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Filipino American Library collection

 Collection
Identifier: 6235

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Scope and Contents

The Filipino American Library collection consists of materials owned by the Filipino American Library in Historic Filipinotown that were transferred to the University of Southern California Special Collections in 2017. The collection is currently divided into two categories: (i) digitized material and (ii) minimally processed material. The digitized material consists of lantern slides, bound volumes, photographic prints, maps, and other materials that the USC Digital Library digitized and described at the item-level beginning in 2017.

The minimally processed material consists of various formats that have not been digitized or described beyond this finding aid. Types of material grouped under the minimally processed series include published books and periodicals, spiral-bound course readings, library routing requests, newspaper clippings, photocopies of legal proceedings, unpublished manuscripts for journal articles, conference materials, brochures, pamphlets, travel guides, newsletters, teacher and student workbooks, meeting minutes, correspondence, administrative records, subject files, photograph albums, and audio and video recordings.

Items selected by affiliates of the FAL to be made digitally available include lantern slides, bound volumes, photographic prints, maps, and loose printed materials showing life in the Philippines, contributions by Filipino Americans in the World War II effort, and the acculturation and growth of the Filipino American community in Southern California. Materials are written in English, Tagalog, and Ilocano. Highlights of the Filipino American Library Collection include:
  1. Items commemorating Filipino veterans from World War II, including publications and a certificate of commendation from President Clinton;
  2. Bilingual short stories written by staff from the Asian American Bilingual Center about Asian immigrants and their journey and settlement to the United States;
  3. Reports, summaries, and recommendations surrounding the health, education, and welfare of Asian Americans;
  4. Ephemeral materials from the Philippines detailing geography, culture, religion, and life in the Philippines in the early 20th century.

Dates

  • Creation: 1910 - 2015

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Rights Statement for Archival Description

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Biographical / Historical

The Filipino American Library (FAL) was founded in a church basement in 1985 as the Pilipino American Reading Room and Library (PARRAL) in a neighborhood close to Echo Park by Helen Agcaoili Summers Brown, affectionately referred to as "Auntie Helen" in the local community. In January of 2000, PARRAL moved to a new location on Temple Street and was renamed the Filipino American Library. At the time, FAL comprised the largest collection of Filipino and Filipino American reading materials--at more than 6,000 titles--and promoted literacy and cultural engagement through many community programs and exhibits. When FAL closed its doors, its collections were dispersed among the USC Libraries and the Echo Park Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

Extent

48.17 Linear Feet (49 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Tagalog

Iloko

Additional Description

Abstract

The Filipino American Library collection consists of materials owned by the Filipino American Library in Historic Filipinotown that were transferred to the University of Southern California Special Collections in 2017. The collection is currently divided into two categories: (i) digitized material and (ii) minimally processed material. The digitized material consists of lantern slides, bound volumes, photographic prints, maps, and other materials that the USC Digital Library digitized and described at the item-level beginning in 2017. The minimally processed material consists of various types of material that have not been digitized or described beyond this finding aid. Types of material grouped under the minimally processed series include published books and periodicals, spiral-bound course readings, library routing requests, newspaper clippings, photocopies of legal proceedings, unpublished manuscripts for journal articles, conference materials, brochures, pamphlets, travel guides, newsletters, teacher and student workbooks, meeting minutes, correspondence, photograph albums, administrative records, subject files, and audio and video recordings.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Filipino American Library via Florante Ibanez and Paul Estuar, March 1, 2017.

Separated Materials

Most of the published books and periodicals that came in with the Filipino American Library acquisition were separated from the archival collection and cataloged individually. The cataloged books are available via the main USC Libraries catalog search.

Processing Information

Processing for the material described under the series titled "Digitized material" is complete. Thanks to generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the USC Libraries digitized this material for public access as part of the L.A. as Subject Community Histories Digitization Project.

Material described under the series titled "Minimally processed material" is grouped by its previous labels and/or arrangement. Each box-level record under this series is titled with an incomplete summary of the box's contents. Some of the box-level records include scope and contents notes with more detailed, but still incomplete, inventories.

In October of 2022, the USC Libraries created an exhibition of material from the Filipino American Library collection for Pilipino American History Month (PAHM). During the planning and curation of the PAHM exhibit, Alyssa Adraneda, Vanessa Gomez Brake, Rebecca Corbett, Anne-Marie Maxwell, and Melanee Vicedo created notes and partial inventories of the contents of boxes 9-28. Each box's exhibit notes have been copied to the corresponding box-level records under the series titled "Minimally processed material."

Related Names

Subjects

Digital Material

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Finding aid for the Filipino American Library collection
Status
Minimally Processed
Author
Bo Doub authored the finding aid. Zoe Nissen authored the item-level metadata for the digitized material. Some of the collection-level notes were adapted from collection-level summaries previously published on the USC Digital Library website. In October of 2022, the USC Libraries created an exhibition of material from the Filipino American Library collection for Pilipino American History Month (PAHM). During the planning and curation of the PAHM exhibit, Alyssa Adraneda, Vanessa Gomez Brake, Rebecca Corbett, Anne-Marie Maxwell, and Melanee Vicedo created notes and partial inventories of the contents of boxes 9-28. Each box's exhibit notes have been copied to the corresponding box-level records under the series titled "Minimally processed material."
Date
2021 August
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2022 February: Finding aid updated by Bo Doub to include material added to the collection from accrual no. 2022-009 -- housed in Box no. 28.
  • 2022 October: Finding aid updated by Bo Doub to include material added to the collection from accrual no. 2022-078 -- housed in Box nos. 29-49. Bo Doub also added the notes and partial inventories from the 2022 PAHM exhibit for the contents of Box nos. 9-28 at this time.

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

http://libraries.usc.edu/locations/special-collections
Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States

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Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.