Richard Chabran

Instructor 

Email chabran@email.arizona.edu

Phone: (909) 787-3852

Education

University of California Berkeley, MLS, 1976.
University of California, A.B. Anthropology, 1975

Biography

Richard Chabrán is an Adjunct Lecturer at the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona . He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the University of California , Berkeley , Los Angeles , the University of La Verne , and Pitzer College . Mr. Chabrán has lectured nationally and internationally on community technology and librarianship.

He serves as Policy Director of the California Community Technology Policy Group (CCTPG).   In this capacity, he has met with the California Legislative Internet Caucus and presented testimony to various legislative committees in an effort to define the issues surrounding the impact of the digital divide and suggest solutions.   He made a presentation on the digital divide before California 's Commission on Building for the 21st Century and contributed to their report entitled Invest for California - Strategic Planning for California's Future Prosperity and Quality of Life . In 1995, Chabrán served on the California Senate Bill 600 Task Force on Telecommunications Network Infrastructure.   This task force explored ways for schools, public libraries, and community centers to gain access to the new information technologies.   CCTPG has supported several pieces of legislation in California that support community technology programs and universal service programs. In addition, Chabran participated in several California Public Utilities Commission proceedings including the Full Panel Meeting on Broadband Deployment in California . He also has provided expert testimony in the Commission’s recent telecommunications merger proceedings.

He served as the Director of the Communities for Virtual Research (CVR), Assistant Director of the Ernesto Galarza Applied Research Center , and Distinguished Librarian at the University of California , Riverside where he oversaw the UCR Community Digital Initiative (CDI). CDI, a community technology center, provides access to Riverside's low-income community, provides training with a link to employment, and serves as a technology resource to the local community. Governor Gray Davis selected CDI for California’s Technology and Innovation Award .  

Mr. Chabran has worked in the area of Latino librarianship for over 25 years. He served as the Coordinator of the Chicano Studies Library, now part of the Ethnic Studies Library at UC Berkeley from 1975-1979, and also the Coordinator of the Chicano Studies Research Library at UCLA from 1979-1995. He chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on LAUC Regional Workshops on Cultural Diversity in Libraries that wrote the Many Voices of Diversity report that was accepted by LAUC in 1992. He also chaired the Working Group on Libraries and Information Resources of the SCR 43 Task Force that compiled "Latinos and the University of California Libraries ."

At the national level he serves on the boards of the National Library of Medicine, the Trejo Foster Foundation for Hispanic Library Education, and is an advisor to the Stakeholder Strategy Committee of the New American Foundation Wireless Future Program.   He also served on the Project Action Committee of the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Networking Project for Minority Serving Institutions (AN-MSI). He served as a member of the American Library Association’s Office of Information Technology Policy Telecommunications Subcommittee which promotes involvement in telecommunication and information technology policy matters by the library community.   He served as Co-Chair of REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library Service to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking Information Technology Committee that produced REFORMA's Information Technology Agenda . Finally, he serves as a project advisor to the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources and Library Science Knowledge River: Spanning the Digital Divide program and on several of The Children’s Partnership’s projects including Online Content for Low-Income and Underserved Americans: The Digital Divides New Frontier , Young Americans and the Digital Future , ContentBank.org, and The Search for High-Quality Online Content for Low-Income and Underserved Communities: Evaluating and Producing What's Needed .

Mr. Chabrán is a founder of the Chicano Database available through OCLC and Chicano/Latino Net (CLNet), a Latino Internet portal.   He is a co-editor of Biblio-Politica: Chicano perspectives on library service in the United States (1984) and the Latino Encyclopedia (1996). He co-authored Cyber Access in the Inland Empire , which documents unequal patterns of computer ownership and Internet access. His recent articles on community technology include: His latest articles on community technology include: "Broadband -- Why It's Important and Why YOU Should Care," with Linda Fowells, Community Technology Review , "Preparing Ethnic Non-Profits for the 21st Century," with Romelia Salinas, in Libraries Beyond Their Institutions: Partnerships That Work , and, “Place Matters, Journeys Through Global Spaces and Local Places” with Romelia Salinas, in Technological Visions: The Hopes and Fears that Shape New Technologies .

He has received national recognitions for his work. In 1991, he was named Visiting Librarian/Scholar at Michigan State University . In 1996, he was named Librarian of the Year at UCLA. In 1997 he received the UCLA Latino Alumni Association's Padrino Award and was named as one of America 's most influential Latinos by Hispanic Business . In October 2001 he was the recipient of Syracuse University 's School of Information Studies First 21st Century Librarian Award.   He has been recognized by Cruz M. Bustamante, the Lieutenant Governor of the State of California , Congressmen Joe Baca and Ken Calvert, California State Senator Nell Soto and California Assemblymember Rod Pacheco for his work on the digital divide. In 2002, he was featured in Library Journal’s “Movers and Shakers”.   In 2003 he was named Scholar of the year, the life time achievement award of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies and received the UCLA La Raza Graduate Student Association Appreciation Award. In 2004 he delivered the Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture, at the American Library Association.

Work Experience

• Chicano Studies Library, University of California, Berkeley, Librarian, 1975-1979
• Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Librarian, 1979- 1995
• Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, Los Angeles, Research Coordinator, 1988-1991
• Center for Virtual Research, University of California, Riverside, 1994-

Selected Publications

REFORMA Information Technology Committeee, REFORMA Information Technology Agenda, REFORMA, August 2000.

"Policy Group Bridging the Digital Divide," CIOF News: A Newsletter for CIOF Friends and Supporters , Spring, 2000.

"From Digital Divide to Digital Opportunity." Hispanic Lifestyle, (2000), 7.