Back from Society of American Archivists Conference

Been a while (again)- Sorry......
Aug. 30th I was on a panel and co-chaired a session on "Creating Memory and Representing Identity: Archives in the Asian American Community" (Session-708) at the annual Society of American Archivists (SAA) Conference in San Francisco, CA. Co-chairing with me was Vivian Wong, a PhD student in Information Studies at UCLA and also on the panel were Mitchell Yangson, Librarian for the Filipino American Center at the San Francisco Central Library, Ellen-Rae Cachola, Archival Coordinator for the Manilatown Heritage Foundation (San Francisco), Tom Ikeda, Executive Director for DENSHO- the Japanese American Legacy Project, and Anne Gilliland, Chair and Professor, Department of Information Studies and
Director, Center for Information as Evidence Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA.

After Vivian's intro for the panel presentation I did a short powerpoint talk on an overview of Asian/Pacific American immigration and grass roots organizations that grew from the need to collect and document our APA communities. I included, of course, the Filipino American Library and other Fil-Am organizations including Stockton's Little Manila Foundation and the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) National Pinoy Archives in Seattle, WA. I also mentioned the current Singgalot: Ties That Bind - Traveling Photo Exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute at Remy's on Temple in Los Angeles's Historic Filipinotown area. I finished with a slide list of "what we need..." appeal for the profession and from our communities.

The other speakers followed and spoke to their own organizations also with powerpoints and Anne Gilliland pulled the talks together in summation. We ended with a Q&A session and relaxed after the crowd of about 40 left. From the much feedback we got, it seems it was a good presentation, so much so, that we've been asked to write up a SAA journal article on it.

Otherwise the next BIG Thing is the Filipino American Library GALA Jazz Concert on Oct. 11, 2008 at the Japan American Theatre in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA. this is our one BIG annual fundraiser to keep us going as a non-profit community organization. We need your financial support and volunteer help too....

See the FAL Website for details.....

God Bless

2008 ALA Annual Conference in anaheim, CA

Long time no Blog..... Sorry...........
Latest news is I'm working on a Book Project on Filipinos in Carson and the L.A. South Bay Area. Past news is that we've been very busy with Children's Book Reading Programs at local public libraries in Carson, Artesia, and Echo Park. At the ALA Annual last June 28, the FAL was present for the Diversity Fair and as has been the tradition, meeting lots of Filipino American librarians and friends during our Poster Session. Look for photos soon on the FAL Website. http://www.pixagogo.com/8861414116 Since I'm also on the Board of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), I also helped with a Bus Tour / Luncheon of Little Saigon as well as a Reception for our Hawaiian Librarians c0-hosted by our 2007-08 ALA President Loriene Roy in her presidential hotel suite. Lots of meetings and presentations at ALA this year including two by APALA, "Asian / Pacific American Leaders in Libraries: a Rare Commodity" and "Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in the Arab and Muslim World". Both were very well attended filling their respective presentation rooms. I also serve on the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC2012) Steering Committee and we met twice during ALA to discuss the future site and build-up plans towards JCLC2012. Stay Tuned for this....

Locally I'm on the host committee for Singgalot: Ties That Bind, a Touring Photo Exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute that originated in Hawaii in 2006 for the Centennial Celebration of Filipino Migration to the USA. It opens August 2nd at Remy's on Temple in Los Angeles's Historic Filipinotown and runs until October 26, 2008. Please come by and see it if you're in town. http://remysontemple.com/

California Libaray Association (CLA) & FAL Tours

Howdy again.... Sorry (again) for the long delay in Blogs... Too much stuff to do and little time to report it back to ya...

We had a very successful poster session during the CLA Conference in Long Beach last October 28th. Met a lot of interested Fil-Am Librarians as well as others and also placed our session next to the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Poster session table so that we could refer folks back and forth to each other. Worked out well. Jonathan Lorenzo our FAL Administrator helped a lot and we collected many business cards for further contact. We should soon see the emergence of an Asian/Pacific American CLA Roundtable.

