Filipino American Library collection, 1910-2015

View only results with digital items
Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Creators:
Filipino American Library (FAL)
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spiral-bound course readings, library routing requests, newspaper clippings, photocopies of legal proceedings, unpublished manuscripts for journal articles, conference materials, brochures, pamphlets, travel guides, newsletters, teacher and student workbooks, meeting minutes,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.
Extent:
48.17 Linear Feet 49 boxes
Language:
English Tagalog Iloko
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Filipino American Library collection, Collection no. 6235, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

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.
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.

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

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

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

Terms of access:

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.

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

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Filipino American Library collection, Collection no. 6235, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library, Room 209
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189, US
Contact:
(213) 740-5900
specol@usc.edu
Website