The 2018 APALA Executive Board election will open on Thursday, March 22, 2018 at 9 AM EDT. The ballot will be open through Thursday, April 5, 2018 at 9 PM PDT. Eligible members will receive an online ballot on March 22, 2018.
Online voting is open to dues-paying and lifetime APALA members who are members in good standing as of March 1, 2018.
Vice President/President-Elect Candidate
Alanna Aiko Moore is the Librarian for Ethnic Studies, Gender Studies and Sociology at UC San Diego. She received her MLIS in 2003. Alanna has been involved in equity, diversity and inclusion for over ten years. She is very active in the Spectrum Scholarship Program and currently Chairs the 20th Anniversary Committee, also serving as a member of the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) Planning Committee and GLBT Round Table Program Committee. She is past Chair of the ALA Committee on Diversity and the past APALA representative to the JCLC Steering Committee. Alanna is an ALA Spectrum Scholar (2003), Fellow of the MN Institute for Early Career Librarians (2006) and a Fellow of the ARL Leadership and Career Development Program (2012). She has written and presented on cross-cultural mentoring, microaggressions, intersectionality, and diversity and social justice. She recently co-authored a chapter, “Identity, Activism, Self-Care and Women of Color Librarians in Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS. She currently lives in San Diego, CA, with her spouse and two kiddos.
Statement of Interest
I am honored by the nomination for APALA Vice-President/President Elect. I joined APALA in 2004, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure it was going to be the “home” I had heard it described as. As a queer mixed-race API woman, I struggled (and still do) to find a place where all my identities are seen, recognized and celebrated. In my experiences, LGBTQ spaces are too white and API spaces can be unwelcoming to mixed-race people and members of the LGBTQ community. My first few years, I attended meetings, talked to members, and participated in events, but did not volunteer for committees. I was cautious and wanted to see if this organization I was starting to love would love me back. I am proud to say it has.
APALA is constantly growing and welcomes new voices, broad ranges of communities (API and otherwise) and a variety of identities. This vibrant organization embraces change and is strong like bamboo, yet flexible enough to move with the seasons. Our founders created a strong mission, bringing librarians of diverse Asian and Pacific ancestries together to jointly work towards addressing the needs of APA librarians and those who serve them. Past Presidents have inspired me with their activism, leadership and calls to solidarity with marginalized communities. As APALA Vice President/President-Elect, I will continue to work and lead with inclusivity. We can be more open and purposeful in embracing APA who embody a variety of backgrounds, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities and socio-economic status, among other things. By sharing our different identities and raising the visibility of those who are most marginalized within our community, we can create deeper conversations in our organization and grow our membership while strengthening APALA’s relationships across ALA and other ethnic library associations. I will continue the important work of my predecessors in bringing awareness to issues affecting not only APA librarians but global and national issues facing our larger APA community.
I have served APALA in a variety of ways, including Chair of the Research and Travel Awards Committee, Member at Large on the Executive Board, author of an essay for the “What’s Your Normal” series, and as six year APALA JCLC Steering Committee representative. Most recently I served as Co-Chair of the Program Planning Committee and was instrumental in organizing programs with author/activist Deepa Iyer on Islamophobia and building solidarity with Muslim communities. I am passionate and committed to APALA’s values of community, social justice, and inclusion, and to helping APALA continue to grow and thrive. I would be honored to have the opportunity to serve and lead APALA forward.
Treasurer Candidate
Peter Spyers-Duran is a serials cataloger librarian at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Libraries where he has worked since 1996. In addition to his cataloging duties, Peter provides reference service and is collection development liaison to the economics and finance departments. Prior to becoming a cataloger in 2006, Peter was a reference and instruction librarian. Peter likes learning and has earned the following degrees: M.S. Accounting from UCF in 2009, M.A. Applied Economics from UCF in 2005, M.A. Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida in 1996, and B.A. Biology, Oakland University in 1994.