November 17 the FAL hosted FREE bus tours of Historic Filipinotown (Hi-Fi). 4 busloads of students, community folks and families learned about the special locations and history that make Hi-Fi unique as an ethnic enclave in Los Angeles. In addition, a special one-day exhibition of Filipinana artifacts and collectibles were on diplay at FAL courtesy of Eloisa Borah and Florante Peter Ibanez. The exhibit included, yo-yo's, sports trading cards of Fil-Am notables, like Roman Gabriel (quarterback for the LA Rams) as well as videos and CD's of Tia Carrere and other musical groups and film stars. The Rocky Fellers - 33 1/3 LP- Killer Joe and its recent re-issue on CD were also displayed (the family pop group was probably the only Fil-Am act to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show)

LA Archives Bazaar - September 29th

The Second Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar was held Saturday, September 29, 2007 from 10:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the Huntington Library, Arts Collection and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Among the exhibitors was the FILIPINO AMERICAN LIBRARY!!! Jonathan Lorenzo, Library Administrator, and Florante Peter Ibanez, FAL Webmaster both answered questions and talked about the Fil-AM Library to over 1000 participants who gathered to the L.A. as Subject event.

Hosted by the USC Libraries, L.A. as Subject is an alliance of research archives, libraries, and collections dedicated to preserving the rich history of the Los Angeles region. L.A. as Subject is working to increase the visibility of local archives and improve access to them for students, researchers, K-12 educators, and everyone else with a stake in Southern California history. L.A. as Subject promotes tools and mentoring to help its members with everything from preserving and cataloging materials in their collections to fundraising and public outreach.

Jonathan and Florante spoke to many curious archivists, collectors and community folks about the FAL and it's goal and present collection state. Other small archives and libraries are interested in doing collobrative events and exhibits with the FAL.

Also on a sad note, Sam Balucas, local LA Chapter President of the Filipino American National Historical Society quietly passed away Oct. 7 in his family home. "Uncle Sam" as he was affectionatly known in the community, will be missed.

Filipino American Library GALA is COMING Oct. 20!! - PRESS RELEASE

THE FILIPINO AMERICAN LIBRARY CELEBRATES ITS 7TH SPIRIT AWARDS AND GALA WITH HONOREES MARIA QUIBAN AND JANNELLE SO AND PERFORMANCES BY CHARMAINE CLAMOR, ANGELO “GELO” FRANCISCO, AND JOANNIE FELICIANO.


LOS ANGELES (August 2007) – My 13 News’ Maria Quiban will join Jannelle So (LA-18’s “Kababayan LA”), Xavier Becerra (U.S. Congressman of California’s 31st District), and many popular entertainers in a star-studded affair to celebrate the Filipino American Library’s (FAL) 7th Annual Gala on Saturday, October 20 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel (506 S. Grand Ave.) in downtown Los Angeles.

“We greatly appreciate the continuous support FAL receives from the community every year through our Gala,” said Roselyn E. Ibanez, Chair of the FAL Board of Directors. “The generous contributions from individuals and organizations enable us to advance our mission to preserve Filipino history, culture, and traditions for future generations.”

Ms. Quiban will be honored with FAL’s Role Model Award. The Community-Building Journalism Award will be given to Ms. So by Raffy Lopez, President of ABS-CBN Global and recipient of last year’s Journalism Award. Rep. Becerra will receive the Public Service Award. Other awardees include FilAm ARTS – Association for the Advancement of Philippine Arts & Culture (Community Service Award) and Bank of America (Corporate Philanthropy Award). Cheryl Burke has also been invited as an honoree.

Cocktails will begin at 6:00 pm followed by the dinner and program at 7:00 pm. Guests will be treated to an elegant night of entertainment with a grand silent auction. More than 450 people are expected to attend the 7th Annual Gala to benefit the first and largest Filipino library in the country. Numerous sponsorship and advertisement opportunities are still available. Pre-sale dinner tickets are $125 each and $150 at the door.

Founded in October 1985 by “Auntie Helen” Agcaoili Summers Brown, FAL is one of the most comprehensive repositories of Filipino and Filipino American works with a collection of more than 6,000 titles. Its mission is to actively promote the history, culture, and professional achievements of Filipinos and Filipino Americans through the book collection, leadership development, and cultural programming, thereby contributing to the achievement of a culturally dynamic, multiethnic America.

The sponsors of the Filipino American Library’s 7th Annual Gala include Burger King (Platinum), Bank of America (Gold), Van Gerard Dichoso, CPA (Silver), and Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (Silver). For more information, contact Jonathan Lorenzo at 213-382-0488, filamlibrary@sbcglobal.net, or online at www.filipinoamericanlibrary.org or www.myspace.com/filamlibrary.

