Your name, pronouns, current or most recent work place and position (for students, please tell us what school you’re attending and if you have chosen a specialization):
Ray Pun (he/him), Academic and Research Librarian, Alder Graduate School of Education, California, USA
How long have you been an APALA member? What drew you to join? (If you are currently volunteering on an APALA committee or are an EB officer, please include that here!) –
Over 10 years! I remember applying for an APALA student scholarship when I was a library technical assistant at the New York Public Library and an LIS student and thought this would be a great group to join. I didn’t get the scholarship at the time, but I was encouraged to be part of this community. I wasn’t as active in the beginning until I met Miriam Tuliao (a former NYPL colleague) and Janet H. Clarke (whom Miriam introduced me to!) and felt compelled to be more involved because it’s a great community of folks interested in advocating for, and supporting and serving Asian, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.
I ended up serving on several different committees like the APALA Mentoring Program, Finance and Fundraising, Programming, and Newsletter and Publications. I was honored to serve as an APALA Executive Board Member-at-Large under the leadership of APALA Presidents Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada (2016-2017) and Dora T. Ho (2017-2018) where I learned a lot about leadership, governance, and communications.
From there, I was inspired to serve as APALA President (2021-2022) where I wanted to engage and support APALA members in different ways like co-hosting a national forum virtually with 100+ library workers interested in networking and talking about leadership development challenges and opportunities for Asian American and Pacific Islander library workers. This IMLS-funded ($100,000) project was called “Path to Leadership: National Forum on Advancing Asian and Pacific Islander American Librarianship” and in partnership with the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA).
I want to take this moment to thank so many amazing APALA and CALA leaders involved: Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada, Wenli Gao, Alanna Aiko Moore, Candice Wing-yee Mack, Dr. Lian Ruan, Dr. Ling Hwey Jeng, and our project advisory board members, virtually facilitators, webinar presenters, supporters, and many participants! This was APALA’s first IMLS project and I hope it’ll inspire others to take on important projects engaging with AANHPI library workers.
In addition, I want to recognize APALA Executive Board at the time for their amazing work: Annie Pho, Candice Wing-yee Mack, Lessa Kananiʻopua Pelayo-Lozada, Rebecca Martin, Jaena Rae Cabrera, Cynthia Mari Orozco, Yen Tran, Tarida Anantachai, and Anu Vedantham. We accomplished a lot together from setting up APALA Career Center to returning in-person programming at ALA Annual Conference 2022 in Washington D.C when ALA President (and APALA Past President) Patty Wong was leading the American Library Association.
We’re very interested in the diversity of ethnic/cultural heritage within APALA. Please share your ethnic/cultural heritage with us and any other background information, as desired.
I am Chinese American, a child of immigrant parents, and a first generation college graduate. It’s very interesting to reflect on this question now because I have family members who are Vietnamese Americans, Korean Americans or Singaporean Americans.
What aspects of library work do you find most compelling? Please share some of your professional goals and interests.
I’ve been interested in making connections to what we are doing with people who aren’t in the “library field.” For example, in my current role, I am a solo librarian where I also teach and engage with teacher educators, teachers, and graduate students preparing to be excellent teachers. From evidence synthesis to acquisitions to copyright, it’s been a joy working and learning about different types of LIS work.
I am thankful to APALA members like Moon Kim for acquisitions advice or Dr. Regina H. Gong about open educational resources or APALA Past President Eugenia Beh for e-resource management recommendations, or Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen for guest lecturing in one of my graduate seminars regarding the representations of Asian Americans in picture books.
In my role, I get to collaborate with several students to host a podcast conversation and for them to share their stories like being a first generation graduate student becoming an educator. I also get to incorporate important LIS concepts in my information literacy/research instruction like “information privilege” and how we think about access, benefits, and affordances in the research process.
At the moment, I am collaborating with a few faculty members and a student in thinking about generative artificial intelligence tools usage guidelines for our school and how to think ethically and responsibly when using these tools. The library offers an opportunity to connect with so many folks who might not be aware of what we are able to do.
My goal is always to address this perceived invisible labor of our work.
If you’ve got a big move, publication, webinar, conference presentation, or social media presence that you’d like APALA members to know about, let us know here!
I am excited to be working on two publications at the moment. One is an edited volume with fellow APALA member and Past APALA Executive Board Member-at-Large Tarida Anantachai (NC State University) and Sonya M. Durney (University of New England) about academic library workers engaging in public policy or legislative advocacy work.
There are so many issues affecting our field and in higher education right now such as net neutrality, copyright, surveillance, intellectual freedom, and open educational resources so how can academic library workers lead these conversations in their communities? This book brings voices and case studies from academic library workers doing this important work. This edited book will be published by ACRL Publications.
I am also collaborating on another publication with Arpine Eloyan (Los Angeles County Library) and Michael R. Oppenheim (UCLA) on the libraries’ role in supporting workforce development and career services. I am thrilled to be working with them because this is something I am deeply passionate about: helping job seekers, preparing workforce development, and engaging with career learning opportunities. This book will be published by Rowman & Littlefield.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for the opportunity to be featured! There’s a lot to learn and unlearn and APALA has been a learning community for us to grow, reflect, learn, and do better. I have been fortunate to connect with so many folks over the years because of APALA. Now I look forward to giving back, making space for others, and paying it forward to support and empower new members, LIS students, or early career folks to get involved!