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After completing her bachelor's in English and master's in library science in the Lower 48, West High graduate Nancy Lesh returned to Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ "with the idea that I would stay for a year or two and take a lot of trips around Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ to places that you don't normally go, like Point Hope and Barrow and the Pribilofs, and then decide what I wanted to do."

Soon after returning, she accepted a job offer from Gene Short (of the) for assistant librarian at Anchorage Community College (ACC) and started Jan. 2, 1968. It didn't take her long to decide what to do from there. 

"I got involved in libraries and the Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Library Association and it just seemed like a right fit. There were wonderful things we were doing with libraries in Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ at that point. And so that made me want to stay," said Lesh, who currently serves as Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æna bibliographer, the latest in a variety of roles throughout her 55 years with the library. "It was a great decision. It's been a really wonderful career."

Lesh was the librarian at ACC when the Consortium Library was established and built in 1973 following an agreement between the two schools that would eventually become the Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ (UAA) and Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Pacific University (APU). As the library celebrates 50 years, Lesh reflects on its history and future.

'Dedicated to serving people'

As for the changes between 1973 and today, Lesh notes, "I would say, first of all, that the basic commitment to serving patrons hasn't changed since the beginning. My experience with library faculty and staff is that everyone is very dedicated to serving people and making sure that they get the material that they need for whatever reason."

Lesh lists the library's growth and technology as the two biggest changes over the years.

The ACC library moved from West High to the brand new ACC campus in 1970, where it was housed in the Sally Monserud Hall. The original Consortium Library building in West Campus opened in 1973 and expanded in 2004 with renovations and the addition of a new wing, the and the.

Back in 1973, the library was the first building on UAA's West Campus. Since it was built to accommodate future growth, the facility had enough extra space to serve as a temporary home for many other departments as new construction continued around it.

"We had all kinds of college offices and other organizations housed in the building for the first few years, including the Chancellor's Office, KAKM, the Senior College, the Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Historical Commission and the Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Medical Library. Courtesy of the graduate psychology department, we even had a rat lab in the library!" Lesh said. "So we started small and then those other agencies moved on to other places as more buildings were constructed."

As the Consortium Library continued to grow over the years, another expansion was needed by the early 2000s. "[Building] a new part of the library, because that gave a lot more room to some of the partnerships that we have and making the collection more accessible — I think that was definitely a milestone," said Lesh.

Moving online from older technology such as card catalogs, microfiche and telex machines was also transformational, Lesh said. "With technology and the internet, we've got an ability to do more, to communicate more easily with more places."

"Another major moment in the library's history was staying open during COVID for UAA and APU community members," Lesh said. "That was a decision, and it wasn't easy on people, and I'm sure the people who couldn't use the library because they weren't affiliated with either school were disappointed," said Lesh. "But at least we were able to support all the students that were trying to continue their education, finish it up in some cases, and go from there."

'We can all work together'

Part of what captivated Lesh about Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ's libraries was the incredible collaboration relative to more established and free-standing institutions in the Lower 48.

"In Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ, everybody was basically material poor and probably staff poor, and that made us all better at performing our missions if we pulled together. And luckily, everybody was pretty much, I think, of that mindset," Lesh said. "The big libraries were willing to help the little ones and a lot of times the little ones had unique collections or locations that certainly helped the larger ones. And in the early days, we were very lucky that the directors of the three big libraries, the State Library and the University of Fairbanks and Anchorage, were all leaders in interlibrary cooperation. And so everybody joined together very nicely."

That collaboration has continued over the years, in one form or another, leading to countless opportunities for both the libraries and the communities they serve.

"There was a comment one time made in the '80s when we were looking at statewide cooperation, and the phrase was coined, 'Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ is a library.' And that kind of pulls together this notion that with the partnerships and the technology, we can all work together and be aware of each other."

