In 1981 Judy Yung testified about the Asian Community Library to the federal government’s Task Force on Library and Information Services to Cultural Minorities.
Addressing the library needs of Asian Americans, she called for more materials and resources in Asian languages for immigrant populations and in Asian American studies and literature. She advocated also for the recruitment of Asians into library work through affirmative action and for library outreach to Asian populations.
Yung minced few words about how public libraries had failed Asian Americans: “For lack of funds, lack of staff expertise, lack of consciousness, or lack of community pressure, public libraries have not been successful in meeting the library needs of Asian Americans.”
“I have always felt that libraries, despite all their good intentions, will only begin to serve the Asian patron when the government requires it, or when the government does it for them,” she continued. “By the former, I mean enforceable legislation or laws. By the latter, I mean that the government funds these services or operates an acquisition and processing center that provides the needed materials and resources to all libraries designed to serve the Asian patron.”
Yung called upon the government to recognize the gap in services for Asian and Asian American populations and the failure of the state to fund such initiatives.
