Asian American Librarians and Library Services: Activism, Collaborations, and Strategies

With this volume, one of the few book-length treatments of this subject, editors Clarke (associate dean for research & user engagement, Stony Brook Univ. Libs.), Raymond Pun (first year student success librarian, Fresno State: 2012 LJ Mover & Shaker), and Monnee Tong (manager, the Pauline Foster Teen Ctr. & IDEA Lab, San Diego Central Lib.) skillfully raise awareness about diversity and inclusion issues affecting Asian Pacific American (APA) patrons and librarians. Underrepresented in leadership roles and facing stereotypes of Asians as hardworking, passive "model minorities," APA librarians lend their voices to each of these 40-plus chapters. The section on leadership contains powerful essays from academic librarians Adriene Lim and Binh P. Le, whose stories and insights illuminate a wide range of APA experiences. The work offers a sometimes challenging pastiche of methods (case studies, interviews, essays), topics (racial discrimination, diverse books, dance), and authors (deans, early career librarians, archivists). This book covers similar ground for APA librarians that John L. Ayala and Salvador Güereña's Pathways to Progress: Issues and Advances in Latino Librarianship and Andrew P. Jackson and others' 21st-Century Black Librarian in America address for their respective communities.