This book draws on an extensive literature review and personal experience to examine cross-cultural issues in the development of libraries for Arctic indigenous communities. Although the book highlights circumstances in Alaska, its geographical scope is circumpolar, including Canada, Greenland, and the former Soviet Union and present-day Russian Federation. The main focus is the cross-cultural character of library development, the meeting of oral and written traditions, and the possibility of transforming concepts of a "library" and its services to reflect the wants and needs of Native communities. Other themes include library education for indigenous personnel, cross-cultural experiences and training of non-Native personnel, and the multicultural librarianship. Chapters are: (1)"Preservation and Continuity of Heritage: A Sampler"; (2) "The Subsistence vs. the Capitalist Culture: Subarctic Eskimos"; (3) "Oral and Written Traditions, Literacy, and the Native Orthographies"; (4) "Urbanization, Modernization, and the Migration to Cities"; (5) "Multiculturalism and Biculturalism: Native Library Progress in Canada and Greenland"; (6) "Imperial Russia, Revolutionary Russia, and 'Russia Reborn': Will Libraries Benefit Northern Nationalities?" (including source notes and annotated bibliography); (7) "A Potpourri: Culture Shock, the Author's Background, Multicultural Librarianship"; and (8) "Jobs and Library Education vs. Native Communities." Appendixes include a magazine article on Alaska village libraries, questionnaires used to survey 85 graduate library schools, and brief notes on Native library provision in northern Scandinavia. Also included are source notes, extensive bibliographies (partially annotated), and an index. (SV)