Reunite, Reconnect, Reflect, Renew, and Reopen
As many states and institutions move steadily toward reopening, I wanted to reflect on this extraordinary year. I’m so grateful to all of our member leaders, our members, co-conspirators and supporters for your hard work, your time, and your heart. Thank you for advocating with and for our APA communities during one of the most challenging times our communities have faced in recent memory.
We started our pandemic year together as APALA focused on the theme of “Advocacy and Activism.” Although this has been a difficult year for many if not all of us, I firmly believe that our association and members have embodied Advocacy and Activism through our actions both on and off the clock, and that our members continue to strive to be the best professionals we can no matter what is thrown at us. It has been a privilege to watch our listserv flood with messages of congratulations, support, advice, and community building over the last year. Our members have had much to celebrate—fantastic programs, elections to leadership positions, new jobs, publishing opportunities, and successful webinars, and I like to think that our APALA community helped with each of these monuments and milestones in some small way. Our network, whether virtually or in person, has been something I know that I’ve relied on not just for this past year and half during the pandemic, but since I joined APALA, and will be a resource I continue relying on long past this year.
It has been my honor to serve as the 2020-2021 President of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), along with our Vice President Raymond Pun and the other wonderful new and returning members of the APALA Executive Board.
Many thanks to our 2020-2021 Executive Board and committees, who ensured that the past year was filled with amazing accomplishments, in spite of a world-wide lock-down! For the second time, APALA endorsed an ALA President-Elect candidate – APALA Executive Director Lessa Pelayo-Lozada! We are grateful for her service to APALA and the profession, her commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, her passion for librarianship and congratulate her for becoming the first Pacific Islander ALA President-Elect!
Throughout this unprecedented last year, APALA member volunteers and leaders gave time within our own organization AND shared their experiences and talents throughout the profession. Embodying my Presidential theme of “Advocacy and Activism,” APALA released 5 statements, including a resource list and a brochure of national AAPI Heritage Month programs in libraries:
- APALA Statement in Solidarity with India, China and all AAPI Communities
- APALA Statement in Solidarity with the Sikh Community
- APALA Statement Against Anti-Asian Violence
- APALA condemns white-supremacist violence in the US Capitol
- COVID-19 anti-xenophobia and anti-racist information resources
- COVID-19 Anti-Asian Racism Resources for K-12
APALA also sponsored 1 Council Resolution:
- A Memorial Resolution Honoring Judy Yung
In addition, APALA signed onto and provided letters of support to the following organizations and for the following grants:
- Network of the National Library of Medicine Region 3
- Network of the National Library of Medicine Region 5
- Hula Preservation Society
- Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (to request their support in co-sponsoring the Build America’s Libraries Act, H.R. 1581 / S. 127)
- California Libraries Creating Racial Equity and Inclusion (CREI) program
- Supporting Letter to JMLA in Support of Black Colleagues
- Asian American Heritage Month Library Events calendar
APALA’s Constitution and Bylaws Committee updated our manual and our Family Literacy Focus Committee gave two Talk Story Grants ($750 each) in May and created new Talk Story booklist/book evaluation guidelines. Our Media and Publicity Committee continued their hard work on APALA’s newsletter, What’s Your Normal series, book reviews, interviews with authors and library leaders, as well as creating two new series – Your Stories During COVID-19 on the APALA website and the “Community Kitchen” video recipe series on APALA’s YouTube channel. And, the Membership Committee helped welcome 194 new members this year, increasing our membership by a third during our 40th anniversary! The Membership Committee, along with other APALA member leaders, also hosted 3 virtual socials/online meet-ups to help build and retain community during this isolating time.
Our Mentoring Committee made 22 mentor-mentee matches, with some mentors taking on more than 1 mentee. The Program Planning Committee helped coordinate many activities and webinars, including our webinar in partnership with the Network of the National Library of Medicine “Addressing the Stigma: Mental Health and Wellness Resources for Asian/Pacific American Communities,” a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon during APA Heritage Month, our ALA 2022 Virtual President’s Program with BCALA, EMIERT and the Social Responsibilities Round Table – “Community Driven Justice.”
APALA’s Scholarship and Awards Committee selected the 4 recipients of APALA’s Travel Grant (Hana Kim, Andrew Carlos, Mitsuko Brooks) and Scholarship (Amrita S. Patel) Awards. This past year was also the third time that our Asian Pacific American Awards for Literature were announced as part of the Youth Media Awards at ALA Midwinter and the second time that the APALA Literature Award Ceremony was held virtually! If you missed it, both last year’s and this year’s APALA Literature Award ceremonies are available for viewing via APALA’s YouTube channel.
Even during a pandemic, we continued to celebrate APALA’s 40th anniversary, including our 40th Anniversary Social, and fundraisers that reached our goal of raising $4,000!
We also worked on APALA’s Strategic Plan and created new taskforces focused on advocacy and statement-writing and exploring the process with which APALA endorses candidates for library-related offices.
Finally, I am so proud of you and of us. I’m so grateful for your patience, persistence, tenacity and heart. In a year touched by despair, we came together in community, resistance and action and we overcame – we survived. None of this tremendous work could have been done without you, especially our volunteer member leaders – the members of the APALA Board, Committees, Juries, and Taskforces!
I am uplifted by the thought of all of us being able to hopefully gather together in person without a screen soon, so that we can truly continue celebrating our association, membership and community!
And now, congratulations to our incoming leadership – President Ray Pun, Vice-President Annie Pho, Secretary Rebecca Martin, and Board Members-at-Large Cynthia M. Orozo and Tarida Anantachai! I am so excited about their upcoming year and the great things that they have in store for our association!
For the last time this year, sincerely yours in activism, advocacy and community health,
Candice Wing-yee Mack
APALA President 2020-2021