Get to know the candidates for the 2014 APALA Elections from their candidacy statements. (Presented by office and in alphabetical order by last name.)
Vice President / President Elect
TINA CHAN
Biography:
Tina Chan is the assistant coordinator of reference/reference and instruction librarian at the State University of New York at Oswego. She works with students to provide research and information literacy skills that help them succeed in their academic career and beyond, and with faculty to deliver library instruction and to provide resources to improve the library collection. She has been active in the State University of New York Librarians Association, the Eastern New York chapter of ACRL, and the Upstate New York chapter of ARLIS/NA. She is an APALA-sponsored 2012 Emerging Leader and a 2007 Spectrum Scholar. She earned an MSLIS from Simmons College.
Personal Statement:
I am honored to run for vice president/president-elect of APALA. I believe I have the leadership, organizational, and interpersonal skills to accomplish this position’s responsibilities. Currently serving my second year on the executive board as a member-at-large, I have been impressed with the leadership and dedication of our members. I have also gained valuable insights into the operations of APALA, which will be essential for this position. As someone who has served on the executive board and several APALA committees, I am ready to undertake the next level of my commitment and service by leading APALA to further its purpose. To accomplish this, I would like to concentrate on these objectives:
- Gather members to discuss ideas and opportunities for APA librarians,
- Partner with other organizations to work on collaborative projects to increase the profile and significance of APALA,
- Represent APALA members and advocate for APA librarians,
- Develop and grow APALA to serve its members, the profession, and the greater APA community.
I look forward to sharing my passion, skills, and talents with you. I hope to continue serving APALA by being your next vice president/president-elect. Thank you for your support!
Past and Current APALA Involvement:
I first heard of APALA while a library student as a Spectrum Scholar. One of the benefits of being a Spectrum Scholar is a complimentary membership to APALA, so I decided to join. As a student, it was important for me to be involved in professional associations to learn more about the profession and to meet librarians. I continued my membership and I became involved with committees. My commitment to APALA is evidenced in my service contributions.
- Executive board member-at-large (2012-2014),
- Literature awards committee (adult nonfiction literature) (2013-2014),
- Program committee, APALA 35th anniversary conference (2013-2014),
- Literature awards committee (adult fiction literature) (2012-2013),
- Membership committee (2011-2012),
- Task force on library services to APAs, co-chair (2012-2013) and member (2008-2010).
I have also volunteered at APALA events during ALA Annual. They include representing APALA at the ALA Affiliates Booth (2011-2013) and as a booth coordinator at the ALA Diversity & Outreach Fair (2013).
JANET HYUNJU CLARKE
Janet Hyunju Clarke is an Associate Librarian at Stony Brook University, where she has been since 2000. She has an MLS from Queens College and a Ph.D. in English from Stony Brook University. She is the Associate Director for Research and Instructional Services and subject selector for Asian American Studies. She has published on EOP student library success, international adoption resources, and Asian American authors and resources. She has presented at ALA, SUNYLA, and regional library meetings. She is a member of American Library Association, Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, State University of New York Library Association, Association of College & Research Libraries, and Association for Asian American Studies. She is also a member of EMIERT and LLAMA. She is currently planning a symposium on Asian images in comics and graphic narratives for Spring 2014.
I am honored to be considered for the position of VP/President-Elect of APALA. It has been my privilege to be a part of APALA for the past 14 years since I became a member in 2000. For the past two years, I have served on APALA’s Executive Board as member-at-large and Secretary, respectively. I have become aware of how the organization operates both internally and externally. I have also served on APALA’s Bylaws & Constitution (2012, Literature Awards (Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction 2009-2012), and Scholarship & Awards (2011) committees. Occasionally, I contribute articles to the APALA Newsletter.
APALA has been a generous professional home to me, and I have benefited from its work and programs. I am proud to be part of an organization that supports and encourages dialogue about APA library issues and promotes vital library services to APA groups and communities. More than ever, APA librarians in all types of organizations need to be strong advocates for our communities and constituents. I strongly support APALA’s social and community advocacy and feel this engagement is enhanced by its partnerships with other organizations and ethnic caucuses. I know that APALA is well-represented in ALA leadership, and that attests to the hard work and strength of APALA and its vision of engagement and participation in the profession. I laud the APALA leadership that has come before us in paving the path for future leaders. If elected, I will do my best to further APALA’s goals of leadership, advocacy, representation, and community by actively working with other ALA affiliates and by seeking new partnerships throughout the profession and beyond. I will continue to build on the organization’s excellent work on mentorship, member involvement, fundraising, and national recognition.