Lesh cites the example of the, which started in 1999 as a partnership between UAA and the Anchorage Public Library. Today, the shared catalog is a consortium of more than 90 libraries in rural and urban areas, serving over 200,000 library users across Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ. As a result, a library patron in Kotzebue has access to the same materials as someone in Anchorage — and vice versa. "It makes it so accessible to everybody in the state to know who's got what holdings and all the rest of it. We're very rich that way."

'Come, look and explore'

As Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æna bibliographer, Lesh is primarily responsible for adding materials to the.

When asked what the collection's best-kept secret was, she had an answer at the ready: "Oh, that it's a strong, ever-growing collection. Come in and take a look. It sometimes gets a little hidden, I think, in the midst of everything else, but if you have an interest in that kind of material, it's very good to come, look and explore."

Much like the library itself, the collection has grown tremendously since Lesh first joined the staff in the '60s.

"The main Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æna collection is located in the stacks on the second floor. It includes print materials, DVDs, videos, records, microfilm and microfiche. Other Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æna items are held in the Maps collection, Juvenile Collection and Archives, and included in online databases," Lesh said. "It really covers several different locations in the library, just depending on what it is."

To make sure the collection reflects the history and people of Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ, Lesh is always looking for new additions. "I spend a lot of time, just in my everyday life, looking for titles that we should buy. With a specialized collection like Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æna, there aren't always lists of  books published, and so I'm always looking for titles in places like regular stores, bookstores, newspaper articles, obituaries, community events, TV newscasts, word of mouth and local newsletters. Really, anywhere and everywhere."

For new acquisitions, she's also excited by the rise in publications written and published by Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Native voices. "In the last 15 or 20 years there's been a real increase in publications which is terrific!.  I try to buy as much as I can find and on many topics. Two of the big publishers, I think, are Sealaska in Juneau and the Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak. And just this month, I found out about and was able to have donated a publication by the Tanana Chiefs in Fairbanks. It is called Legacy of Our Elders and is a series of interviews with some of their members. These kinds of things are just priceless for documenting parts of Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ's history."

Although she is always seeking out new items for the collection, Lesh notes that "a lot of it's serendipity, I think. You work at it, but it's still serendipity when you find these things!"

'That's what makes it exciting'

As for what the future holds for the Consortium Library, Lesh thinks, "With funding and new technologies for materials, staff, space and sharing, it's going to get even better. We've got a strong library to build on and we've got all of our partnerships. Dean Rollins is very good at creating partnerships that will benefit everyone." In addition to the library itself, there are five partners housed in the building: Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Resources Library and Information Services (ARLIS), Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Library Catalog (ACL), Statewide Library Electronic Doorway (SLED), Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ's Digital Archives and Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Moving Image Preservation Association (AMIPA). The library is also currently undergoing renovations to welcome the UAA Learning Commons which will be located on the first floor.

"Those are all strong partnerships that have not exactly the same interests, but related interests — all getting material to people. And so it works really well. And I think that will just continue to grow as opportunities come along," said Lesh.

"I know there's the question of, 'What do you envision for the library's next 50 years?' Yes, I haven't got a clue, actually. That's what makes it exciting," said Lesh. "It's fun to look back on the first 50 and see how far we've come. And hopefully we'll come that far again just in new ways." 

'An honor'

Overall, Lesh describes her five-plus decades with the university proudly. "It is an honor to have been able to participate in the development of library services to the Anchorage Community College, the Consortium Library and Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æn libraries statewide.

"An honor to have worked with so many amazing librarians across the state dedicated to helping all Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æns find the resources and information they need for a better life.

"I'm continually impressed by the dedication and energy shown daily by my colleagues at the Consortium Library in serving our patrons.

"And it has been an honor to be on the staff of Dean Rollins, who has brought the library along in new technologies, built partnerships across the state, oversaw the building of the library addition so that more services and collections can be offered, and who is a strong advocate of the Â鶹ÎÞÂë°æ Library Network."