Read Testimonials about ARLIS

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Testimonials from the Public

“I am a librarian connected with the Alaska Library Catalog, and the ARLIS materials in the catalog are such an incredible boon! They have incredible holdings on Alaska’s natural resources and environment, with many of these materials available in a digital format for my patrons to get access immediately. They have materials that we could not replicate in our collection, but we don’t need to worry about that because ARLIS has us covered. Losing ARLIS would be a huge blow to anyone interested in working with or exploring the natural resources of that state.” – D.C.

 

“I am a new professor at UAA, and part of my work involves understanding the distribution of species in Alaska. Many of the resources I rely on for this work, such as state and federal habitat assessments, species inventories for public land, and regional journals that have never been digitized- all of which are things I’ve been able to find in ARLIS. Being able to do the latest in genomic studies is all well and good, but so many of the details I need to do that work are located in the resources held in this collection. ARLIS is a priceless resource for researchers!” – J.M.

 

“When I retired from ADNR and USFWS I donated all my one of a kind references and books, including those I authored, to ARLIS. These materials are not available anywhere else in Alaska or perhaps the Lower 48 either.” – M.H.

 

“I used ARLIS extensively for research using documents from various federal and state agencies that had all been combined at ARLIS through the farsightedness of agency librarians. ARLIS was created when federal agencies were considering closing the individual department libraries. The librarians from those agencies came together and brainstormed the creation of one library to hold all the books, journals, gray literature and other items in one place. Before the creation of ARLIS any research using both state and federal libraries required going to each agency library – State of Alaska Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Oil Spill library and others to be able make sure all pertinent data was incorporated in papers or reports. In addition, ARLIS holds items found nowhere else in their gray literature collected from the different refuges and parks in Alaska. These are not found elsewhere in the US or Alaska.” – S.K.

 

Testimonials from Founding Agency Employees

“I am an anthropologist with the Federal Subsistence Management Program. ARLIS is absolutely essential to our work. I have always been extremely grateful to have access to the rich archives of Alaska-based materials, often in digital form, in a timely manner. This access to vital documents allows us to do high quality work for the public, Councils, and tribes, and improves the decision-making process. I hope that ARLIS will continue to be supported at the level it deserves going forward.” – H.V.

 

“ARLIS is and has for a very long time been the very definition of a well-run, highly valuable and successful organization. I have relied on this wonderful service for more than three decades of my career involved in research, monitoring and managing federal lands in Alaska. I was consistently impressed and greatly valued the top-notch customer service provided by ARLIS. They provided timely, courteous and valuable access to important publications and other materials and never let me down. It is not an exaggeration to say that in the absence of ARLIS I would have been a less productive and effective member of my organization. Money allocated to this organization was efficiently and effectively spent and was well worth it do to the large and diverse stakeholders who relied on the is really great service. Thank you, ARLIS for many decades of valuable service!” – C.R.

 

“Working in a very remote National Park, for decades I have relied on ARLIS to make scientific literature available in a timely fashion.  Back in the old days, ARLIS would mail a photocopy (or a borrowed book) to me in Glacier Bay.  These days, online resources and the advent of open access publication make it easier to access some scientific information, but some journals/articles are behind paywalls with ridiculous pricing (especially considering what the publishers charge authors to publish in those same journals!). ARLIS is so important to keeping relevant information available to founding organizations and to the general public.” – C.G.

 

“The staff and resources at ARLIS have been incredibly helpful for the BLM Library. The focus on regional Alaska materials published by BLM offices, and other affiliated DOI agencies, in Alaska have helped with administrative records, document and report requests, circulation and ILL services, and online resources to our staff and BLM employees for countless years.” – D.S.

 

“ARLIS is an amazing resource that I use weekly, sometimes even daily, to gain access to pay-walled journal articles that are essential to mission critical research of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. I would guess I average ~3 requests/week and they always come through and do so rapidly. My work would not be possible without access to ARLIS and the folks who ensure our research staff can get the resources they need to accomplish their work.” – K.D.

 

“I have been a fairly regular user of ARLIS over the past 10 years. Often times, ARLIS has been able to find and track down documents I have not been able to find elsewhere, answering questions and making my work more accurate and efficient. Recently, ARLIS completed a massive digitization effort for my office, scanning historic documents, but also thousands of historic images. Within 8 hours of viewing the digitized imagery, I was able to track down the exact locations of 3 historic project sites that I had been unable to find for 3 years! ARLIS is an indispensable resource for Alaska, resource managers, and directly benefits the public through better management of information and resources.” – A.W.

 

“ARLIS staff has always been extremely speedy with their response times to users requests. Many times when I have reached out to ARLIS it is because they are the only library that has the specific item that I am looking for. Sometimes the proactive individuals at ARLIS have worked to have the item preemptively scanned and I am able to get the item right away. Even when the item is not scanned, they work to make content accessible as soon as possible with minimal wait times. ARLIS is unique because they primarily serve users in Alaska. Being disconnected from the rest of the U.S. their materials are specific to Alaska’s natural and cultural resources. This is a resource that should be preserved and made available to the public since many documents are federal publications that are in the public domain, paid by the public.” – D.H.

 

“ARLIS is my go-to library for finding white papers and other agency literature about natural resources in Alaska. A lot of critical work accomplished during the past 50-70 years had been reported on in documents that are no longer readily accessible to state and federal agency staff in our home offices. But I know that ARLIS almost always has a copy. Once I had found a copy of a rare plant report in my office that I noticed was not in the ARLIS archives. So I digitized it and sent it to ARLIS so that others will be able to find it in the future. The staff were very helpful and were excited to be able to add to the collection.” – A.D.

 

Testimonials may be shortened and have spelling corrected.