The Far East on Western Avenue

The Chinese Collection at Pine Hills Branch

In the Capital Region area, there are nearly five thousand Chinese and Chinese-Americans and more are joining our community every day. With this growing population in mind, the Albany Public Library has established a collection of Chinese materials at the Pine Hills Branch.

Librarian Xiaofei Li, who has worked at the Branch for the past four years, manages the collection of approximately one thousand books, sixteen magazine subscriptions and three hundred Chinese language movies. "This is the biggest popular collection of Chinese language materials in Upstate New York, and we are adding to it all the time," says Li. One of the most popular categories in the collection is the children's collection. "Parents who have adopted children from China are taking out the books, and so are people who speak Chinese fairly well but want to work on their Chinese."

Xiaofei hosts a weekly discussion group for immigrants called "Connecting With America." Attendees include immigrants from many countries including Korea, the Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Africa and India. The group meets every Friday at 4:30PM at the Pine Hills Library. For information, call Xiaofei at 482-7911 or visit the APL website.