CALA - Chinese American Librarians Association 華人圖書館員協會

Dear CALA Members and Friends,

We would like to share with you the success of our 2012 CALA/ALA Conference Program and the Awards Banquet in Anaheim:

THE ANNUAL PROGRAM

CALA’s Annual Conference Program for 2012 was an impressionable event.  We are pleased to share with you some of the photos (please click on): 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9507570@N05/sets/72157630439161224/

The program theme is DIVERSE VOICES, ENRICHING COMMUNITIES, in tune with ALA President Molly Raphael’s theme of Empowering Voices, Transforming Communities.  The program was held at the Anaheim Convention Center, Room 201C, on Sunday, June 24, 2012, 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.  The four distinguished and award-winning speakers who have published widely were:

     1.  Dr. Camila Alire, the Past President of ALA/ACRL/REFORMA and Dean Emerita of the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University.

     2.  Dr. Sha Li Zhang, the Past President of CALA and the Assistant Dean for Collections and Technical Services, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

     3.  Director James Rettig, the ALA Past President and the Library Director and Associated Dean for Information Services at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

     4. Dr. Ingrid Parent, the President of IFLA and the University Librarian at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Dr. Alire gave her personal reflections on what makes a leader ticks, including her leadership preparations (including role models, MLS & PH.D),  10 key leadership characteristics (including integrity, risk-taker/decision-maker, and change agent/team-builder), and 10 lessons learned (including one do not have to have a certain personality to lead, the importance of shared vision, and  how to face adversity).

Dr. Zhang showed us her progress report on a collaborative recruitment project, whereby she worked with ten university libraries in North Carolina and five affiliates of ALA (AILA, APALA, Black Caucus, CALA, & REFORMA) in recruiting future librarians with culturally diversified backgrounds.  Her project was made possible by a major funding of nearly two million dollars from the IMLS Laura Bush 21^st Century Librarian Program, and has produced quite a number of scholars.   Nearly all of her graduates were hired and many became mentors of the new cohort.

Director Rettig spoke on miscellany: including serendipitous happenstance, ships, bridges, connections, and “yes I said yes I will Yes” (Ulysses by James Joyce).  He has made changes, embraced risk, favored diversity, and travelled far and wide.  Every place he has visited changed his life in some way, either spiritually, emotionally, or intellectually. 

Dr. Parent showed us the future libraries in the digital age, whereby inclusion, transformation, innovation, and convergence are vital to driving access to content, with digital lending, open access and beyond access all contributing to the special power of libraries.  As libraries contain the accumulated knowledge and wisdom of all generations, they offer citizens the opportunity to learn and participate in the social, cultural and political life of their communities.

The audience finds the speakers’ diverse PowerPoint presentations very interesting, informative, inspiring, and moving.  In spite of the fire alarm (a false one, as it turned out) which briefly interrupted the Program, when all people were required to go outside of the Anaheim Convention Center building, most attendees returned and stayed to the end of the Program.  Photos were taken with the speakers exhibiting their Certificates of Appreciation.  The moderator of the program was Esther Lee, the Vice President/President Elect and Program Chair of the Program Committee, whose members included Maria Fung, Vincci Kwong, Lili Li, Xiaoli Li, Wenwen Zhang, and Cathy Yang.

The program was co-sponsored by Sage Publications, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, EBSCO Publishing, and the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color.  David Horwitz of Sage, Ruth Glasspool of Emerald, and Janice Rice of JCLC distributed their brochures and each made a brief presentation.  Alejandro Rojano of EBSCO Publishing wanted to come, but he was held up by another important meeting.

Before the program ended was the drawing of three flash drives, a kindle, and a kindle fire.  CALA President Min Chou and Executive Director Haipeng Li were the presenters.  Among the lucky winners were Carol Gee,  Joyce Chen, Janice Rice, Ruth Glasspool, and Ruth Au Yeung. 

Everyone left with a light spirit, and many voiced their effusive praises to the speakers, program monitor and friends.

THE AWARDS BANQUET

View photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40939869@N07/sets/72157630407005426/

On the Sunday evening of June 24, 2012, the CALA Awards Banquet was held at the King Harbor Seafood Restaurant, 6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.  Approximately 140 people came.  CALA chartered a bus to bring the people to the Restaurant and later, back to the Convention Center. 

Planned by our CALA President Min Chou, this event was considered by many as one of the best ever.  Among the distinguished guests were Dr. Ingrid Parent, IFLA President; Molly Raphael, ALA President; Maureen Sullivan, ALA President-Elect; and ALA Past Presidents:  Robert Stevens, Dr. Camila Alire, Jim Rettig, and Barbara Ford.  High officials and librarians from  China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa, Ghana, Brazil, APALA, and REFORMA were also present. The nine-course meal was scrumptious. 

