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