UCI Southeast Asian Archive holds Open House on Friday

The most prominent (and probably most comprehensive too) source of research materials on the Vietnamese-American community (plus Laotian-, Cambodian-, Hmong-, etc.) in the country is holding an Open House on Friday, presenting to the public the vast resources available at the UC Irvine Southeast Asian Archive (“SEAA“).

In an email exchange with the Bolsavik, the Acting Head of Special Collections & Archives at UCI Michelle Light said that in addition to 4,000 books and 175 serials, the SEAA also has 30 archival collections “measuring over 300 linear feet” and 55 drawers of file cabinets with a variety of material. Some of the collection are itemized here.

The open house will be on Friday April 10 from 10am to 2pm in the SEAA reading rooms located inside the Jack Langson Library (pictured).

The collection at SEAA documents the Southeast Asian American community “in the diaspora period and beyond.” Researchers from all over have come to use these resources, and the founding librarian Anne Frank became known around the world as the go-to person for information on these communities, including of course the Vietnamese-American community.

According to Ms. Light, the SEAA actually has an annual grant of $500 available for “anyone outside of UCI is interested in funding to come to the archive to conduct research.” Details here.

Anne Frank retired in 2007, and the archive is currently run by the Acting SEAA Librarian Christina Woo.

According to people in the know, however, there is talk at UCI of not replacing Anne Frank with a permanent full-time person. That would undoubtedly be a huge loss for the research community.

Currently, the SEAA is being cross-staffed by other people in the Special Collections and Archives department.

Click here for the Open House announcement in PDF.

After the jump is the text of the email that came with the announcement.

In order to inspire students to use materials from the Southeast Asian Archive for their major research papers this quarter, we are hosting an open house to highlight the Southeast Asian Archive collections and increase awareness about SEAA.  The open house will be this Friday, April 10 from 10am -2pm in both reading rooms where SEAA materials are made available.  In the Southeast Asian Archive Reading Room (Langson 360), we will showcase the printed materials (e.g., books and magazines) and vertical files (e.g., clippings and ephemera) housed there.  In the Special Collections and Archives Reading Room (Langson 525), we will display a variety of unique archival materials, including posters, photographs, letters, resettlement documentation, and artifacts from the Project Ngoc, Mitchel Bonner, SEARAC, Paul Tran, and other collections housed in Special Collections.

The announcement for the open house is attached.

Although we are targeting students with this outreach effort, the event is open to the general public and we encourage all of you to come and see the materials we are displaying. I would also appreciate your assistance in spreading the word about this event.  Please feel free to forward or distribute the attached announcement further.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like to help out in any way.  I hope to see you there.