Filipino Librarian

A-LIEP: Money and Leadership

The paper I presented in Singapore last April 5—"Money and leadership : a study of theses on public school libraries submitted to the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Library and Information Science"—is now available as a pdf file at E-prints for Library and Information Science.

Just for the record, but especially for the benefit of search engine spiders, the bibliographic information for the article is as follows:

Totanes, Vernon. 2006. Money and leadership: a study of theses on public school libraries submitted to the University of the Philippines’ Institute of Library and Information Science. In Proceedings of the Asia-Pacific Conference on Library & Information Education & Practice, edited by Christopher Khoo, Diljit Singh, and Abdus Sattar Chaudhry, 445-451. Singapore: National Technological University.

Categories: A-LIEP, Leadership, About Vonjobi

If a picture paints a thousand words, just how much does the cover photo on the right say about Filipino politicians? Even PCIJ, which is not exactly on the current administration's list of friends, is moved to ask, "What's wrong with this picture?"

Could it be that Cory Aquino, Teofisto Guingona and Franklin Drilon think Erap should still be President? Should GMA, therefore, urge the Sandiganbayan to set him free? Or could it be that Filipino politicians don't really care who they get into bed with as long as they get what they want?

To paraphrase a joke, if Ninoy were alive today, he'd be turning in his grave. But it's really not funny. Not at all.

Category: The Philippines

Librarian as Indiana Jones

Labels: Stereotypes

The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, a TV-movie originally released in the United States in 2004, will be shown in the Philippines via Star Movies on the following dates and times:

Friday, May 5, 7:25 pm
Saturday, May 6, 6:45 am
Wednesday, May 10, 1:00 am
Saturday, May 13, 12 noon
Friday, May 19, 2:30 pm
Wednesday, May 24, 12:30 am
Sunday, May 28, 4:00 pm

Check out the reviews gathered by the American Library Association or buy the DVD on Amazon.com. The TV-movie was so successful that a sequel is on the way and a comic book will accompany its premiere.

If you would like to know more about the image of librarians in movies, check out the following sites:

The Hollywood Librarian: Librarians in Cinema and Society - a documentary now in production
Librarians in the Movies: An Annotated Filmography - groups movies into those with major or minor librarian roles, libraries as settings, librarians or libraries are mentioned, and those that are said to feature librarians
Top Ten Films featuring Libraries, Librarians and the Book Arts - it is what its title says it is

Librarian Spotting - a school assignment that situates stereotypes in the movies in the larger context of the profession
The Depiction of American Public Libraries in Film - consists of MS Word documents made available by the dissertation's author
The Librarian Stereotype and the Movies - a journal article published in 1993

Category: Stereotypes, Books and Movies

A-LIEP: DSpace and EPrints

Labels: Conferences

In "Innovative Information Services in Academic Environments," Michael Leach discussed quite a few things, but I'll just focus here on DSpace and EPrints, which are software commonly used to build institutional repositories, but may also be used for records management and even archiving of personal documents.

The best way to explain what an institutional repository is would be to cite an example. And since there is only one Filipino institution utilizing DSpace at this time, check out Saint Louis University's Digital Research Repository, where users can view the abstracts of graduate and undergraduate theses as pdf files.

For a better understanding of what DSpace is capable of, check out the Cornell University Library's Open Access Repository, which has the full metadata record of a dissertation that cites the Filipino jeep. It looks like those who have the proper password can actually download, or at least access, the entire dissertation.

There does not seem to be any Filipino institution utilizing EPrints at this time, but E-prints for Library and Information Science (E-LIS) is a very good example. I have actually deposited the paper I presented at A-LIEP and, assuming it is accepted, it looks like it will be the first paper submitted by a Filipino author. A full-text search for "Philippines" yields 17 documents, none of which are really about the Philippines.

Filipino librarians can definitely take advantage of DSpace and EPrints, but it will take a bit more technical know-how than a blog requires because the necessary software must first be downloaded, configured and installed. This should not be difficult, however, because quite a few institutions are already digitizing their theses collections.

For more examples of institutional repositories, see the Live DSpace Sites and the known archives running EPrints.

Category: A-LIEP

The Future of Cataloging

The following papers about cataloging, which all came out just this year, have been causing librarians, especially catalogers, to ponder the future of our profession:

"Rethinking How We Provide Bibliographic Services for the University of California" (pdf)

If you don't have time to read the 80-page report, you may wish to look at the 5-page Executive Summary (pdf). Alternatively, you can read the reactions of Lorcan Dempsey, Karen Schneider and William Denton.

