Published: May 5, 2023 by Eori Tokunaga

Please join the SJSU iSchool in celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month as we talk about the barriers and challenges that AAPI women library leaders face, the role of self-care, and how to work towards solidarity in BIPOC communities at large.

After several attempts to introduce Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week during the 1970s, it was officially signed as Public Law 95-419 on October 5, 1978. While Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week was originally celebrated during the first ten days of May, it would eventually become observed for the entire month of May and passed once again as Public Law 102-450 in 1992 as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. (source: asianpacificheritage.gov) 

Please join us on Friday, May 26, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Time, for our free online AANHPI Heritage Month symposium, “Self-Care, Challenges, Solidarity: Asian American Women Leaders,” to hear our speakers talk about their experiences in the field of Library and Information Science.

Register here for this free event. 

Meet the Speakers 

Co-keynote speaker and APALA Executive Director Alanna Aiko Moore is the Head of Community Engagement and Inclusion and Librarian for Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego where she manages diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging-related Library projects in collaboration with campus colleagues. Alanna is the Executive Director (and Past President) of the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association. Within ALA, she serves on Council, is a Spectrum Scholar, and has past appointments on the Steering Committee for Organizational Effectiveness, the Task Force for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and has chaired the Committee on Diversity. 

Co-keynote speaker and current APALA President Annie Pho is the Head of Instruction and Outreach Department at the University of San Francisco Library. She has a Bachelor’s in Art History from San Francisco State University and a Master’s in Library Science from IUPUI. She is the co-editor of the book Pushing the Margins: Women of Color and Intersectionality in LIS, as well as the co-editor of the Critical Race and Multiculturalism Series for Library Juice Press.