Statement of Interest
I am not Asian or Pacific Islander by birth, but when I married someone Chinese in 2003 and I became a member of her family my life changed. My wife’s relatives like to joke that I’m half Chinese. Being married to someone Asian and having biracial children has changed me and my perspective of the world. In the library world, APALA is where I fit in. APALA is an outstanding organization of friendly, passionate, caring, smart people. I strongly support the mission of APALA to provide library services to Asian/Pacific American communities, to promote diversity in librarianship, and discuss problems and concerns of APA librarians. I am running for reelection as APALA Treasurer because I have grown fond of doing the work of treasurer over the last twenty months. In addition, in 2009, I earned a degree in accounting that includes coursework in governmental and not-for-profit accounting. It is probably a good thing that I am finally putting that degree to some use as APALA’s Treasurer ? As APALA’s Treasurer, I balance the books every month, compile a monthly treasurer report, annual treasurer report, with input from committees and the President create a fiscal year budget, keep the President and Executive Board well informed, and I file APALA’s IRS filing, which saves lots of money in CPA expenses. Perhaps more importantly, I am detail oriented, trustworthy, responsible, responsive, and conscientious.
Past and current involvement with APALA
- Member since June 2013, Life member since December 2016
- Treasurer, 2016/2018
- Executive Board Member, 2016/2018
- Co-chair of the APALA Local Arrangement Committee Orlando 2016 Annual Conference, 2015/2016.
- Co-chair of the APALA Program Planning Committee, 2014/2015, 2015/2016.
- Member of the APALA Finance and Fundraising Committee, 2013/2014, 2014/2015.
Member-at-Large Candidates
Tarida Anantachai is an Outreach Librarian at Syracuse University. As part of her role, she serves as the liaison to her campus’ international student services center, English language institute, multicultural affairs office, and study abroad office. She received her MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her BA in English and American Literature from Brandeis University. In addition to currently serving on the APALA Children’s Literature Award Committee, she also holds positions as the Chair of the ACRL Diversity Committee, a Member-at-Large of the ACRL University Libraries Section, a member of the ACRL Diversity Alliance Task Force, and an Editorial Board member for the Journal of New Librarianship. Tarida was also a 2013 ALA Emerging Leader and a participant in the 2014 MN Institute for Early Career Librarians.
Statement of Interest
It is an honor to be nominated to run for a position as an APALA Member-at-Large. As a proud member since 2012, I have deeply valued the inclusive community, engagement opportunities, and advocacy that APALA has unwaveringly provided for and on behalf of its members. I would be delighted to join the Executive Board in continuing to build upon these efforts. For the past six years I have served on several Literature Awards Committees, including as the Children’s Literature Chair from 2014-2016. Having also been active in several library associations and diversity initiatives on a local and national level, I feel that my ability to build partnerships with colleagues across the field—coupled with my dedication to advocating for librarians and communities of color—would lend itself well to the collaborative responsibilities of this role. Serving as a Member-at-Large would allow me not only to more closely connect with and support the needs of members across APALA, but also to bridge conversations between our organization and the diversity and inclusion activities in which I am involved through my other concurrent library association work.
More reflectively, the community I have found through APALA has been influential in my career, as well as for me personally as an Asian American. As I write this, I am working with students and staff to organize our campus’ upcoming Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebration. I often think about APALA during our planning conversations (including referencing resources that I find through the listserv!). Simply put, APALA has permeated into multiple areas of my life and has enhanced my engagement with other APA communities. It has also provided me a valuable forum for reflecting upon the intersections of my own identities. I am so grateful for how APALA has helped me to grow professionally and personally, and would strive to foster similar opportunities for our membership as one of its Member-at-Large. I would be honored for the opportunity to continue to support our vibrant community through this leadership role.
Rose L. Chou is Budget & Personnel Manager at American University Library. She received her MLIS from San Jose State University and BA in Sociology from Boston College. Previously, Rose worked as Reference Archivist at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives, and in reference and circulation positions at AU Library. She served as Chair of AU Library’s Internal Diversity & Inclusion Committee for four years and was an inaugural member of the ARL/SAA Mosaic Program Advisory Group from 2013-2016. Rose is co-editor of the forthcoming book, Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, and is a series editor of the Litwin Books/Library Juice Press Series on Critical Race Studies and Multiculturalism in LIS. Rose was a 2011 SAA Mosaic Scholar, 2013 ARL CEP Fellow, and 2014 Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians alumna. Her research interests include race, gender, and social justice in LIS.
