Justin Mattson , Alsaka's News Source; Klukwan Library goes from 35 hours a week to 4 following federal funding loss
"Along the Chilkat River in Southeast Alaska lies a small, ancient Alaska Native village, Klukwan. The village of Klukwan is in the Hoonah-Angoon Census Area and has a population of around 100. It has one library that serves the community. Following the termination of their federal grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the needs the library met are underserved.
“With that funding, we were doing workshops such as drum making, paddle board carving, we’ve done moccasin making in the past, we were also using it to pay stipends for presenters,” Co-Director of the Klukwan Library, Jamie Katzeek, explained.
Other programs that have been cut are designed to help keep the community engaged in reading.
“Our summer reading program has been cut,” Katzeek said. “The library is the hub of our community, and so without it, there’s just a lot of intergenerational learning and activities that have been eliminated because we just don’t have the funding.”...
“We went from two staff people, part-time, we were working. The library was open 35 hours a week, and now we’re down to just myself at 4 hours a week,” Katzeek said. “The two ILMS grants that we got funded most of our staff time.”
For now, the future of the Klukwan library is uncertain, but nothing is set in stone. They have appealed the decision to attempt to have the grants reinstated and are working with the State of Alaska to help fill the void left by the loss of the federal grants."
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