Professor Barbara Ford was the recipient of the CALA Distinguished Service Award.  Dr. Clara Chu, Dr. Mengxiong Liu, and Dr. Sha Li Zhang received the CALA President’s Recognition Awards.  Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee received a Special Honor Award for his book titled Collected Works of Hwa-Wei Lee (2v., 2011).  Sharon Yang was the recipient of the Jing Liao Award for the Best Research in All Media.  There were other recipients for the CALA Scholarships, CALA Travel Grants, the JCLC Scholarships, and other Awards.

The fun part of the evening started with Manuel Urrizola as the Master of Ceremony, working in partnership with Wenwen Zhang.  Min Chou, Ying Shen, and Julia Wu each sang melodiously, like a professional singer.  Min’s singing was joined by Mengxiong and Maria.  Julia’s singing was joined by four lovely children from the audience.  Two beautiful fifteen year-old twins danced gracefully.  Manuel concocted a guessing game, whereby each time the first person who gave the right answer will receive a beautiful souvenir.   Many gave correct answers and prizes were a-plenty.  Other gifts for the raffle drawing included an iPod and a kindle.

Special thanks go to our banquet sponsors:  Sage, Emerald, Bepress, EBSCO, East View and donors of CALA members. More thanks go to our CALA Local Arrangement Committee:  Ying Xu, Chair; Win Shih, Yongyi Song, Manuel Urrizola, Joy Wang, Maggie Wang, WenWen Zhang, Maria Fung, and Dora Ho.  Furthermore, thanks also go to Songqian Lu, Weiling Liu, and Bin Zhang for setting up the online banquet registration, and also to many other CALA members who helped anonymously.

In her recent e-mail to Esther, Sha Li, Min and Haipeng, Dr. Ingrid Parent stated:

“Please accept my sincere gratitude for the professionalism with which you organized the CALA program and banquet on Sunday, and for taking such good care of me.  I thought the program was very moving and informative, in spite of a brief disruption which everyone took in stride.

The banquet was very entertaining, and one can sense the good camaraderie among CALA member and guests, and the joie de vivre which adds so much to our librarian profession.

You are all to be commended for making CALA such a dynamic organization within ALA, and I am so delighted that you are also part of the IFLA family now….”

Director Jim Rettig wrote:

“And I want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow CALA members for the opportunity to speak in the CALA program in Anaheim this past Sunday.  Even with the fire alarm it was a good and successful program.  Thanks also for a very enjoyable evening of good food, fine entertainment, and even better fellowship at the banquet that evening.  Thank you as well for the very unexpected honorarium.”

Dr. Sha Li Zhang also wrote:

“I was humbled and honored to be on the same panel at the CALA Annual Program with Dr. Ingrid Parent, IFLA President, Dr. Camila Alire, past presidents of  ALA, ACRL, and REFORMA, and Jim Rettig, ALA past President.  Their presentations on challenges and opportunities of leadership, diversity, digital access and global outreach are encouraging and inspiring.  I am especially grateful that Esther Lee, the incoming CALA President, invited me to the Panel.  She would like us to actively get involved with ALA and IFLA, and at the same time always give  back to CALA which has helped us to grow professionally in our careers.

The CALA Awards Banquet this year was a huge success, with distinguished guests, colleagues, and friends from other ALA caucuses and other countries, thanks for much effort from Min Chou, CALA President.  With her presidential themes on diversity and global outreaches, the inclusiveness of the Banquet has demonstrated that CALA is indeed embracing the demographic change of the time.”

What a splendid and memorable day it was for CALA at the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim!!!

Esther Lee, CALA President

Haipeng Li, CALA Executive Director

Dear CALA Members:

I am pleased to announce that CALA will once again sponsor two eligible members to participate in the 2013 class of ALA Emerging Leaders program. The sponsorship will provide $1,000 to each selected candidate - $500 to attend the program during next year's ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle, Washington and $500 for the Annual Conference in Chicago, IL.

Please apply for the 2013 Emerging Leaders program online at  http://www.ala.org/educationcareers/leadership/emergingleaders. You must be a current CALA member to apply for this CALA sponsorship, and you just need to choose "Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA)" from the list of sponsoring organizations.  For more information about the program and selection criteria, please see http://www.ala.org/ala/educationcareers/leadership/emergingleaders/index.cfm.

Please don't miss the application deadline which is August 3, 2012. 

