The Alutiiq Museum has been working with AMERIND Critical Infrastructure to help the Native Village of Port Lions (NVPL) Tribal Library certified as a LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) eligible entity. Being LSTA eligible also makes the library E-rate eligible and can then help to fund the libraries services. We submitted the letter of certification to the Alaska State Library to certify NVPL tribal library as an E-rate eligible entity.
This has been a long road of exploration for both myself and the Alaska State Library. From when I first started working with them until now, we have dispelled many perceived roadblocks that we thought would be a no-go to get certified. I have an epic worth of emails that would make Homer blush going back and forth between myself, Alaska State Library, NVPL, and AMERIND. This was a very long and troublesome process to go through. However, I think that we have not only succeeded in getting the library certified, we have paved the way for our other tribal libraries on the island to do the same. By paving the way and educating our communities on the steps we have taken to certify the tribal library, we can gain the experience that so many rural communities lack when trying to establish a small tribal library.