Statement of Interest
I am honored to be nominated and considered for a Member-at-Large position on APALA’s Executive Board. APALA plays an integral role in creating and fostering community, not only among APA librarians, but all librarians of color. APALA also serves as a strong example to the profession of what librarianship can be — supportive, empathetic, and striving for social justice. Considering the current national climate, I am especially heartened by our organization’s timely statements in support of people of color and other marginalized communities, and against racism and discrimination.
From both personal experience and my research on the experiences of women of color librarians, I know the importance that community and support networks play in keeping us going in the workplace and in the profession. Being a librarian of color is hard, especially on top of other identities we hold, and I am thankful for the community APALA creates. My involvement with APALA has comprised of serving on several APALA committees (Web Committee 2011-2012, Archives and Handbook Task Force 2012-2014, Scholarships and Awards 2017-2018) and co-facilitating a microaggressions workshop at the APALA 35th Anniversary and Symposium in 2015. In my professional life, I have chosen to work in library administration to have more of an influence on a larger organizational and systemic scale. I am eager to become more engaged with APALA’s work and members, and would love to serve on APALA’s Executive Board.
Camden Kimura is an adult services librarian in the Palo Alto City Library in Palo Alto, CA. She has worked and volunteered in academic and public libraries for 8 years, starting as a book repair assistant in her college library’s conservation lab before moving into public libraries as volunteer, page, and then librarian at Palo Alto City Library. She got her MLIS from San Jose State University in 2017 and a BA in English with a double concentration in Literature and Creative Writing from Goucher College in 2012. She currently serves on the Family Literacy Focus Committee. In addition to APALA, she is a member of the California Library Association. She was born and raised in California and except for a four-year sojourn to Baltimore for college she has lived in California’s Bay Area region her whole life. Her professional interests include media literacy, representation of marginalized communities in collections, service to emerging adults and intergenerational families, and LGBTQ representation in all spaces of the library. In her spare time, she can be found volunteering on various committees in her church, playing with her dog Keats, and growing her collection of To Kill A Mockingbird ephemera and memorabilia.
Statement of Interest
I am thrilled and honored to be nominated to be a Member-at-Large for APALA. Since joining APALA, I’ve been impressed by the scope of APALA’s service to the library community while maintaining a close-knit, supportive community of Asian Pacific American librarians. If I am elected as one of the Members-at-Large, I intend to foster that community while supporting the goals of the executive board and of the APALA community as a whole. I am excited by recent developments that implement some of APALA’s strategic goals and I look forward to being part of a board that works hard to bring even more of the strategic goals to fruition as APALA moves through its 5 year strategic plan. I will bring my own thoughtfulness and dedication to library service to the executive board and am determined to assist in the good work that the executive board does for APALA members and the greater library community every day.
Rebecca Martin is the Collections Strategist & Scholarly Communications Librarian at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Rebecca leads the strategic development of collections for the Gutman Library and Special Collections and oversees scholarly communication initiatives, including publishing support and copyright education, for faculty, students and staff. Within the Harvard Library system, Rebecca serves as the co-convener of the Social Justice Discussion Group and helps coordinate the Social Sciences Council mentoring program. Prior to joining Harvard, she worked in access services and technical services at Boston University Law School. While working at BU, she earned her MLIS degree online through Rutgers University, where she focused her coursework on information behavior, social informatics and digital libraries.
In addition to her APALA involvement, Rebecca contributes to the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color Proceedings & Evaluations Committee, the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table Newsletter editorial board, the ACRL Education and Behavioral Sciences Section Scholarly Communication Committee, and the Boston Radical Reference Collective. She was a 2016 participant in the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians.