Secretary
SARAH HONG-JI JEONG
Biographical Information:Sarah Hong-Ji Jeong is the Research & Instruction Librarian for Science at the Z. Smith Reynolds (ZSR) Library at Wake Forest University. She has worked for over 10 years at ZSR Library, the 2011 recipient of the ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award. Sarah earned a B.S. degree from Duke University and an MLIS degree from UNCG, and she is a member of Beta Phi Mu Honor Society.
Selected Accomplishments
- Promoted from Associate Librarian to the rank of Librarian
- Initiated continuing library outreach to international students through orientations, programs, and service on Wake Forest University committees chaired by the Associate Provost for Global Affairs
- Wrote over 10 publications including the following:
- A book chapter in International Students and Academic Libraries: Initiatives for Success published by ACRL
- An article on Korean traditional dress in the Journal of East Asian Libraries
- Several book reviews for Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
- Career Development for Women Leaders Fellow
- Elected as Chair of the ZSR Librarians’ Assembly Peer Review Committee
- Served as an Invited Manuscript Peer Reviewer for the Journal of the Medical Library Association and Science & Technology Libraries
Statement/reason for running for an Executive Board position:
My commitment to diversity and inclusion in the profession led to my involvement in APALA. In my role as Member-at-Large, it has been an honor to represent the interests of the APALA members. Great people have served on the Executive Board, and I would like to continue serving APALA members by making a meaningful contribution to the growth of the organization as Secretary.
Discuss past and current APALA involvement:
Currently, I am serving as Executive Board Liaison of the APALA Mentoring Committee. I have enjoyed being a Mentor of an APALA member this year. I am also the Executive Board Liaison of the APALA Local Arrangements Task Force for ALA Annual. I served as a member of the APALA Scholarship Committee from 2005-2008 and Chair from 2008-2009. The Scholarship Committee was responsible for selecting the recipients of the APALA Scholarship and the ALA Emerging Leaders Program.
Treasurer
DORA HO
Dora Ho,
Young Adult Librarian/Program Specialist
Los Angeles Public Library
Youth ServicesEducation:
M.L.S. with specialization in Special Libraries, UCLA 1992.Membership:
ALA, California Library Association, APALA Life member, CALA Life memberALA Activities:
ALA Councilor at large, 2003-2014
ALA Executive Board, 2011-2014
ALA Budget Analysis Review Committee, 2012-2014
ALA YALSA, Membership Committee, member, 1999-2004
New Members Round Table, President 2001-2002Other Library Activities:
Chinese American Librarians Association, President, 2007-2008
Chinese American Librarians Association, Treasurer 2001-2006
Chinese American Librarians Association, Organizational Manual Committee, Chair 2010-12
California Library Association, Scholarship Committee, member 2008-2011, 2012-2013
National Conference on Asian Pacific American Librarians, Webmaster
Asian Pacific American Librarians Association – Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature Committee, Chair 2002-Present
Asian Pacific American Librarians Association, Treasurer 2013-2014
JCLC 2012 Steering Committee, CALA Representative, and
Finance Committee ChairCurrent and past APALA Activities
I have been chair/co-chair of the APALA’s Literature Award Committee since 2002. It has been a very rewarding experience for me to coordinate books from publishers for committee chairs. I am proud to be part of the Literature Award Team that helps promote Asian/Pacific cultures and heritage. In the past, I have been a mentor for the APALA Mentoring Program. Moreover, I am especially honored to be part of the APALA’s 35th Anniversary Committee. This will be another milestone for APALA and I am eager to participate and to move forward with APALA to bigger and better things.
Statement of concern:
As a team player, I am eager to learn as well as contribute to APALA. Previously, I served as the Chinese American Librarian Association (CALA) treasurer for five years. I have extensive experience with budgeting, financial planning, and filing tax forms. As the Finance chair of JCLC, I was able to maintain our budget and kept spending to a minimum, in order to achieve a high profit margin for the conference. As a member of the ALA/BARC (Budget Analysis Review Committee), I have worked with multi-million dollars budget.
It was a great privilege and honor to be elected last year as APALA’s treasurer. Taking care of money has always been my special skill. In addition, I really enjoy serving as the treasurer for APALA. In the coming year I will continue to assist the executive board in making sound financial decisions that will affect our members. I will continue to keep APALA financial strong and stable so that we are able find ways to benefit our members. It is important to have an experienced treasurer especially when APALA is planning for the 35th Anniversary celebration in 2015. Thank you for your consideration!