Thank you for your attention,

Esther Lee, CALA President, 2012-2013
Haipeng Li, CALA Executive Director, 2010-2013

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

You are cordially invited to join the 2012 Chinese American Librarians Association Program and the Awards Banquet during the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim:

The Chinese American Librarians Association
is
Proud to Present
The 2012 CALA/ALA Annual Program
Sunday, June 24, 2012, 1:30–3:30 p.m., Anaheim Convention Center, Room 201C

DISTINGUISHED LIBRARY LEADERS
Speaking On the Theme of
DIVERSE VOICES, ENRICHING COMMUNITIES

Dr. Camila Alire, ALA/ACRL/REFORMER Past Presidents and Dean Emerita of the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University: What Makes a Leader Tick? Personal Reflections.
Dr. Sha Li Zhang, CALA Past President and the Assistant Dean for Collections and Technical Services, University of North Carolina at Greensboro: Recruiting Future Librarians with Culturally Diverse Backgrounds: Progress Report
Director James Rettig, ALA Past President and the Library Director at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland: Bridges, Ships, and Connections.
Dr. Ingrid Parent -- Keynote Speaker, IFLA President and the University Librarian at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada: Future Library in the Digital Age.

Drawing for a free Kindle and a free Kindle Fire will be made at the end of this free program. We hope you are one of the lucky winners.
Special thanks go to our Co-Sponsors for the program:
Sage, Emerald, EBSCOhost, and JCLC!!!

CALA Awards Banquet
Sunday, June 24, 2012, 6:30-10:00 pm
King Harbor Seafood Restaurant, 13018 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove, CA 92843
714-636-9103

To register, click http://my.cala-web.org/node/853. Early bird registration is $30 for members, $32 for nonmembers, and $28 for student members – Great food and great prices.  Seats are limited. First come first served. On-site registration is $38 for all members and $45 for nonmembers. Transportation service will be provided from the Convention Center to the restaurant.  Chance to win a free drawing of Kindle and an iPod Touch.  Special thanks to our Banquet Sponsors: SAGE, Emerald, EBSCO, Bepress, and East View.

Banquet Menu
1. Asparagus Soup with Crab Meat
2. 5 to 5.5 lb House Special Lobster with Yee-Mein Noodles
3. Peking Duck
4. French Style Beef Chunk
5. Black Mushroom with Chinese Greens
6. Walnut Shrimp
7. Sweet and Sour Fish Fillet
8. House Special Fried Rice
9. Dessert: Taro and Black Beans soup

We are looking forward to welcoming you at the CALA Program and the Awards Banquet!

Warmly,

Min Chou, CALA President and
Local Arrangement Committee:
Ying Xu, Co-Chair
Manuel Urrizola, Co-Chair
Win Shih
Yongyi Song
Joy Wang
Maggie Wang
Wenwen Zhang

Program Planning Committee:
Esther Lee, CALA Vice Presiddent and Chair
Lili Li
Cathy Yang
Maria Fung
Xiaoli Li
Vincci Kwong
Wenwen Zhang

Dear CALA Members:

I am very pleased to announce that the CALA Board has unanimously approved that Dr. Clara Chu, Dr. Mengxiong Liu, and Dr. Sha Li Zhang be the 2012 CALA President’s Recognition Award recipients.

The three award recipients, as individuals and as a group, possess a philosophy of dedication, quality of service, and professional integrity for their significant contributions to the library community that have shown leadership in many areas of great importance to the mission and goals of CALA, and particularly in their important roles to advise, support, and shape CALA’s long term success through the Presidential Initiatives this year in the theme of diversity and international collaboration.

Dr. Clara Chu is the Chair and Professor of the Department of Library and Information Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is a prolific and leading scholar on multicultural library and information services, has consulted and presented her research findings internationally, and also served on editorial boards of many prestigious journals.  A Peruvian-born, Chinese Canadian American, her transnational and ethnic experiences have shaped her distinctive view and unique perspective on the issues of multicultural education and library services to diverse population.  Dr. Chu has taken actions in recruiting people of diverse backgrounds into the information profession through the program called PRAXIS (Practice, Reflection, Advocacy, eXcellence, Inquiry, Solutions) that she designed and coordinated.  She also successfully obtained IMLS National Leadership Grant to support this meaningful endeavor.

Dr. Chu is very active in national and international professional associations promoting multicultural librarianship.  She co-chairs the IFLA Section on Education and Training, and was on the Steering Committee of the Section on Library Services to Multicultural Populations.  Her achievements are duly recognized in the many awards and honors she has received, i.e. the ALA Library Diversity Research Honor Lecturer in 2008, a Library Journal Mover & Shaker in 2005, the ALA Equality Award in 2002, just to name a few.  She is one of the Chinese Americans who has exerted a significant impact upon examining the issue of barriers to information in multicultural communities through a critical and distinctive angle.

