Asian American Librarians and Library Services: Personal Takeaways

Sponsored by Rowman & Littlefield

Recorded on 11/20/2017
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 17

In the final segment of Choice’s discussion with Janet Hyunju Clarke, Raymond Pun, and Monnee Tong, editors of Asian American Librarians and Library Services, each of the guests shares their perspective on diversity in librarianship today, and Monnee relates the story of San Diego children’s librarian Clara Breed, who worked and corresponded with Japanese-American children during their internment during World War II.

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About the guests:

Janet Hyunju Clarke is associate dean for research & user engagement at Stony Brook University Libraries. She has a PhD in English from Stony Brook University and an MLS from Queens College. Her research areas include diversity in librarianship, information literacy, and Asian American literature. She is a past president of the Asian /Pacific American Librarians Association (2015-2016).

Raymond Pun is the first year student success librarian at California State University, Fresno. He coordinates the first-year experience and information literacy program across campus. He previously worked as a reference and research services librarian at NYU Shanghai and at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building of the New York Public Library. He has presented and published extensively in the field including three edited volumes, Career Transitions for LibrariansBridging Worlds and The First-Year Experience Cookbook. He is an ALA Emerging Leader (2014), the Library Journal’s Mover and Shaker (2012), SLA’s Rising Star (2016), and a recipient of SLA’s Achievement in Academic Business Librarianship (2015).

Monnee Tong is the manager of the Pauline Foster Teen Center and IDEA Lab at San Diego Central Library. Dedicated to motivating and mentoring young adults, she has presented at state and national conferences about developing successful teen internship programs. Her work with the IDEA Lab Tech Team Internship was recognized by YALSA as an example of how libraries are re-envisioning teen services, and she was named an ALA Emerging Leader in 2014. Prior to librarianship, Monnee worked for Sally Ride Science (now Sally Ride Science @ UC San Diego), an organization dedicated to supporting STEM learning. She holds an MLIS from the University of Washington and a BA in history of art from UC Berkeley.


About the Music:
The intro and outro music in Authority File is “Grapes,” mixed by I dunno. The transition music is “Peace ( There’s A better Way ),” mixed by Loveshadow. The music is available on ccMixter, and is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (cc-by 4.0).