Member-at-Large
MELISSA CARDENAS-DOW
1. Melissa Cardenas-Dow earned her BA in anthropology, with a minor in Asian American Studies, from San Francisco State University in 1996. After spending some time at Claremont Graduate University’s cultural studies and education departments, she enrolled in San Jose State University and got her MLIS in 2008. She started her professional librarian career at the University of Redlands Armacost Library in 2009. She was the Outreach/Behavioral Sciences Librarian at the University of Redlands from 2011 to 2014. Melissa participated in ALA’s Emerging Leaders program in 2010-2011. She credits her conscious move towards active participation in APALA to Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada, fellow 2011 Emerging Leader and EL project co-member. Melissa is finishing up her Certificate of Advanced Study in Digital Libraries from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is very active in ALA and is serving on several committee appointments in ACRL, LLAMA, NMRT, and ALA’s Office of Diversity. Her research and activities focus on community engagement, outreach, disability studies, diversity and inclusion, and digital scholarly communication. She lives in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. Melissa is currently searching for her next professional librarian position.
2. APALA is my professional home. I have been an APALA member since 2010. APALA is committed to being a place where APA librarians, patrons, library lovers, and allies can engage each other earnestly. So am I. Yes, I am running because I think being an elected official of a professional organization is an astounding addition to my CV. But, for me, running for the position of APALA Member-at-Large (2014-2016) means more than that. I am running because I know I can help improve APALA, its services and its programs. I want to care for it and show my love and commitment to the other people who also care for APALA. My candidacy comes with my toil, service, and time, yes. But it also comes with my heart, my commitment, and my love. I am running for an APALA Executive Board position because I want to make a difference in the place where I live, with the people I love.
3. Melissa started her active involvement with APALA through the Newsletter & Publications Committee in the fall of 2011. First as a writer/reporter, then as the Newsletter’s Layout Editor, and now as the chair of N&P’s Web Content Sub-committee. Melissa has ushered some of the more-regular web-based articles and feature essays published on the APALA website. The What’s Your Normal? (WYN) feature series is the flagship of the Web Content Sub-committee’s suite of articles. Other series published by the sub-committee include Member Highlights Showcase (MHS), APA Collections, APA Library Leaders, and APA Authors. Melissa is the 2013-2014 APALA co-representative to the ALA Advocacy Coordinating Group. She is also a member of the Outreach & Publicity sub-committee of the APALA 35th Anniversary Conference Planning Committee.
PAOLO P. GUJILDE
Paolo P. Gujilde is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Collection Development at Zach S. Henderson Library at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia. He received his M.S. in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked at academic libraries in the Chicago area. As a member of APALA, he has been involved with the Program Planning Committee (Chair, 2013 ALA Annual Program), Task Force on Local Arrangements (Member, 2013 ALA Annual), Mentoring Program Committee (Chair, 2014), and Task Force on Diversity and Outreach Fair (Chair, 2014 ALA Annual). Paolo is a member of ALA, APALA, and Georgia Library Association (GLA).
Personal Statement:
I am running for Member at Large because I want to contribute more to the profession and to APALA as a member of the executive board. In the past two years as an APALA member, I have had opportunities to bring ideas and leadership through various committee appointments such as the 2013 Program Planning Committee for the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. IL. As the chair, together with the committee members, we presented two wonderful programs to Chicago that focuses on issues within and outside of AAPI communities. Currently, as the chair of the Mentoring Program Committee, the members and I successfully paired mentors and protégés for this year. I am looking forward to working and collaborating with the committee members and with the mentors and protégés this year as well as with the members of the Task Force on Diversity and Outreach Fair for 2014 ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Moving forward, I would like to bring additional ideas and fresh perspectives to the committees that I am involved in and to APALA.
ARIANA A. HUSSAIN
Ariana A. Hussain is a Children’s Library with the District of Columbia Public Library where she has worked since 2012. She received her MLIS from University of California, Los Angeles in 2010. She is a member of APALA, ALSC, EMIERT, and ALA. Ariana is currently the 2014 Emerging Leader for APALA.
Personal Statement
APALA has given so much to me by sponsoring me as an Emerging Leader as well as by providing a community of colleagues who offer support, encouragement and inclusivity for our multifaceted and multi-layered community. Likewise, I appreciate the forum that APALA provides for librarians to engage in dialog both about our field and the issues facing our larger AAPI community. I am eager to give back to an organization whose mission I so strongly believe in. If elected as a Member-at Large I will strive to faithfully represent the opinions and concerns of APALA members before the Executive Board.
