(Rashah McChesney/Chilkat Valley News) Dozens crowded in the Haines Public Library on Friday, July 4, 2025, for the annual Friends of the Library books sale in Haines, Alaska.

After three years as a finalist, the Haines Borough Public Library has won the 2026 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor for libraries. 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services awards the medal each year to five libraries and five museums nationwide.…

Rashah McChesney is a multimedia journalist and editor who has reported and edited newsrooms from the Deep South to the Midwest to Alaska. For the past decade, she has worked in collaborative news as the...