The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Awards committee is pleased to announce that Jade Alburo is the recipient of the 2012 Sheila Suen Lai Research Grant. Jade is the Librarian for Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand, and Religion, and Interim Librarian for Anthropology and Archaeology at the Charles E. Young Research Library at UCLA.
Jade received the award for her research proposal, “Library Services and Collections for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs).” Her research will focus on collecting data on the information needs of NHPI college students, as well as to learn about existing academic NHPI services. This research grant will allow her to facilitate focus group discussions and conduct in-depth interviews with student groups and administrators and staff of existing PI programs. The findings will assist the library community in developing targeted services and collections for NHPI college students. Jade plans on sharing her findings during a presentation at the APALA-sponsored panel on NHPI services at the Joint Conference of Librarians of Color 2012.
The APALA Sheila Suen Lai Research Grant is an annual, juried grant of up to $1,000 awarded to an APALA member to engage in a research activity, which contributes to the field of library and information science in general and Asian and Pacific American (APA) librarianship in particular. The grant award may be used for conducting research projects, attending research related conferences and workshops or conducting research workshops and programs.
Ms. Sheila Suen Lai, the founder of the Grant, is retired from the California University at Sacramento, where she worked as a reference librarian. She has delegated to APALA the full responsibility for selecting and awarding one qualified recipient every year.
The selection committee includes Safi Safiullah, Gayatri Singh, and Michelle Wu.
APALA provides a forum for discussing problems of APA librarians and for the exchange of ideas between APA librarians and other librarians; supports and encourages library services to APA communities; recruits and mentors APA librarians in the library/information science professions; seeks funding for scholarships in library/information science master’s programs; and provides a vehicle enabling APA librarians to cooperate with other associations and organizations with similar or allied interests. To become an APALA member, visit our website http://www.apalaweb.org/.