Past and Current APALA Involvement
Ariana first learned about APALA through her former professor, Clara Chu. She currently serves on the Family Literacy Focus Committee, which promotes the Talk Story Program, a joint literacy project between APALA and AILA (American Indian Library Association), and is a member of the Task Force on Library Services to APAs. She has also been part of the 2013-2014 Literature Award Committee for Picture Books.
ANNIE PHO
Annie Pho is an Academic Resident Librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she works in reference and instruction. In her position at UIC, she actively builds campus partnerships with the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, the Asian American Studies Department, and the Gender and Women Studies Department, where she works with faculty and staff to investigate ways the library can best support their students. She is also a 2014 ALA Emerging Leader, where her team’s project is to assist ALCTS in determining best practices for the division’s social media presence. She has a Bachelor’s in Art History from San Francisco State University and graduated from Indiana University – Indianapolis with her Master’s in Library Science. Her research interests include diversity and stereotypes in librarianship, playful design, and critical pedagogy in information literacy instruction. In her free time, she likes to hang out with her cats, ride her bike along Chicago’s many bike paths, and dream up ways to see the world.
Personal Statement
I am a candidate for one of the Member at Large positions, and I hope I can earn your support. This year I participated in the ALA Emerging Leaders Program, which sparked my desire to get involved with leadership roles in professional organizations. Our field is at a point where discussions about diversity, gender, and intersectionality are gaining more traction. I’d like to see APALA leverage these discussions about diversity and bring them to the forefront of our professional community to show how APALA can support underrepresented individuals. By running for a Member at Large position, I aim to facilitate conversations about diversity, contribute my own ideas toward the diversity goals of our profession, and build relationships with APALA and ALA members. I have many skills that I bring to the executive board. As an administrator for the Librarian Wardrobe Blog, I have experience with marketing events through social media and organizing content for the website. In my current position at UIC, I have written and was successfully awarded a grant for a project, which I am the manager of. I look forward to bringing my marketing, project management, and grant writing skills to the APALA Executive Committee. As a Member at Large, I would look forward to learning from my fellow APALA members, assisting the executive board in their tasks, and contributing my skills to the organization.
APALA Involvement
Although I am a fairly new member of APALA, I know that want to make APALA one of my main professional organizations. As a new professional, I believe that running to be a Member at Large will give me a better understanding of how the executive committee structure works. Currently, I am on the Web Committee, the 2013 Annual ALA Diversity & Outreach Fair Task Force, and the Local Arrangements Committee for ALA Annual 2015. I look forward to continuing to serve on APALA committees and make stronger connections with our community.
RAYMOND WANG
BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Monterey Park, CA, the largest Chinese American community in the United States. At an early age, I grew up in a dual language and cultural environment at home and school. When I was twelve my mother moved me to Victoria, TX, a small rural town between Houston and Corpus Christi. My senior year at Victoria High School could not have come any sooner. I was accepted to The University of Texas at Austin, and four years later I received my Bachelors in Applied Learning Development with a specialization in Mathematics. Upon receiving my B.S., I traveled to Taipei, Taiwan to brush up on my Chinese and to teach English for six months. In January 2005, I was offered full time employment to teach sixth and seventh grade Mathematics in Maryland. I taught approximately for two years, and then returned back to U.T. Austin to explore other career opportunities. I volunteered to be a radio DJ at my college radio station and music cataloger at the Austin History Center, and became interested in a career in librarianship. I applied to all the major Library Science programs, and I received my Masters Degree in Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2010. Since graduation from library school, I have volunteered at various types of libraries, and I am currently hired by the Millbrae Branch Library in the San Mateo County Library System to serve as a Community Services Librarian.STATEMENT OF INTEREST
It is my honor to be a member of APALA, and to apply for the APALA’s Member at Large position. As a member of APALA, I have developed wonderful collaborations with my APALA colleagues to serve and support APA communities. Through my collaborations, I have learned the importance of building strong relationships and networks. Also, with early immersion in a dual language and cultural environment, I feel I am well equipped to understand, relate and connect to APA communities at a very profound level. Thus, I am confident that I am able to be a liaison to a diverse group of committees, and it would be my privilege to actively serve on the Executive Board in a Member at Large role.APALA INVOLVEMENT
I became a member of the web subcommittee, newsletter and publications committee, and library advocacy committee as of last September. I have worked collaboratively with web subcommittee members to edit “What’s Your Normal?” essays, and on developing categories for WYN resource links. I have attended and participated in newsletter and publication committee and library advocacy meetings. I look forward to serve in a Member at Large role and to be a liaison to other committees.Thank you very kindly for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Raymond Wang