math subject heading; linguists see the same book as having a subject heading of Yup'ik language. The issue has been further complicated by the lack of standardized codes for identifying individual languages. Prior to 2007 the Library of Congress recognized only six Alaska Native languages (Aleut, Gwich'in, Inupiaq, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Yupik) out of twenty. This was addressed with the introduction of the ISO 639-3 standard, but this standard has yet to be fully implemented in Alaskan libraries. (Rasmuson library's Goldmine catalog includes Aleut, Athapascan, and Eskimo.) Still, these are not insurmountable hurdles.

So the question remains: why no librarians at ANLA? Well, technically, this assumption of no librarians isn't quite true, as our current collection manager is pursuing a certificate in archives management. But the point remains: there is much to be gained by linguists working more closely with librarians. Over the past year ANLA has been developing a closer working relationship with Rasmuson Library, even housing some of its collections within the library building. We expect this collaboration to expand further in the future. The more I talk with librarians, the more I learn. Archival resources have much to contribute to the future of Alaska Native languages, and librarians have a professional commitment to making resources available. I am also happy to see that the Alaska Library Association has a commitment to developing capacity for tribal libraries and archives. If we are to better develop and make available Alaska Native language archival resources, we need more Alaska Native language archivists.