Anywhere I go, I look for Filipino librarians. Sometimes, they find me. Eventually, I am able to "collect" enough to invite them to get together. That's how I got photos of Filipino PhD students and Pinoy bibliobloggers. Now I can add the Filipino librarians in Toronto to my list.From left: Annella Mendoza, Lea de la Paz, Sonny Banerjee, John Chionglo, Ryan Saavedra, Beth Ortega and me
But strictly speaking, not everyone in the photo is or will be a librarian. Although five of us already have our MLS or MLIS, only Sonny is working as a librarian. Annella and Lea are archivists, Beth is known as a research specialist and I'm a PhD student who is a "librarian" nowadays only on this blog. John and Ryan are still finishing their degrees, but John with his IT background will most likely not work as a librarian, which leaves Ryan, who is now working part-time in a library, as the one most likely to join Sonny as a full-time librarian.
Since not everyone is a librarian, I was thinking that maybe we could call ourselves Filipino Librarians and Archivists in Toronto (FLAT), but that doesn't seem to be very, um, flattering. So I thought of Filipino Information Specialists in Toronto (FIST), which the archivists agreed also covered them, but which sounds too militant to me. Then there's Filipino Library and Information Professionals in Toronto (FLIPs-Toronto), which tends to give the impression that there's a larger organization somewhere. Any suggestions?
Other observations: six of us were born in the Philippines and moved to Canada at various ages and for various reasons. Only Sonny, who is half-Filipino, was born in Canada. And then, of course, the male librarians outnumbered the females. Come to think of it, males also outnumber females in my photos with Filipino PhD students and Pinoy bibliobloggers. Maybe the gender balance is changing =)