Statement of Interest
I am honored to be considered for a Member-at-Large position. In 2012, I had the privilege of attending the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color to present alongside some colleagues. I was fresh out of library school, looking to learn from and build a stronger professional community. My experiences at JCLC affirmed the need for me to center my identity and my social justice values in my library work. And I could not have come to that conclusion, could not have attended JCLC, without APALA. APALA awarded me a travel grant to attend JCLC, and I have been trying to return that support by participating in APALA committee work. I have served on APALA committees since joining in 2011, including terms on the Publicity, Website and Mentoring committees. I have also contributed to writing content for the APALA Newsletter and the APALA web-series on advocacy fatigue. I am excited for an opportunity to continue to grow and build community with my colleagues in APALA by serving as Member-at-Large.
Holly Okamura has worked in public and academic libraries in Northern CA, notably in Berkeley and at Cal State University, East Bay, and most recently in Santa Clara County as a Children’s Librarian. She has served in multiple capacities within ALA, working on the LITA, Web-Coordinating Committee and now serving on the APALA Family Literacy Focus Committee, Talk Story. Holly was a 2009 Spectrum Diversity Scholar recipient and a 2010 Academic Research Libraries CEP Fellow.
Statement of Interest
It is important to me to positively contribute and be proactive in our library profession. As a current member of APALA Family Literacy Focus Committee, Talk Story, I serve on the Website sub-committee. My contributions include co-managing the Website and organizing online information. In creative and inclusive ways, I hope to continue to support and encourage library services for all APA communities. I hope you will select me for APALA Member-at-Large. Thank you for this opportunity to serve APALA!
Anchalee (Joy) Panigabutra-Roberts currently works at University of Tennessee Libraries, Knoxville, as the Head of Cataloging and Metadata Services. Joy is her Thai family nickname by birth. She is ¾ Thai and ¼ Lao (from her paternal grandmother). Joy grew up in Thailand, but she spent her working life as an academic librarian/faculty in cataloging and metadata services in Canada, the U.S. Midwest and New Cairo, Egypt. She received her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with B.A. in English (Literature) from St. Olaf College and B.A. in English (Linguistics) from Chiangmai University, Thailand.
Joy joined APALA in December 2007. And she had been active serving APALA in different capacity, notably:
- Constitution and Bylaws Committee. Member. Appointed for 2013-14; 2014-15 terms.
- American Library Association’s Diversity Council. APALA Representative. Appointed for 2009-2011 term.
- Task Force on Family Literacy Focus. Co-chair. February 2010-January 2011. Member. September 2009-January 2011.
She also served on APALA Scholarship Committee and Literature Awards. She reduced her involvement with APALA and stayed on as a member in 2013, when she left for Egypt to take the position of Head of Cataloging and Metadata at the American University in Cairo from 2013 to 2016. She returned to the U.S. to work at UT Libraries in her current position in 2016. She is now ready to get involved with APALA once again.
Statement of Interest
In the past few years, I have taken on the leadership/management positions. APALA has been a great place to learn about leadership skills. I am very thankful and I want to pay back to APALA, if given a chance to be one of the members-at-large. When I took on a managerial position as a department head, it was a big leap, but I am glad I took that risk. I am now working on both human resources management and leadership skills and I hope to advance my career in technical services in the next few years. If possible, I would like to continue on the higher-administration track in academic librarianship. At ALA, I have been involving with LLAMA and now ALCTS on their leadership development committees. As I have done in the past, I want to provide alternative voices and spaces at ALA for ethnic caucuses and affiliates. Our presence on these mainstream ALA committees is very important, especially if ALA truly aims for more diversity and inclusion. I try to be that person with different voices and perspectives for many other differences among the spectrum of diversity and intersectionality; with my own background and for having worked with diverse groups beyond APA (Aboriginals/First Nations in Canada and Coptic and Muslim Egyptians) and with gender diversity and intersectionality with others as Women’s and Gender Studies Librarian/Faculty Affiliate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (2007-2013) supporting the internationalization of WGS and advancing women in science through STEM. I also have publications on diversity topics in the past. And I want to be able to carry on these missions for and with APALA as one of the members-at-large.
Thank YOU, APALA, for all you have done for your members and to represent many of us at ALA, other institutions and groups around the U.S. and on the international scale. I look forward to continue to serve APALA once again.