The first of its kind in the United States, the Asian Branch Library was founded in 1975 to serve the Asian community in Oakland. Today, this branch in Oakland Chinatown is one of the busiest in the Oakland Public Library system. It houses materials in 8 different languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, Lao, Tagalog, and Thai. The Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project documents this living history through interviews of long-time branch advocates, librarians, and patrons spanning four decades. The exhibit was curated by Lora Chan & Roy Chan of the Oakland Chinatown Oral History Project.
The exhibit will be on display through October 2016
Ethnic Studies Library
30 Stephens Hall
University of California, Berkeley
See a short documentary on the history of the Oakland Asian Branch Library.