image Virginia Lee Mead for Smithsonian Institution
University Libraries at The University of Akron is celebrating National Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by highlighting select print books, streaming videos, eBooks, and streaming audio from our collections. In the spirit of acknowledging and celebrating inclusive stories, we invite you to learn about the lives and experiences of Hispanic authors, composers, characters, and historical figures by exploring the resources we've highlighted on this guide. If you're on campus during May please stop by and visit our display at Bierce Library.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Asian/Pacific encompasses all of 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). On October 5, 1978, a resolution was signed by President Jimmy Carter to proclaim the first ten days in May as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week. During the next decade, presidents passed annual proclamations for Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week until 1990 when Congress passed Public Law 101-283 which expanded the observance to a month for 1990. Then in 1992, Congress passed Public Law 102-450 which annually designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month.*
