Action for Libraries
Member News
Fort Peck Tribal Library Awarded IMLS Grant
The Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation (Montana) have been honored with the
esteemed Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Enhancement grant. The grant will allow the
Fort Peck Tribal Library to microfilm the Wotanin Wowapi reservation newspaper and provide copies of
the microfilm to Montana State University-Bozeman,
Roosevelt County Library, Montana Historical
Society, Fort Peck Tribal Archives and Fort Peck Tribal Library.
Alaska Museum, Kansas Library Receive National Honors
The Pratt Museum in Homer, Alaska, and
Johnson County (Kansas) Library are two of the six recipients
of the 2005 IMLS National Award for Museum and Library Service. Mary Chute, acting IMLS director,
described the award as the nation's highest honor for extraordinary public service. The award recognizes
libraries and museums that have exhibited outstanding service to their communities. The libraries were
recognized for "extraordinary civic, educational, economic, environmental and social contributions to
their communities." Each will receive $10,000 and will be honored at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.,
on January 30, 2006.
Other Member News
Members of the Montana Library Association (MLA) are "steaming up" to prepare the celebration in
2006 of MLA's 100th year of existence, according to Lisa Mecklenberg Jackson, publicity chair for the
2006 MLA conference. A new logo has been designed especially for the organization's 100th
anniversary.
Further plans will be revealed in future issues of MLA's Focus newsletter and on the MLA Web site (www.mtlib.org).
The Chouteau County Library in Fort Benton, Montana, celebrated its 90th anniversary in October 2005 with an open house. Chouteau County claims the honor of organizing the first county library system in Montana. The original building was constructed with funds received from the Carnegie Foundation after the local women's club and a former resident donated funds and land.
Henry Yaple, former member of the BCR Board of Trustees and retired librarian from Whitman College's Penrose Library (Washington), has authored Ski Bibliography. The two-volume reference work is an exhaustive listing of thousands of writings and recordings about skiing, not only books and periodicals, but also leaflets, reports, dissertations, government documents, film, video, sound recordings, software and electronic books. Order from Yaple himself in Walla Walla.
In Alaska, James Husesmann has been appointed the new dean of libraries at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks' Rasmuson Library. Gladi Kulp is the new chief librarian of the Alaska Historical Collections at the Alaska State Library.
Colorado's Judy Zelinski has been named interim executive secretary of the Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA) following the retirement of Joe Edelen (South Dakota). Zelinski also is taking over the editorship of the MPLA Newsletter.
Loveland (Colorado) Public Library celebrated its 100th birthday last fall with a special buffet dinner, a silent auction and a "Music through the Decades performance."