"A White Paper on the Future of Cataloging at Indiana University" (pdf)

According to Current Cites, the report is "an interesting read, and taken with the explosion of related reports, adds yet another perspective to the kinds of changes we must foster to create better library services in a vastly changed environment."

"The Changing Nature of the Catalog and Its Integration with Other Discovery Tools" (pdf)

This 52-page report from the Library of Congress has caused enough controversy to merit a 24-page rebuttal from Thomas Mann (pdf).

And then there's the Library of Congress's Decision to Cease Creating Series Authority Records, which has caused the issuance of a petition to "Prevent the Library of Congress From Abandoning the Creation of Series Authority Records." Click on the link if you'd like to sign the petition. Signatures will be collected only until Friday, 5 May 2006. The new policy, however, will be implemented on Monday, May 1.

Category: Technical Services

Mike Quilala — Filipino Librarian

A librarian was recognized as the Most Outstanding Kapampangan in the Field of Youth Service in Pampanga last 11 December 2005. Please note that the award is for youth service, and not for telling library users to keep quiet. Let's tell the world about the other things Filipino librarians do! Read more about Michael N. Quilala in "Most Outstanding Kapampangan."

Category: Librarians

For the Record:
SSP Travel Grant Recipients

Labels: Conferences

Wheat Ridge, CO – The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) announces the first ten recipients of funding available through the new travel grant program, which supports travel to and attendance at the SSP Annual Meeting for students of publishing and information science, and early career publishing professionals in the first three years of employment.

Read the entire article here. See also "Open Access in the Third World."

Category: About Vonjobi

Librarian Sex

Labels: Sex

According to blogtricks, one of the most popular referrers for this blog is "Google: librarian sex." But why are Google users putting those two words together?

MyBlogLog.com confirms that more than just a few are visiting this blog and clicking on the links in "Sex in the Library." Almost every week, you see, one or two links in that post make it into the top 5 links that visitors click. And it's a relatively old post.

Could it be that many are wondering what librarians think of sex? Well, there's "Is library a place for porn?" by Erica Meltzer (Arizona Daily Star, 24 April 2006), which discusses libraries and porn as if librarians didn't exist. And then there's "School bans low-hanging pants" (The Local, 6 April 2006), which mentions that librarians are "not known for keeping up with trends, and... are banning pupils from borrowing books if their underwear is showing above their belts," but does not mention the word "sex" even once.

Well, I really don't know what the answer is. But it's interesting that this blog is the number 2 result in "librarian sex" searches on Google. Right after Librarians in Pornography =)

Category: About Filipino Librarian

Threats Can Be Opportunities

Labels: Library Hub

The following news may be seen as good or bad, depending on how the reader views them. Are they, in fact, threats or opportunities?

"Mike Luz quits DepEd" by Yvonne Chua (Inside PCIJ, 22 April 2006)

Former DepEd undersecretary Miguel Luz was the man behind Library Hub. His neither-here-nor-there status since he got into trouble with the current administration for sticking to his principles put the future of Library Hub in doubt. Well, there's no doubt anymore: Library Hub is in serious trouble. I just hope the opportunists don't turn what might have been a wonderful opportunity into another scam.

"Raising reading-friendly kids" by Amor Maclang (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 23 April 2006)

Read this article for practical tips on how to "teach" kids to love books: Choose to be around books. Look for books wherever you are. When choosing a caregiver, pick one who likes to teach and read simple books to your kid. Check out a school’s reading selection. Make reading fun. Include books in your toy budget allocation. Network with well-read friends and mothers on their book finds and selections.

"Can a Thriller Be Both Fair and Fun?" by Richard Corliss (Time, 24 April 2006)

"Turn the glare of publicity into a proselytizing opportunity." That's Opus Dei's strategy regarding The Da Vinci Code's upcoming release as a movie. Opus Dei is one of the most conservative groups in the Catholic Church, but I have to agree that the best way to deal with a perceived problem is to turn it into an opportunity. That's what some Bible scholars are doing, instead of fighting the book or the movie—or, as some have done in other religions, calling for the death of the author.

"Volunteer storytellers reviving kids' interest in reading" by Julie M. Aurelio (Philippine Daily Inquirer, 24 April 2006)

Manolo Silayan, a pioneer of Alitaptap Storytellers Philippines, has told librarians, "You're librarians! You should be fun and wear party hats! Librarians should not be stereotyped as dusty, cranky people." True?

Category: In the News