Anchorage Public Library
Anchorage Public Library provides resources to enrich the lives and empower the future of our diverse community, while preserving the past for generations to come.
A Once-in-a-Generation Renovation
The Anchorage Public Library is preparing for a once-in-a-generation renovation of the Z.J. Loussac Library, a vital and beloved Anchorage institution. The Loussac Renewal is a large, multi-year project that will be completed in multiple phases.
The first phase, a facility master plan, began in April 2012.
Library Fines Amnesty Day
For the first time in more than 25 years, Anchorage Public Library will forgive fines on overdue materials if they are returned on Wednesday, April 18. You can take advantage of this amnesty by returning any overdue library items you have to any of APL’s five locations.
The amnesty event is a way of recognizing a significant gift from long-time resident and library user Alfred Hanisch, who died in December, 2010.
Graphic Novels as a Teaching Tool
It might surprise you to learn that high school teachers in the Anchorage School District are using comics in a variety of ways to connect with and inspire their students.
“Persepolis” and the Middle East Today
Since the publication of its first volume in 2003, Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis has rightly received critical and scholarly acclaim. Time, Newsweek and the New York Times praised Satrapi’s autobiography, both for its innovative use of comic-book format and for the insight it provides into life in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Iran.
I have assigned the book to students in my courses at Temple University, La Salle University, and the University of Alaska Anchorage with good results, so I was pleased to hear that Anchorage Public Library had selected Persepolis for this year’s Anchorage Reads.
Graphic Novels – More Than Heroes In Tights
Superman, Batman, X-Men, and other do-gooders in tights and capes are probably what you think of when you think about comic books. And as a point of confession, that is what I thought for years until a literature course required me to read Maus by Art Spiegelman and taught me the term Graphic Novel.




