American Library Association (ALA) - Hot and Sweating in DC…

The ALA Annual Conference was held in Washington DC this last June 21-27^th. While the bulk of meetings, panels and workshop (plus the exhibit hall) were at the Washington Convention Center, there were several hotels (and not all too close) that were also in the programming and connected via convention shuttle buses (routes 1-7). In other words it was HUGE€! Author and radio personality Garrison Keillor, who stated that "libraries are the best counter terrorism tool we have," brought to a close the largest conference in the history of the association. More than 28,635 librarians, exhibitors and library supporters attended the 128th ALA Annual Conference. As part of the Emerging Leaders program, I attended their Friday all day session which concluded in our project team poster presentations and a reception. My Project Q Team had the honor to work with the incoming ALA President, Loriene Roy as our mentor. Our National Library Camp feasibility study project was well received and many poster session attendees were enthusiastic about seeing it becoming a reality. As an At-Large Board of Director for the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, I attended their board meeting, book awards session, dinner social and open general meeting. I was also on a panel speaker for the APALA presentation on "Asian American Materials: Preserving Our Histories and Moving into the Future€". As the volunteer webmaster for the Filipino American Library in LA Historic Filipinotown, I was also selected to be part of the ALA Diversity Fair Poster Session that had over 600 visitors. At an OCLC President Luncheon I met librarians and directors from across the nation and listened to the outgoing President's jokes about his experience being the first non- American head of OCLC (he is Canadian).

When I got to the Julie Andrews talk (15 minutes early), the hall was already full, so many of us could only listen to her remarks in the spill over hall way with speakers. Overall the Conference was a great experience for me. As I learned, I met many librarians from difference areas, networked and made new friends in the profession. Perhaps the most important to me were the new steering committee of the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) who were selected by their respective Ethnic Caucuses to plan the next JCLC (perhaps in the next 3-5 years). As one of the two representatives from APALA, I will be involved in phone conference calls, Instant Messaging (IM) chat sessions, as well as "normal"€ face to face meetings with the other 9 that constitute the "JCLC 2" steering committee. Although not all were present for our first initial meeting last Friday June 22, the camaraderie we shared towards our task was quite apparent. I look forward to attending more ALA events and recommend others to attend the 2008 ALA Annual Conference in nearby Anaheim, CA (across the street from Disneyland).

As a side note the weather in DC was OK the first few days (hot but lower humidity) but the morning and early afternoon of the day I left was my only opportunity to see the sights and it was HOT. It was my first time to DC and even wearing shorts, T-shirt and slippers, as I walked to only a few of the monuments and museums (including the Library of Congress (LOC)), I found myself dripping all along the way!!!

See my photos (including me sweating while visitng the Library of Congress - Asian Division)

http://www.pixagogo.com/6930544136 (Asian/Pacific Amer. Librarians Assoc.)

http://www.pixagogo.com/7930544812 (ALA Emerging Leaders)

http://www.pixagogo.com/4935544243 (ALA President Lorien Roy's Inagural Ball)

Special thanks to my Falls Church, VA friends Phil and Sheila Tabag-Napala for making my stay in DC a great memory... Phil has his Koi Photo on public display near the DC Convention Center - I've included them in my photos too - He does really nice work!!! I'll have to see if he's willing to donate a print for our Fil-Am Library GALA Silent Auction!!!

Memories of Philippine Kitchens - Book Launch

We had a great weekend of book signings and EATing while hosting authors, Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan. Amy unfortunately had laryngitis and could hardly speak but Romy stepped up and explained their reasons for creating their impressive tribute to Philippine cuisine. The book and their talks were received with great favor at each LA location. They donated a copy to add to the Filipino American Library collection. The main event held at Remy's on Temple drew a large and lively crowd that were treated to a live cooking demo from the cookbook done by the original recipe creator, Fe Rael Villadolid, Amy's auntie. It was Pork Sinigang and it was to die for. She showed us how to cook it quick and easy, because she explained that was how she cooked for 3 hungry children. There was plenty for all and a great meal by itself. (see page 47 of the book) Great shared memories, great people, great food.... you should have been there!