Faculty members start Arab award

Alice Crosetto didn't like something she read, or didn't read rather.

Crosetto, the acquisitions librarian and coordinator of collection development for Carlson Library, said she was reviewing a book about ethnic book awards and was struck by a glaring omission.

"There's no Arab-American book award - where's the award for the Arab-American literature?" she said.

Crosetto shared her bemusement with two other faculty members, and soon, they created a national book award.

Mark Horan, librarian for the college of education, and Rajinder Garcha, former professor for library administration, helped Crosetto create the Arab-American National Museum Book Award.

"We contacted the library director at the Arab American National Museum [in Dearborn, Mich.] and they were interested [in helping us]," Crosetto said. "We had an initial meeting, and just talked about it."

It took a lot of work, Crosetto said.

"We met once a month and developed a vision, a vision statement, the guidelines, the parameters and everything," she said. "We were just hopeful of what this could be and a year and a half later, it finally was a reality."

Getting people to understand who Arab Americans are is complicated, Horan said.

"Just the turmoil of being the first, all the issues that arise from defining who an Arab American is to just what is the criteria … in that category," he said. "It's difficult, especially that last issue: the issue of who is an Arab American."

"Mark and I attended our American Library Association conference in New Orleans over a year ago and we started advertising for this," Crosetto said. "The minute we said, 'Arab American,' people automatically assumed we were talking about Muslims, and the museum is not a religions museum. The museum is for Arab Americans from the 22 countries that share a basic language: Arabic."

Crosetto said the three of them sit on the committees that decide who wins the awards in the three categories: children, adult fiction and adult non-fiction.

"I'm on [the children's committee], Mark and Rajinda are on the committee that decides the winner for adult fiction," she said. "We were quite active and very involved in everything from the beginning until now. There's still a lot of assessing to be done, what went right and what could be improved."

On Sept. 6, the three had the inaugural ceremony at the museum and were able to meet some of the authors and participated in some of the ceremonies, Crosetto said.

The winners of the award receive a plaque-like tile with their names engraved on it.

One of the purposes of the book award is to encourage others of the same ethnicity, Crosetto said.

"In giving out book awards, what you do is encourage others, those out of the mainstream that feel their voice isn't heard," she said. "We see this as a nice circling event where finally there is an acknowledgment of their work and for the topic and that will encourage others … it helps everyone. Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans can learn about the culture and become more excepting. We think it's a win-win for everyone."

Horan said the Arab-American National Museum has a rich history.

"The museum was founded by an organization, whose acronym is A.C.C.E.S.S. [Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services]," he said. "It was a pretty typical immigrant organization that provided resources for newly arrived immigrants from across the Arab world who arrived in Dearborn … it's a broad organization that helps that community and the Detroit community."

Crosetto said diversity is important at UT.

"We did this because we know there's a good population of Arab-American students at UT, and there's a good student organization, not to mention the Arab-American students themselves from Toledo," she said. "We just thought it would be great statement about the University of Toledo that we embrace all ethnicities, especially Arab Americans, and we are proud if we have helped some of the Arab-American students feel validated … and they deserve to have an award."

"And we welcome Arab students and faculty," Horan said.

Crosetto is proud of what they have done.

"It's hard to believe that this is a national book award, and we are proud to say we sparked it and initiated it and will go beyond us and will continue through the museum," she said.