UAS Ketchikan Campus Library

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, August 2020; written by Michelle Lampton.

We’re open to the public at the Campus Library again! Here are three great updates about the Campus Library and you, including Campus Library hours, a run-down of our Fall Ask UAS Lecture Series, and some news about the Library’sWriting Program.

The last days of August have arrived, and a good sign that 2020 hasn’t defeated us is that University of Alaska classes have resumed with gusto. With that, the UAS Ketchikan Campus Library once again has its doors open. Your campus library staff couldn’t be happier to see you in person again. Please come by to say hello, browse the shelves, peruse our many new books, use the computer or wi-fi, or suggest an addition to our “2020 in Review” display board. (Don’t worry if you’ve gotten into the habit of having our books delivered to the Public Library: Place a hold and they will still be transited there for check out.)

The Campus Library’s Fall Semester hours are 9am-5pm, Monday through Friday. Masks are required in the building, as is social distancing etiquette.

Just as exciting, our Ask UAS Lecture Series will be continuing. For now, presentations will be broadcast for home viewing on Facebook Live, in the same way Professor Morgan’s “To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question: Wild Berries Edition,” May talk was aired. (To view that video, as well as many previous Ask UAS presentations, find our Youtube video playlist on the University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan Campus Youtube Page.) Additionally, if social distancing requirements relax as the season progresses, we may also try to have limited in-person seating.

Here are the presenters and topics we have lined up: September 24 will be a panel hosted by Public Library Director Pat Tully, “Home Movies: Preserving Family and Community History.” The panel will discuss the how's and why-to's of preserving family and community history as part of our joint heritage. In October, Professor Stephen Florian will present, “Writer’s Block, Why We Get Hung Up When Writing Everything from Emails to Novels,” and give strategies to overcome the anxiety that can crop up when life or work forces us to write. In November, Professor Barbara Morgan will give a lecture on Ketchikan’s local bird life, and then in December, Professor John Radzilowski will talk on World War II in Alaska with a political and strategy perspective.

Finally, the Ketchikan Public Library and Ketchikan UAS Campus Library’s joint Writers Program will be easing back into operation. The group is now hosted online through a free service called Discord, which allows writers to talk via chat, voice, and video calls with ease. Contact us for an invite code so you can join the server and check it out. Virtual meeting times are currently TBD, but we already have a professional fiction editor and a former New York Film Academy instructor who will both give a virtual presentation over the Fall.

Don’t forget to stop by our book display across from the circulation desk at the Public Library, and follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/KetchikanCampusLibrary.