Featured PLC Member Library
Barrow's Library – Not Your Typical PLC Member
Serious scientific research support is the characteristic mission for most Colloquy members. That's only partially true for the Tuzzy Consortium Library. The mission of this little library on the shore of the Chukchi Sea is to provide library services to the inhabitants of the North Slope Borough of Alaska. This includes researchers but primarily the library is concerned with the hearts and minds of the people who live here and their rich culture, language and history.
The Tuzzy Consortium Library serves as the academic library for Ilisagvik College and the public library for the North Slope Borough (NSB) of Alaska. Bordered in the north by the Arctic Ocean and in the south by the Brooks Mountain Range, the NSB is the northernmost organized municipality in the United States, lying entirely above the Arctic Circle. Treeless, lowland tundra dotted by marshes, small lakes, meandering streams, and rivers dominate this vast area, which is roughly equal in size to the state of Minnesota. Iñupiat Eskimos have lived in the region for nearly two thousand years, their survival dependent on their ability to draw sustenance from the land and the sea.
Approximately 7,000 people live in the NSB. Barrow, the largest town with 4,199 residents, is 64% Iñupiat. Other North Slope communities are more than 90% Iñupiat. Point Hope, population 702, is the next largest, followed by Wainwright, 520; Nuiqsut, 411; Anaktuvuk Pass, 308; Kaktovik, 295; Atqasuk, 247 and Point Lay, 238. Distances between villages are great and none are accessible by road. Point Hope on the west is 570 miles from Kaktovik on the east, and Barrow is 250 miles north of Anaktuvuk Pass in the south.
Ilisagvik College is an accredited, two-year institution located in Barrow. The College is currently an independent, public, nonprofit post-secondary school. It was established in 1986 in a cooperative agreement between the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and the NSB, as an extension of the university. Coming into its own as an independent institution in 1996, the College was accredited by the Northwest Association of Colleges and Universities in 2003. Governance of the public library system is through Ilisagvik College.
The Library is headquartered in Barrow, with seven outlying branches serving the other villages. The branches also function as the school libraries during the day. The village libraries' small collections contain popular fiction, periodicals, general reference materials, culturally relevant books and internet connections to periodical databases. They are generally open 10 hours per week, 48 weeks per year. There are from one to four internet accessible computers in each of these libraries. Village residents needing access to a more diverse library collection can receive materials through interlibrary loan. For the purposes of cataloging and interlibrary loan, the Library is a member of OCLC, the largest networked library utility in the world.
The Tuzzy collection contains about 50,000 items and 150 periodicals. Ten workstations connected to the internet are available to the public. Special collections include substantial Alaskana and Native arts sections with particular emphasis on arctic, circumpolar, North Slope and Iñupiat history, language and culture. Reversing the exploitation of the area's rich cultural heritage by institutions outside the region is among the Library's major goals. This can best be accomplished by strengthening local capacity to control, preserve and disseminate its own collections and resources.
To this end, the library has engaged in several innovative projects designed to make accessible local treasures. The most visible of these are the two Tundra Times projects: the photo project and the index project. The Tundra Times Newspaper archive was put into the care of the Tuzzy Library in 1998 after this statewide publication went out of business.
These projects support the Library's mission to provide culturally responsive services and collections that enrich the lives and expand the horizons of the people of the North Slope. The Tundra Times projects have been recognized internationally and account for a higher percentage of network usage than any other single resource on the Ilisagvik College's web site. However, it is not the primary reason people come to the library.
Nearly 70,000 visitors walked through the doors of the library last year. Of course many come every day particularly the community kids after school. They like to hang out with their friends and use the library's computer services. The schools in Barrow gave each child a new laptop last year. The library installed a special wireless antenna so they could connect to the internet with laptops. The library also provides another wireless network connection for other visitors. Many people came to check out the growing collections of books, DVDs and periodicals. More came to use the ten internet connected computers or participate in one of the programs the library supports each year. The library is concerned with literacy and has a popular summer reading program.
The library also supports the efforts of research scientists in the Arctic. Tuzzy Library has a close relationship with BASC, the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium which provides support and logistics to visiting researchers. Barrow was recently proclaimed by the Alaska Legislature as "Alaska's Arctic Science City and as Alaska's focal site for the 125th Anniversary of the International Polar Year." The Tuzzy Consortium Library is proud to serve Barrow and the Arctic Researchers who find their way to this distant shore.