As an invited speaker of the 2011 CALA Annual Program: Embracing the Changes: Diversity and Global Vision in a Digital Age during the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, she contributed to the great success of the Program by her presentation “A CALL (Change, Advocacy, Leadership in Libraries) to LEADD (Librarians Enhancing Access, Diversity and Development).  The Program has opened a dialogue on the theme of diversity and global reach, set the stage for a series of activities/projects during 2011-12 year to demonstrate CALA's commitment to taking a leadership role in promoting cultural diversity and international collaboration in library profession.   Dr. Chu serves on the 2011-12 CALA Presidential Initiative Advisory Board, and also as a CALA representative to the ALA’s Diversity Working Group on Diversity and LIS Education. CALA is fortunate to have Dr. Chu in these roles utilizing her experience and expertise.  A life member of CALA, and a former board member and chair of Scholarship Committee, Dr. Chu has contributed to CALA tremendously and CALA is so proud of her extraordinary contributions to our professional communities nationally and internationally.

Dr. Mengxiong Liu is an Engineering Librarian and Professor of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University.  She is a great source of inspiration and encouragement to many young librarians in CALA and elsewhere. In her distinguished service and contribution to CALA as a president and a board member, among many other roles, Dr. Liu has tirelessly promoted Chinese American librarian cooperation.  Under her unparallel leadership, CALA played a critical role in co-organizing the first China-US Library Conference on Global Information Access: Challenges and Opportunities, held in Beijing in 1996.  On behalf of CALA, Dr. Liu made an opening speech at the Conference, as then ALA President Betty Turock, CALA’s visionary founding member Dr. Hwa-Wei Lee and many distinguished library leaders of both countries gathered to discuss key issues on global information infrastructures, challenges and opportunities related to information access on the Internet and the international communications. This conference set the stage for the development of many collaborations and exchange programs among libraries in the United States and China down the road.

Dr. Liu has continued to contribute her experience and expertise in strengthening many China-U.S. library collaboration activities.  She has become a sought after speaker and consultant for academic libraries in China. She has also served as an adviser for the Evergreen Education Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving education and libraries in rural China. In 2007, Dr. Liu received the Fulbright Senior Specialists Award to give advice for postgraduate programs in digital libraries in Uruguay.  Furthermore, she has gone beyond CALA  to have served on the ALA Diversity Council, the Steering Committee of ALA Spectrum Initiative, the Research & Statistics Committee of ALA, just to name a few.  She is also a prolific author and well known speaker.  She has published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters, and presented at national and international conferences.  She has received many awards, honors, and grants.  Dr. Liu is regarded as an excellent mentor and role model to young librarians from diverse background as she exemplifies the best quality of extraordinary commitment to librarianship, professional service, and leading with integrity.

Serving on the 2011-12 CALA Presidential Initiative Taskforce, she is instrumental in giving unwavering support and encouragement to the president in the promotion of diversity and international collaboration to further CALA’s mission and goals.  The impact of her leadership and contributions has been felt throughout the local, national, and/or global community of libraries.  She is consistently one of the favorites among CALA colleagues for her dedication, intelligence, collegiality, warmth and elegance. She is simply excellent.

Dr. Sha Li Zhang is the Assistant Dean for Collections & Technical Services at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In her distinguished service and contribution to CALA, as a president and a board member, among many other roles, she has tirelessly promoted international collaboration between U.S. and China, fostered and sustained connections of key library organizations - ALA, CALA, and Library Society of China - in the promotion of cross cultural exchange of core values of libraries that benefit libraries and librarians of both countries. Dr. Zhang has carried out her leadership vision in intentional perspective through her participation and contribution in professional organizations such as the ALA and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). She played an important role in making CALA membership at IFLA a reality. Her extensive involvement and leadership experience in library organizations, at national and international levels, have been invaluable in helping achieve the strategic objectives of CALA in international outreach and collaboration.

Dr. Zhang served as a councilor-at-large at ALA Council and on many committees.  She has held leadership positions at ALA’s International Relations Committee, the International Relations Roundtable, the Association of Library Collections and Technical Services, and the Association of College and Research Libraries. She is a prolific speaker and has delivered engaging and thought-provoking presentations to the library community at national and international levels. Dr. Zhang has published numerous articles in scholarly journals, and she has extensive experience at many editorial boards.  She has also received many awards, honors, and grants, including CALA Distinguished Service Award. She has received IMLS grants for her University to recruit and prepare minority librarians to promote diversity in library profession and library service to people with all cultural backgrounds.  Dr. Zhang is an excellent mentor and role model who has demonstrated remarkable achievements in librarianship, professional service, and leadership.  Serving on the 2011-12 CALA Presidential Initiative Taskforce, she has been effective in giving support and advice in carrying out activities and projects in promoting diversity and international collaboration to enhance CALA’s mission and goals. 

Please join me in celebrating the outstanding contributions from these three extraordinary individuals to CALA and to our profession and in congratulating them on being awarded this honor!

With warmest regards,

Min Chou, CALA President 2011-12