March is Women’s History Month! There is a lot to explore in the collection that can help you delve into women’s history in the United States and around the world, but we wanted to share one particular resource that you may not know about.
While the Quicksearch finds eBooks among all the materials it searches (including books, journal articles, etc.), there are two databases that you can use to more narrowly search for eBooks: eBook Collection and eBook Central.
Simply searching “women’s history” through either database brings up an varied selection of books on women’s history. Here are a few highlights:
Winterfest is kicked off this week at UAA! Winterfest features lots of different activities on campus and around Anchorage – and it has us thinking more about the winter celebrations in Alaska – we’re highlighting a few of them here on the blog!
The Iditarod is a long distance race of dog teams that has been happening annually since 1973 – while the race used to run from Anchorage to Nome, due to lack of snow conditions, the start in Anchorage was modified to be a ceremonial start with the race re-starting in Willow. This year’s ceremonial start will be held in downtown Anchorage this Saturday, February 28th.
The current race route is based on the original Iditarod trail that was used by dog teams to transport freight every winter into the 1920s, when the use of airplanes became more common. In 1925, dog teams saved the day when a diphtheria epidemic threatened Nome. There wasn’t a pilot available who could handle the difficult flight, so a relay of dog teams transported needed serum to Nome in time to prevent an epidemic (Bowers). The race was introduced in 1973 as a way to commemorate the historic trail and continue the tradition of using dog teams.
The Iditarod Trail Annual is an annual book that was released each year and featured information about the route, official entries into the race, as well as stories from the trail from the previous year, including a diary that followed the progress of the mushers each day and profiles of the finishers. We have copies of the Iditarod Trail Annual that you can browse in the Alaska Collection – find them at call number REF ALASKA SF 440.P43. This one is from 1985!
The Fur Rendezvous Dog Mushers’ Annual also includes lots of great photos of the dog teams and their mushers – the one below is from 1965. Find these in the Alaska Collection at call number REF ALASKA F 914.A4 F9
You can also search for photos in the Alaska Digital Archive to see photos of the mushers and dogs at different times in Alaska’s history – how does this photo from the 1966 start in Anchorage look different from today? Do you recognize any landmarks from downtown Anchorage?
Winterfest kicked off this week at UAA! Winterfest features lots of different activities on campus and around Anchorage – and it has us thinking more about the winter celebrations in Alaska – we’re highlighting a few of them here on the blog!
Kivgiq (Messenger Feast) has been celebrated by the Inupiaq for centuries. Kivgiq would be hosted by a whaling captain who would send kivgak (messengers) to invite other nearby communities to participate. The celebration would include an exchange of gifts, trading of goods, dancing, and storytelling, building relationships between communities. In the early 20th century, previous iterations of the festival were discontinued – although it’s not entirely clear why, it was likely due to the collapse of commercial whaling after 1915, pressure from missionaries to abandon traditional practices, the flu epidemic, and later the Great Depression (Ikuta 347-8).
In 1987, the North Slope Borough Mayor George Ahmaogak Sr. began a revitalization effort. He and other elders were concerned about the potential loss of cultural practices and values in the face of increased Westernization and assimilation policies in the 20th century, so they sought to create an event that could lift the spirits of the community. After collecting interviews about Kivgiq traditions from elders and researching oral history and ethnographic sources, a new iteration of the celebration debuted in 1988 (Ikuta 344). You can see a video from that celebration – the first in 70 years – below!
Now, Kivgiq is celebrated at the discretion of the North Slope Borough Mayor – and they celebrated most recently this year! Read more about Kivgiq and the impact that its revitalization has had in Utqiagvik in the article Iñupiaq pride: Kivgiq (Messenger Feast) on the Alaskan North Slope, written by Hiroko Ikuta, which you can access through the UAA/APU Consortium Library databases.
Ayyu Qassataq, who earned an M.A. in Rural Development from UAF, also wrote about Kivgiq, among other dances and ceremonies in her Master’s project When Uŋalaqłiq danced: stories of strength, suppression & hope. She explores the historical factors that led to cultural traditions no longer being practiced in Uŋalaqłiq (Unalakleet) with the goal of understanding how to “lay a foundation to promote healing and strength through the potential revival of ancestral traditions” (2). In her work, she writes about the revitalization of Kivgiq in Utqiagvik and Nuurvik and how understanding those efforts might aid in community healing in Uŋalaqłiq. You can read her project and browse those of other students through Scholarworks @ UA.
References for this post:
Ikuta, Hiroko. “Iñupiaq Pride: Kivgiq (Messenger Feast) on the Alaskan North Slope.” Études/Inuit/Studies, vol. 31, no. 1/2, 2007, pp. 343–64. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42870252. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.
Qassataq, Ayyu. When Uŋalaqłiq Danced: Stories of Strength, Suppression & Hope. 2020. University of Alaska Fairbanks, Masters Project.
Winterfest kicked off this week at UAA! Winterfest features lots of different activities on campus and around Anchorage – and it has us thinking more about the winter celebrations in Alaska – over the next week we’ll highlight a few of them!
For those who live in Anchorage, Fur Rondy might be the most familiar. In 1935, Vern Johnson and friends started the first ever Fur Rendezvous (aka Fur Rondy) festival, timed to coincide with miners and trappers coming back to town with their yields. This year is the 90th celebration of Fur Rondy, and the festival has evolved in include a plethora of activities for people of all ages.
At the UAA/APU Consortium Library, we have copies of the Fur Rendezvous and Dog Mushers Annual, a book that was released each year highlighting the activities from that year’s festival. It’s a really fun peek into the history of the celebration! Check out the covers of the 1976 and 1987 copies and find these (and more!) in the Alaska Collection – call number REF ALASKA F 914.A4 F9:
Want to try out a prize-winning recipe from the 1982 baked good competition held during Fur Rondy? We have the cookbook – and Liz’s Supreme Kringler (1st Place, Division Winner, Best of Show!) looks incredible. Find it in the Alaska Collection at call number TX 715.A559 1982.
Stay tuned for more posts about winter celebrations in Alaska!
If you are writing a paper and trying to keep track of your references and citations, you have probably tried a citation tool to help. There are several different options that we highlight in our How To Guide for Citation Tools. In this post we wanted to highlight one you may not have tried yet – Zotero!
Zotero is a free to use open source program that allows you to easily save, organize, and cite your sources. It includes an application that you can download to your laptop as well as a browser plug-in called Zotero Connector.
Zotero Connector detects research and you can click it any time you find a useful source to save it – whether it’s a newspaper article or a scholarly work you found in one of the Library’s databases.
Once you save a source, you can find it in the application. There you can organize all your sources by project or topic. Zotero also integrates directly into Word and GoogleDocs so you can easily create in-text citations and a works cited/reference page.
Another perk to Zotero is that it is free to use for everyone – which means you can continue to use it after you graduate!
