News & Blog

May was officially designated as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by Congress in 1992 (Public Law 102-450 if you want to read the specifics).

As you can imagine, Asian Pacific American covers a fair amount of area. An Asian Pacific American is an American (whether born, naturalized, or other) who was born on or has heritage from anywhere on the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island). These areas cover a wide array of languages, cultures, religions, and ethnicities that have brought countless skills, hopes and dreams to the United States. The more voices that are heard the better we all are so (if you’ll pardon the *dun dun*) these are some of their stories.

Click the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 20 titles by or about Asian Pacific Americans suggested by UCF Library employees.

Featured Bookshelf: Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Join us on Monday, May 1st from 9am-5pm in John C. Hitt Library room 223 if you’re looking for a space to chill out.

Meditation classes will be held at 10am & 1pm. Bring your own yoga mat, or use one of the mats provided by Wellness & Health Promotion Services.

Congratulations to Zoe Smith, the winner of the UCF Libraries 2017 Haiku by You Poetry Contest. Her poem, The Best Things in Life Are, has become a permanent part of the UCF Digital Collections in the KnightVerse section Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship (STARS).

The Best Things in Life Are
by Zoe Smith

Fleeting moments like
footsteps; The earth trembles but
the evidence? Gone.

Congratulations to Serena Pancham, the winner of the UCF Libraries 2017 Ode to a Library Poetry Contest. Her poem, Cardboard Skins, has become a permanent part of the UCF Digital Collections in the KnightVerse section Showcase of Text, Archives, Research & Scholarship (STARS).

Cardboard Skins

-Serena Pancham

We begin in silence

In deafening silence we hear

How loud our minds ache to speak

Quiet

Is the presence between cardboard casings

          Shuffling,

                         Downward,

                                         Slowly yet softly

Evident within ourselves is the hushed indication of progression

Gears of the mind lock into place

With every moving second

Conversations churn

Broken is the threshold

How loud our minds ache to speak

We begin in conversation

In deafening noise we hear

How loud our minds ache to speak

Alive

Is the presence between cardboard casings

Like clockwork, we are continuous

We are saddened today by the passing of an outstanding and beloved colleague, Phyllis J. Hudson.

Phyllis J. Hudson worked as a UCF librarian for 34 years. She worked in several departments in the library, most notably in Reference and Instruction, touching the lives of thousands of FTU and UCF students. Phyllis was a tireless advocate for UFF and for women’s rights both in libraries and in the community. Documents from the time of Phyllis’s service to UFF and work with a number of organizations can be found in the UCF Archives https://scua.library.ucf.edu/

In 1989, Phyllis received the UCF Excellence in Librarianship award. She was awarded Emerita status in 2006. Phyllis might respond to this by pointing out that her greatest achievement is the five children she raised with her husband, Paul.

Colleagues today remember her “energy, vitality and passion for life.” Others remember that “I was humbled by her intellect, commitment, and generosity of spirit with colleagues and students,” that Phyllis was “not afraid to stand up and question things. She was a wonderful woman who was a mainstay of this library for years,” and that Phyllis was “a wonderful librarian and colleague” and “a most excellent teacher. Let us say that she left no stone unturned :>)“ Many share this colleague’s sentiment: “ She served UCF and UFF with intellect, grace and humor. She helped us see the best in ourselves and reminded us to be thoughtful in our words and actions when discussions got heated. She was an awesome lady I am honored to have known.”