Thirty years ago, the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) was born, by the merger of the Chinese-American Librarians Association (established in Chicago in 1973) and the Chinese Librarians Association (established at Stanford University in 1974). There were about 18 members.Today, CALA, an active affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA) and a member of the Council of National Library and Information Associations (CNLIA), has 354 members in six chapters throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. These six chapters are California Chapter, Greater Mid-Atlantic, Northeast Chapter, Florida Chapter, Midwest Chapter, Southwest Chapter Currently the CALA Midwest Chapter has 85 members. The CALA Midwest Chapter (CALAMW) is organized to best serve the interests of its members in 14* states of Midwest, promote the development of Chinese American librarianship, bridge a network for the Chinese American library communities and provide communication among Chinese American librarians.
In addition, CALA Midwest offers a Mentor Program, which is to help new and junior librarians be successful in library careers, to help students in library and information science to develop a library career, and to encourage seasoned CALA-MW members to pass on their excellent experience. The CALA Midwest annual conference has been a forum for discussions of mutual problems and professional concerns, providing a vehicle for cooperation among Chinese American librarians and other professionals, motivating and encouraging the education of Chinese American librarians at all levels.
In order to celebrate its 30th anniversary, the CALA Midwest chapter 2003 annual meeting is going to be held at OCLC Online Computer Library Center in Dublin, Ohio, from May 2-3, 2003. The theme of the conference is: "Technology and Libraries: Chinese American Librarians' Perspectives." In addition to a panel discussion of past CALA presidents to celebrate the 30th anniversary of CALA, we are proud to have OCLC offering several workshops for conference participants. Some of the topics include Metadata standards; digital co-op, Language sets, QuestionPoint, Olive and CONTENTdm, FirstSearch WorldCat and ILL, and new services/programs/tools at OCLC.
Please come and join us to celebrate the glorious and fruitful 30 years! We want to see you at the conference! More details of the Conference will be coming soon.
The CALA homepage is accessed at the URL at www.cala-web.org
The CALA Midwest Chapter at www.uic.edu/depts/lib/projects/resources/calamw/
CALA email discussion list: cala@csd.uwm.edu To apply, email to fong@slis.uwm.edu
CALA Midwest email discussion list (members only): cala-midwest@ukans.edu To apply, email to vdoll@ku.edu