ALASC stands for American Library Association Students Chapter. The San Jose State University chapter is very active and has received awards. I have attended several other ALASC tours during my SLIS career. They have always been interesting and insightful. This is the first time that I have gotten the opportunity to describe such a tour on my blog at the request of tour coordinator, Elissa Papendick.
The African American Museum and Library of Oakland (AAMLO)was originally a Carnegie library built in 1902. It is an Oakland historic site but it was severely damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989. AAMLO was closed until funding could be found to repair the damage and re-construct the building. In the vestibule, I saw the plaque in honor of the restoration of AAMLO in 2001. I also noticed the sculpted head of African American abolitionist Frederick Douglass which had been donated by former Congressman and Oakland Mayor, Ron Dellums whose papers have been deposited at the AAMLO archive along with those of current Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee. Ron Dellums was the original head of the Congressional African American Caucus. Barbara Lee is the current head of the Congressional African American Caucus. As a resident of Oakland, I am proud that Barbara Lee represents me in Congress.
I and my fellow LIS students first spoke to the archivist. He told us that many finding aids for the archival collections had been digitized, but he still had about a year's worth of work. He is trying to develop a collection policy for the archive. He expects it to be a 20-30 page document. There are 300 feet of archival materials on site and another 700-800 feet off site. Take a look at this page about AAMLO Archival Collections to get an idea of the amazing resources represented in this repository. There are 160 collections that are mainly photographic representing all aspects of African American life. He would like to digitize some of these historic photos for the public to view online.When asked about the Black Panthers, he responded that the AAMLO Museum has a small amount of Black Panther related material, but AAMLO archives didn't have the funds to purchase the papers of the most prominent Black Panthers. They've gone to Stanford University's archives. The archive is open to research scholars by appointment.
In the Museum's gallery on the upper level, there was an imposing mural called Journey of Promise which portrayed national figures in African American history, African American figures in California history and local Oakland African American figures. There were photo displays, and oral history videos in the permanent exhibit with accounts from a diverse collection of Oakland's citizens belonging to a variety of backgrounds and occupations. The current exhibit dealing with voting rights also deals with the issue as it applies to a number of different ethnic and cultural groups who have suffered voting discrimination.
It was in the gallery that the reference librarian spoke to us about the uniqueness of AAMLO. Executive Director Rick Moss is a historian and a curator. This makes AAMLO the only library in the Oakland Public Library system that isn't headed by a librarian. Since AAMLO houses a museum, archives and library under one roof this is appropriate.
The library is composed of a 13,000 item reference collection dealing with African American subjects. No one can check out any books at AAMLO's library. Every item remains on the premises of the library.
After browsing through the reference library, I went to talk to the archivist a bit about digitization using Encoded Archival Description (EAD) which I had studied at SLIS.
I was glad to discover a library, museum and archive that I had never visited in my own city. I hoped to return to AAMLO in the near future.
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